TR: 11 days in Europe

[cloud cult]

This trip was the Cloud Cultette’s idea, sort of. For fun sometimes I just cruise Google Flights and see where I can go, and in October a $630 RT to Munich from MSO popped up. The long range forecasts for snow in Europe were not good so I booked the flight but held off on everything else. Early November saw deep snow, followed by a week of foehn and six weeks of no snow. Finally, just as Christmas arrived, snow fell, and I started to book hotels.

Day 1:
Already packed. Up early. The Cloud Cultette and Lil Cloud Cult drop me at MSO. Alaskan is miraculously able to check me and my bags through to MUC (and Iceland Air offers two checked bags for free). Short hop to Seattle, long wait in SEA’s dismal airport, and a crowded flight to Reykjavik. It’s absolutely clear over the entirety of the Cascades and the Canadian Rockies and get treated to great views before it’s finally fully dark over Edmonton.
20170112_163218-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Day 2:
Iceland Air’s connection in KEF is a ridiculous 35 minutes, and the plane is delayed first by runway clearing and then a random plane parked at our gate. I and 12 others miss the connect to Munich, but feel lucky to get rebooked for later in the day as well as $34 worth of food coupons. Fitful sleep for 90 minutes. Tell hotel I’ll be late. Rebook rental car. Sun rises at 11 a.m. Flight to Copenhagen, worry in the terminal for 2 hours, then a short hop on SAS to MUC. Somehow all my gear arrives and Enterprise has a car waiting. I originally wanted to take busses and trains on this trip but the connections started to look difficult. I then decided to rent a cheap small 2wd car and get chains, but decided in the end to play it safe and get an SUV. So why a Volvo XC60? Because it was $3 more per day than a RAV4. The Italian at the desk helps me set the language to English and program the GPS and like that I’m off into the night on the A99 and then the A8. Stop and get an Austrian toll vignette ($8 for 10 days), hit the A93, and cruise into Austria. Occasional snow, exit at Jenbach, and pull into Stumm after midnight. The owner of the guesthouse left the back door open and my key in the door.

Day 3:
Exhausted. Austrian brekkie – so lovely if you’ve been raised on La Quinta and Holiday Inn buffets – at 7:30. Since I’m tired and it’s snowing heavily head to Fugen, which is actually less than a mile from where I’m staying.
20170113_124454-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr
A foot new above the middle station and have great conditions all day. After lunch (a sammie I made at brekkie and kept in my pocket) take a bus to Spieljoch, ski it, then back to Fugen. The guesthouse doubles as a farm, and check out the stabled cows, goats, and chickens while snow falls in the afternoon. Sausages and zweigelt and a chocolate marzipan bar for dinner.

[cloud cult]

Day 4:

An inch of new on the Volvo. Drive to Hippach but the valley chair is not running. To Mayrhofen and can’t find where to park, so back to Hoarberg. Ski the north end around Mayrhhofen in the morning then a valley run to Eggalm.

20170114_153817-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170114_101937-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170114_153917-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Take a bus to Hintertux and ski a top to bottom run there on excellent snow, then back to Eggalm and work around the front side of Mayrhofen and back to my car in the late afternoon. Snows at night and walk around the village. Eat sausages and bread and chocolate and red wine in my room.

Day 5:

Check out after brekkie and to Zell am Ziller. Ski the Zell side of the Zillertal Arena then make a long traverse to Gerlos and continue on to the beginner slopes at Krimml. The size and scope of the Zillertal Arena is breathtaking (and, like most large Austrian ski areas, all mine for a $52 lift ticket) and also a bit panic inducing when while having a beer with my pocketed sandwich at 1 pm I realize I have about 20 miles of skiing to do to get back to the Volvo.

20170115_162235-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170115_111442-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

The final afternoon run to Zell is more than 6,000 continuous vertical feet, and my skiline.cc account tells me I skied 89km today. Head down valley, stop for groceries. On the A12, through Innsbruck in traffic, and find my room in Reitz. Have to say that this trip would have been much more difficult without GPS in the car. Eat in my room and late walk to a lit church on a hilltop.

