Ninnying around the Alps

And Nowwwwww... The moment you've all been waiting for... The first part of the film version of this blog:

The end of this adventure with sparky what a fantastic week. Even the Austrians said what a week to come to our country the skiing has been fantastic. The only thing is I now need a holiday to recover. Now starts the transition back to normal life back to my little pharmacy in south east wales where this adventure began.

Apart from some good views and a shiny tunnel, Lichtenstein offered no more than a tiny, misty ski area. So we turned tail and headed back towards Switzerland, with a view to skiing at Flumserberg, where we visited last Sunday. But we missed the turn, so carried on driving! 😵

Good bye austria our long journey home starts now. Well loved u austria the country is stunning and people so unbelievably friendly. We are now travelling to litchenstein now for one last powder ski blast.

We awoke to a clearing sky. It was magical to be able to see the mountains for the first time! Once again, it was well worth the drive to St. Anton this morning. Better road conditions, although the bitter temperatures froze the screen wash system, so the windscreen was challengingly dirty... The air, however, was refreshingly clear! Being St. Anton, and being clear weather, all the accessible fresh snow got skied before we got there. But we made the most of what was left, and found some great lines! We stopped for gluhwein and heisse schokolade at the HospizAlm In St. Christophe,  Where the toilet is accessed by slide... ... and all the staff wear lederhosen (and they also have the world's biggest collection of large wine bottles!) More powder over the other side of the valley at Rendl - a fantastic area which was less tracked out (should have gone that side earlier!) Now we have retired to the F...

After skiing a lot in the heavenly highlands and a run back down to town, weaving in and out of the foresty bits, we headed to our third ski area of the day, Golm. But scanning our passes, we were presented with a red light and an angry beep. Contrary to the expectations of almost everyone in the valley, the Silvetta Montafon day pass doesn't work at Golm. So instead we retired to the town of Bludenz for our long-anticipated Apfelstrudel and hot chocolate. Bludenz has a lot of Italian influence, in the same way as Annecy. A charming little town.

Did someone say powder snow? It. Was. Phenomenal! We started by revisiting old ground at the Sankt Gallenkirch side of Silvetta Montafon. Since most of the lifts were closed due to avalanche risk, we ended up skiing some different lines in the same area.  Same trees, more snow! After a few tree runs, we skied back down to the car and drove to the other part of the Silvetta Montafon area, above the town of Schruns. Just as we got to the upper part of the ski area, the top two lifts opened, and we found ourselves in a mysterious misty world with the finest, fluffiest snow crystals I have ever seen! A lot of these were  on top of snow that hadn't been skied yesterday. So we got some phenomenally deep and smooth turns. It was challenging in the flat light, but a few laps of the Panorama gondola gave us some amazing lines! Again, the cold killed the phones, so you'll just have to take our word for it!

Fourth day and calmness has descended here in alberg driving was a lot easier and skiing should be exceptional powder here come

Even with only a handful of lifts open, St. Anton delivers the goods! It was a mission to get there this morning, as an accident on the main road caused us a detour through some snowy villages, but St. Anton was well worth coming to, even though there were only a handful of lifts open. The quality of the powder snow that has been falling is PhenOMenal!! In town can be found the fluffiest swooshiest champagne crystals ever! Up on the mountain it was a bit more wind blown and supportive under the skis. No mountain photos, as it was bitterly cold (in which the phones die) and snowing continuously. Yesterday's powder pockets in the forest were up to our knees, and we thought that was deep; some of today's turns took us waist-deep in snow and felt absolutely bottomless! I felt this morning like I was just about on the edge of getting the hang of this powder skiing malarkey, and for Dan's technique too, something has suddenly clicked today. From skiing si...

Today will probably be another stormy day, perhaps even more so than yesterday. A lot of lifts in a lot of resorts might be closed, so what better place to go than Austria's biggest ski area?