Day 1: I finally meet up with my traveling companions at about 11.30 pm in the bar of an Italian restaurant in Birmingham (unusual, I know). There were 5 of us altogether; Me, my sister Alice, my sister's friends Louise and Claire and Claires' brother Mark. I was (mildly) horrified to discover the others were going to be skiing all week and made it my No 2 mission for the holiday to get them to at least try the one-planked approach before the end of the week (No 1 mission: Not to ride on a groomed run ever again unless strictly necessary).
Day 2: Successfully managed to get my sister on and off the plane with the help of a few valium. The flight from Birmingham to Salzhburg was a ridiculously hour and a half long (beats the 9 hour flight to Calgary) and by a stroke of luck our hotel was the very first stop on the 1 hour 45 minute coach transfer. Consequently we arrived in Kaprun in time for our lunch. The village itself was fairly large, with quite a lot of restaurants and bars as well as the usual collection of continental looking hotels and houses. There was virtually no snow in the village, which we were told was unusual for the time of year, although we were there quite late in the season and I wasn't really expecting blanket snow cover at 800m. Thankfully you could see the snow covered Kitzsteinhorn glacier from our balcony, so our initial "shit, there's no snow" thoughts, were quickly forgotten. Initial impressions of the hotel were favorable, the rooms were a good size and all had en-suite bathrooms. The hotel bar was fairly small but had plenty of room for the 30 odd guests. There was also a TV, video and assorted board games, which made for a welcome distraction before dinner. The other people in the hotel turned out to be a great crowd and as the week went on we got to know everyone really well. As well as free wine and beer we were supplied with breakfast (the usual continental croissants and coffee- I did start to miss those Canadian fried breakfasts), a packed lunch (which I never ate, instead going for sausage and chips on the mountain every day), dinner (always really good food and plenty enough of it). Apart from convenience, the main reason we chose an all-inclusive package was the cost. Food and drink in European resorts, especially the suave French mountainside villages, can be fairly expensive and can eat into your wallet at quite a rate if you're not careful. The manageress of the hotel, Hayley, spotted that I had my own board and enquired "Was I any good?" suggesting that rather than spend the week cruising groomers with my sister et al., I could hook up with her mates that were in Kaprun at the same time as us. I was introduced to Lee who showed me their plan of attack for the following day on a picture of the glacier. About halfway through that slightly drunken conversation, he uttered the magic words "..The whole glacier is like a massive powder bowl, and you can basically just go wherever you want.."
Day 3: Met up with the rest of Hayley's mates at breakfast; Lee, Chris (Hayley's bloke), Nial, Dan and Jake (another complete powder hound). We walked to the bus stop (150m) and caught the bus to the lift station at the base of the glacier, thankfully this was all on relatively flat roads and the 6km trip only took about 15 minutes. First we had to take a gondola to the very bottom of the glacier and then hop on a 4-man chair to get to the mid station. Alternatively you can get the funicular railway, which goes directly to the mid station, but Jake and Lee (who'd been to Kaprun before) told me that it usually takes ages to queue and stinks of other peoples feet. The lift system was quite efficient once you were actually on the mountain, comprising of 1 cable car, 4 chair lifts (some faster than others) and 5 drag lifts (3 of which were double lifts). The design of the lift system was more reminiscent of those found in American and Canadian resorts, which usually comprise of 9 or 10 high capacity chair lifts servicing a large number of runs from each. This is in direct contrast to most European resorts, especially the older more traditional ones, which will have up to 100 lifts in the case of a large area, most of which will only serve one or two runs each. Once on the chair lift I got my first real view of the terrain, which was unusual in that there wasn't a single tree in sight. There was about a foot of fresh snow all over the glacier when we got to the top, apparently it was all tracked out the day before, but because it had been so windy overnight all the tracks had been filled in. We spent the rest of the day cramming as many powder runs as possible in, the highlight of the day being the very first run from the top station (3029m). Unfortunately this particular off piste gem was all tracked out by 3 o'clock, so we spent the rest of the afternoon lower on the glacier in the very extensive off piste areas (in fact I still haven't worked out where the groomed runs were). Due to the distinct lack of trees and wacky arrangement of chutes and slopes it feels like you are riding on the moon, especially if you venture off-piste. Fans of tree skiing/boarding should note that as well as being no trees in Kaprun, tree skiing is not allowed at Zell am See due to environmental protection rules, so if you want trees you'll have to go somewhere else I'm afraid. There are 3 main ski areas covered by the Europa Sport Ski lift pass; the glacier at Kaprun, the smaller Maiskogelalmbahn area and the larger area at Zell am See. Transportation between the 3 locations is by a free ski-bus. My lust for powder satisfied, I returned to the hotel for more free beer followed by a night out in Zell am See. Zell am See is much bigger than Kaprun and has a lot of bars and clubs (most of which we managed to go in). It does have it's own ski hill, but due to the warm weather the only place worth riding was the glacier. A fine night was had by all, especially Mark and his newly found "lady" friend.