Day 6:

Excellent brekkie. There is an onsite distillery and the owner gives me a short tour and some samples. Down the Oetztal to Solden, a resort I was not sure I really wanted to ski at. Park at the Giggijochhabn and ski that bowl before making the high, long yoyo to the Karlskogel Glacier and taking the ski tunnel to the Tiefenbach, where I ski low angle runs off the long t-bar in the sun and watch while patrons of the BWM Mountain Experience pay $885 to learn to power skid 5 series sedans at the foot of the glacier.

20170116_134415-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170117_102954-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170116_131109-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170116_122420-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170116_102747-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170116_122014-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Yes, their bathrooms are better than ours. That’s a window, not a mural.

20170116_131639-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Make a long valley run then ski the front of the mountain, including the ritzy new 3S gondola. Found I was unprepared for the beauty and spectacle of these mountains. In the afternoon drive up to Niederthai then down valley and to Imsterberg. I paid an extra $9 for half-board, so get a four-course meal instead of the usual sausages-in-my-room routine.

[cloud cult]

Day 7:

Beautiful drive to Fiss, a massive area. Ski Fiss, bowl hop to Serfaus, then head high.

20170118_150729-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Can see four bowls over and each have lifts up and down them and it’s all part of the same area. Stop for a skunky beer at a random farmhouse-turned-bar and eat my pocketed sandwich, ski Serfaus in the afternoon, traverse across Fiss, and end the day at Ladis. Tons of natural releases – something had slid on nearly every peak and bowl. Back to my hotel and four courses. Starting to feel tired.

Day 8:

Check out and to Ischgl. Ischgl is so huge that on the trail map it is difficult to tell if a lift is going up or down. Some minor boot surgery in the morning.

20170118_090810-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

After a 3,500 vertical foot climb from the valley the mountain is a dizzying collection of high bowls and peaks served by mind-bendingly modern infrastructure. Overall, Austria is high-speed lifts and modern conveniences and well sculpted (i.e., bulldozed) ski runs, but Ischgl takes it all a step further.

20170118_161253-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170118_115932-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170118_101155-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170118_113928-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Make the long run down to Switerland and take the crazy double-decked tram back up high, ski the Swiss side, head back to Austria, make two off-piste runs that were good, stop for a beer, eat my sandwiches, and finish the day with a valley run. Pick up the S16 and pay $9.50 to transit the 6-mile Arlberg tunnel, ending the day at an older hotel in Feldkirch. The usual for dinner.

Day 9:

Was stoked to go to Laax today, but the more I looked at it the less appealing it was. I’d need a $40 Swiss vignette (or have to stick to secondary roads), a $74 lift ticket, and some undetermined amount of money to pay for the hourly parking charge. True, I’d pay $74 to ski a fraction of the terrain at Big Mountain, but I was starting to feel sort of down about Laax, and even my second choice, Arosa, was no better. Instead head to Schruns, partly because Hemingway skied here. Park at Zamang and ski the Shruns side, including the “world’s longest ski tunnel”, before heading down to Gallenkirch and up to a confusing phalanx of lifts eventually leading to Gaschrun, then having a beer and realizing at 2 p.m. that I had a lot of skiing to do to get back to the Volvo.

20170119_122949-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170119_141111-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Bar’s mascot. Waitress was nonplussed when I asked sincerely if the lamb was rabid or something.

20170119_124529-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Piste signs look like subway maps.

20170119_100624-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

A few words about the Volvo: it’s 90 percent excellent car and 10% something that makes you pound the steering wheel in frustration. But OK – am getting 39 mpg with the diesel and no problem passing on the motorway. Realize I’m 4 miles from Liechtenstein. Never been to Liechtenstein. Border post is staffed but waved through. Not sure what I was expecting from Vaduz but it’s not what I expected.

20170119_181005-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Feldkirch. The Cloud Cultette has a cousin who works for Daimler in Stuttgart and he showed up late in a C-class company car. Pizza for dinner at a place down the street.

[cloud cult]

Day 10:

Feeling pretty run down. Excellent brekkie. Cousin drives us in the C-class to Flumserberg, a moderately-priced Swiss area with free parking and reasonable non-motorway access. The valleys are strongly inverted but the mountain is bathed in decadent sunshine. Work over the mountain, including the 45-minute run down to Oberterzen, and find powder – good dense settled powder – on open slopes above Prodalp.

