Party, Piste, Pulverschnee!

Last Thursday Bel and I piled into a bus with around 30 other people, and headed to Austria for a 3 day ski trip (4 days, if you include the drive down on Thursday). The ski trip was organised by one of my big Customers, and 3 of us from Agilent, and Belinda joined the crew, along with a few others from various other companies. The trip cost €350 per head, which included the bus, the hotel accomodation - which included breakfast, and a 4 or 5 course meal each night - lift passes, and all the drinks for the bus on the way there and back. Not bad, if you ask me!

In the bus on the way there and back we got to experience some German Folk Music of a different kind. This is more Germany Folk Party Music, which is quite common in the Ski Huts on the mountains, and in the Apré Ski Huts later on after the sun has gone down. The songs included classics like:

1. 20 Centimeter (a song about a girl who likes big guys)
   
2. 10 Naked Hairdressers (about a guy who wants 10 Naked Hairdressers)
   
3. Antonia (about a girl with big boobs who likes guys from Tirol)
   
4. Cowboys and Indians (a song about getting your Lasso out...just like the first time)
   
5. etc...

These songs were aboslute classics, and I think the Germans enjoyed seeing the looks on our faces as the lyrics clicked in our heads. On the way back, I was given one of the CDs so that I could bring the songs back home to Oz and spread the joy. :)

The first day of skiing was at Hochgurgl and Obergurgl, which is between 1900m and 3082m high. On top of the mountain it was somewhere between -15C and -20C (was around -12C in the valley). I must say that I have never felt so much pain in my life as when the feeling decided to return to my feet and fingertips - man that burns!
Unfortunately the conditions on this mountain weren't the best, as it had been fairly warm in the week leading up to the trip, which means that the snow base would melt during the day and freeze at night, creating some nasty ice patches. Still had fun though. :) Probably the best part of that day was all 30 of us meeting for lunch in the hut on the mountain - great atmosphere.



The second day started out with the plan to ski at Sölden, but the weather was pretty ordinary, and all the lifts in Sölden were on hold. We decided to continue along to Hochgurgl, because it is usally a bit more protected from the weather, but the lifts were on hold there too. Finally we decided to take a quick break in Sölder to eat lunch, and then headed to Ötz for the afternoon.
When we first arrived at Ötz, the conditions were pretty shitty - icy, etc., but only just below 0C. We did a few runs, and the headed into the hut for some food. When we came back out, it was dumping snow, and there was already a heap of fresh stuff on the ground. That made for a fun afternoon.

On the final day we headed to Sölden for a sunny day of skiing. Here the conditions were good up the top of the mountain (3058m, but there is a peak in this ski area at 3300m) we pretty good, but the further down you got into the valley, the icier it became. Anyway, we still had a ball here too.

The trip back was like the trip down - long - but a little quieter as most people were too tired to get too heavily into the beers. We got back home around midnight on Sunday, just in time for me to get about 5hrs sleep, and head to the airport to fly to Denmark for the week.

Tschüß,
'Brush

PS: Will link to some of the other photos taken by the team later.

PPS: Here are some of the other pics...



You can find more pics - including Apré Skiing pics in Matthias' album.