Day 4: Hangover. Fail to meet up with Jake et al., and spent what remained of the morning with my sister who'd torn a ligament in her knee on the first morning and spent the next two days sunbathing. The main "lodge" at Kaprun is located at the mid-station of the glacier and is called Alpencenter. This was home to a few bars and a couple of reasonably priced restaurants as well as the usual collection of ski shops. Throughout most of the week there was live music played outside on the veranda, which made for quite lively lunch breaks; in fact a lot of the locals didn't ski at all and spent all day outside getting more and more drunk and dancing up and down. I met up with everyone at lunch and spent the rest of the day searching out the rest of the powder left from the day before. During the afternoon we spotted a nice looking powder run at the side of the resort area which needed a short hike to get to it, however due to my rather delicate state we decided to tackle it the next day. The first two days of the week were incredibly warm and sunny, with the temperature getting above zero in the afternoons. Consequently by the end of the second day we were all sunburnt. That night we went to a local bowling alley (not at all like 10 pin bowling) and then returned to the hotel for a few more free beers to formulate our plan of attack for the next day.
Day 5: By this stage of the week, the queues were getting bloody ridiculous and it was taking a good hour and a half to get from our hotel to the mid station. Still, what can you do, it was apparently a local holiday week. I'd got a pretty good idea of the layout of the terrain on the glacier by now as well and we'd spotted a couple of really decent cliff drops which just needed a bit of pow to make the landing that bit sweeter. After lunch we decided to ride the run we had spotted the day before. Myself, Nial and Jake set off (the rest wimped out), getting a draglift as close as possible to the point where we would have to start hiking. I strapped my board to my rucksack and we were off. The start of the hike was shallow snow occasionally interrupted by bands of exposed rock. We made reasonable time, although Jake was obviously fitter than me and Nial. The top of the climb was in nice thigh-deep snow, which was preferable to the icy rocks lower down. After a rest at the top we set about planning our route down (I forgot my camera, otherwise there would be a fantastic picture here). The run down was incredibly fast………. the snow steep and deep……….the adrenaline rush even bigger. I was going so fast I only got about 6 turns in before we were at the bottom where we all lay in the snow chuckling to ourselves before the short hike out to the nearest piste
Day 6: By now, all of my drunken "snowboarding is better" rants had finally convinced Mark and Claire to give it a go, especially as I'd offered to teach them. The night before had seen me running up and down the nursery slope (bit of a hopeful description really, it was more like a flat field covered in slush) in the village trying to teach them the basics, so I figured it was time to let them loose on a proper slope. By now the weather had taken a turn for the worse, it was raining in the village and blowing a blizzard at the top of the glacier, but that didn't put us off. By the end of the day they were both doing decent linked turns and Mark even took his skis back to the shop.
Day 7 and 8: The bad weather had really taken hold by now and the lifts were shut all over the glacier. We considered going to Zell to ride all the black runs, but other people we spoke to told us it was very slushy and very busy so we decided not to bother. Our snow sliding days over for the year, we decided to go on a 2 day drinking binge to round off the season. Needless to say we took full advantage of the free beer option, as well as exploring a few local bars in Kaprun, more notably the Baum Bar and Mandy's. The second night (and also our last) was St Patrick's night, which the Austrians seem to go for in a big way, mind you the Guinness isn't up to much. We spent most of the night playing a bizarre pub game, which involved bashing nails into a block of wood with a hammer. In hindsight, giving Mark a dirty great big hammer and 6 inch nails probably wasn't the wisest thing we'd done all week.
Day 9. Massive (and I do mean massive) hangover, thankfully the flight home wasn't too bumpy. All that was left now was to sit around my flat staring longingly at my board…… waiting for winter.
