I spent this long President's Day weekend in Wildkogel, Austria, with Chris & Mary Miller, their friend Alicia (who flew down from England), and David.
Wildkogel is a little further away than Nassfeld, and I'd never been there before. Chris and Mary did all the planning for this trip, so when they invited me to come along, I was thrilled. We all stayed in an apartment and brought our own food, which meant that half of my sustenance for the weekend consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The ladies (and David) stuck to sledding all weekend, while Chris and I strapped on our boards. The region had just gotten several inches of fresh snow, which made for great conditions. The best parts were when we went off the groomed trails, through the trees, carving through the powder. And whenever we caught an edge, it was like falling into a cloud.
In fact, on Sunday, I got so far off the groomed run, I ended up going down the opposite side of the mountain. (Chris was smart enough not to get so far off course.) I was riding through some gorgeous powder, when the trees got thicker and thicker, and that's when I started wondering if I was gonna be the guy they had to rescue with a helicopter. My only choice was to keep going and hope I eventually got to the bottom of . . . something. Finally, the trees began to thin out, and I found myself boarding over barbed wire fences and around abandoned cabins. (Still, the whole time, the snow was amazing.) I eventually made it to a road, took my board off, walked to the town at the bottom of the mountain, and took the bus back to the main lift. I'm sure there was a lesson to be learned there, but I doubt I learned it.
And then there was the drinking. We were no strangers to any of the bars scattered around the mountain. It seemed there was one every few hundred metres, regardless of which run we were on. I did some of my drunkest snowboarding ever, and somehow didn't break my neck. (Yet another lesson I probably didn't learn.)
It was great to meet Alicia, who had the best quote of the weekend with, "Did you see those bitches throwing snowballs?" Also, I got the chance to talk a lot with Chris, who, before this weekend, was merely an acquaintance, but is now someone I will share many beers with in the future.
It was yet another great weekend of boarding, which, unfortunately, will probably be my last trip this season. Either way, I'm glad it ended on such a high note.
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