1913km to Austria just for a weekend in the snow

Last weekend I went snowboarding in Austria. Not often that you get to say that but hey! I summarised the trip in a previous blog post but here's a little more waffle, the photos and a short video clip.

I drove all the way from Amsterdam and picked up Peach along the way at Frankfurt Hahn airport. It had been snowing the most of the week but we didn't firm plans until Thursday. I searched on Couchsurfing for a host for Friday, whilst Peach got a last minute flight out of Stansted and boy did we land on our feet. Denise and her family put us up for the whole weekend and we could not have found a nicer host.

After ragging it through Germany on Friday night with the foot to the floor we arrived in Austria at about midnight to be greeted by Denise and two options. 1) A house party at a mates place or 2) hit the town. Our idea of a decent nights kip went out the window as the thought of a cold one after the long drive became the preference!

So off we trotted into town to find that all Austrian bars close their doors at 1am for noise polution or sommat. So Denise suggested a place she called a "Drum and Bass" club, intrigued we followed her into an underground car park where there was a burly guy standing by a door in the corner. A smile got us through the door and we found our way to the bar greeted by the Chemical Brothers and Block Rocking Beats. It was like a scene from a music video and from that point onwards I knew we were in for a cracking weekend.

Not content on the one nightclub we left and caught a minibus that wound it's way up a mountain valley to another nightclub. I guess up there they can be as loud as they like. More drinking, a little head bobbing and we thought we'd better call it a night at 4am.

Alarms were on for 8am but it was actually Denise that got us up cos we ignored the alarm clock! Feeling dog rough we made it to Silvretta Nova to be greeted by bluebird conditions and some fresh to be had after the weeks snowing. Friday would've been the best day cos come the end of the day everywhere was pretty tracked out. The adrenaline rush of the first snowboarding of the season that kept us alive but come lunch time we were bogged. A huge feed was ordered but hardly touched it and Denise got a round of schnapps in to see if that would help. It didn't help Peach who made a swift exit to the toilet ;-)

A full afternoon of some speedy descents and the fastest I have ever been off piste was had but come 4pm we were ready to hit the car park. We agreed that we'd go a little easier that night so not to feel like we did now for the journey home.

Mmmm Steak-frites followed with great beer in Denises home town Dornbirn and thankfully Denise was also worn out so the evening was spent chilling at home. Although not without plenty of visitors, more beer, nuts, chocolates and conversations about pubs (parbs!) and the Queen.

Sunday we went to another resort called Damuls - one of the resorts Denise has a season pass for. She wasn't too happy about the conditions as it was wet, well the bottom half of the mountain was in rain whilst the top was snowing. Except for the low visibility, I loved the conditions as the snow was soft and forgiving, albeit a little slower. So Peach and I were more confident about leaping about the place and trying some new tricks - especially Peach on his new freestyle board. I had a superb day landing way more 180's, both regular and switch, than I have ever done in my whole life. I also bagged a 360 (well more like a hard carved 270) of a mogul and attempted a crazy roof drop.

So checkout the photos below and the video at the end of the roof drop ->

Flash Slideshow