20170120_102117-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

20170120_155742-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Lap it until Cousin is flagging and I’m losing concentration and realize with sadness I’ve just made my last turn in Europe for a while. Back into the inverted valley, pick up the Volvo in Feldkirch, grab groceries and souvenir chocolate in Hohenems, and hit the A96 for a long, foggy, dark ride to Munich, where it’s cold. Have a hotel in Haar pre-booked (not the right side of town for me, I know) which features a teensy tiny room and a lively, smoky bar. Unload the Volvo, repack everything, and to bed late.

Day 11:

Up early. Excellent brekkie. Load car and downtown. I have the Marienhof to myself as the fog breaks.

20170121_083008-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

To MUC, fill the tank (spent $79 on gas for the entire trip) and wait. Pleasant flight to KEF, where it’s drizzling and the snow has melted, and make the mad dash to make my connection. Lift off at 4:45 as the sun is setting and have a 7 hour flight across the northern reaches of the globe where, miraculously, the sun is in set for the entire duration, meaning I get dreamy orange hued views of Greenland, Baffin Island, Nunavut, and the Canadian Rockies.
Southwest coast of Greenland:

20170121_201444-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

Not Greenland:

20170122_015627-01 by redpinecanyon, on Flickr

TSA seizes $4 worth of souvenir sausages I got for the Lil’ Cloud Cult. Three exhausted hours in Seattle’s shitty C terminal where at one point I fall asleep and wake up sure I’ve missed my connection. Short hop to MSO, where it’s snowing and the Cloud Cultette is waiting. Home at 12:45.

[MakersTeleMark]

Excellent!

[cat in january]

Yes, yes Wonderful story telling and pictures.

Always a good choice when given the option to visit where Earnest did.

[rockcreek]

wundabar!!

[oftpiste]

jelly.

[senior researcher]

Thank you for sharing. Way to get it done,again.

[Buster Highmen]

That's how to Euroskisafari; well done. I'm hoping to execute a similar slice out that way soon.

[wyeaster]

amazing trip amazing pics!

[Tap]

Best part was the breakfast commentary

[rudy]

Best part was the breakfast commentary

I think it's pronounced "brekkie" over there...

[406]

$630 from MSO to Europe is crazy good price. Looks like a good trip. What resources did you use for picking which resorts to visit?

[cloud cult]

$630 from MSO to Europe is crazy good price. Looks like a good trip. What resources did you use for picking which resorts to visit?

I started with bergfex.com and then did a lot of posting and reading on a Brit forum called Snowheads, an Italian one called skiforum.it, and a German one called alpinforum.com.

I used viamichelin.com for distances and routing and either booking.com or local tourist boards for hotels. Many of the best, least-expensive guesthouses do not have web pages but do have a presence on municipal or tourist council accommodation pages (though not always in English).

[LightRanger]

Rad TR. Per usual.

[klar]

Never been to Liechtenstein. Border post is staffed but waved through. Not sure what I was expecting from Vaduz but it’s not what I expected.

Border post was staffed because that was the Swiss border control. Liechtenstein doesn't bother and just kind of lets them use their stuff. Occasionally they have dramatic incidents like this one. Your experience of Vaduz sounds pretty standard.

Glad the driving worked out and breakfast was mostly good

[Foggy_Goggles]

Awesome! A someone that is a planner by nature and is 10 days out from a Euro trip that can only be described as "full freestyle", not seeing you sleeping in your rental car is comforting. Hopefully, the snow hits the dirt baggier regions of France and Italy as my wallet would prefer to not go to Switzerland.

[Mr. Mike]

I'm doing Yurp in a couple of months, so I have been hanging on Snowheads too, and saw your posts there. Glad it worked out for you. Looks like you had reasonable conditions despite the relatively poor conditions so far most of the year most of the places over there.

[AmmergauerTele]

Amazing amount of area that you saw. Zillertal Arena, Hintertux, Solden, Ischgl....Only one you may have missed is the Arlberg. Way impressive - so jealous!

[subtle plague]

this europe resort sounds crazy!

[yeahman]

Great TR, thanks.