Italy trip (turns into Austria)

Just over a week ago I was meant to be doing a race in Val Gardena, Italy, unfortunately this race was cancelled  meaning that it is 12 months and counting since I did last race. We had travelled to Italy on the Monday but other than some man made snow on the downhill slopes it was lush green grass on the ground. Roger thought that we should stay and just do the tour de ski hill climb every day, you should perhaps know he isn't quite right in the head.  

There had been a race in Seefeld, Austria the weekend before on man made snow and with the forecast showing  lots of snow on the way we decided to move there. Seefeld is just above the Olympic town of Innsbruck and is hosting the first ever youth Olympic games this January so it was a great chance for roger (the one not quite right in the head) to scout out the track and facilities. After struggling to find some apartments to stay in, fortunately Fi's great German prevailed and we were off.


 

Woke up to this view. Cross country trails just beyond the snow.

View down the valley from the apartment in Italy.

When we arrived in Seefeld there was no natural snow on the ground but it had started snowing which was a good sign. Finally I was going to get to skate on snow for the first time since the 22nd of December 2010!

It felt very different skating on snow and I struggled a bit for the first session but with lots of no poles I was slowly getting more of a feel for it.

By now there was snow on the ground and it just wouldn't stop snowing for about 30 hours. The man who helps look after the apartments was determined to keep the snow at bay on the paths around the place which meant doing it every couple of hours which was quite funny to start with. However when he decided to use the snowblower at 7am right outside our window he very quickly deceased to be in the least bit funny and became the conversation of hatred at breakfast. 

With half a meter of snow  it created great trails everywhere up and down the valley. There was over 100km of freshly pisted trails to explore and explore we did. It is such a great feeling skiing on new trails and fresh snow making for some good training sessions.

Fi, Si and katy in snowy Seefeld.

I managed to get ill for a couple of days but with the usual banter from the lads it was good trip. I'm doing a Open University course this year and Platty decided that it was his god given task to harass me about it and make me do it. Probably a good thing as I hadn't done any work for it and had to get an extension for one of the essays.   

Cheers

Alex