Exploring

Today was my first day skiing. It's a a big area. I slept longer than I planned to, but there was still breakfast. Breakfast here is not much to write about: they have some unappetizing salamis I didn't touch, and enough cereal and other carbs to suffice for a start. They offered me a boiled egg, and I spun it, gave it back, and asked them to hard-boil it. They made me a new one (why not just put the old one back in the water a little longer?) but it still wasn't really hard-boiled. I took it with me so it could get smashed up in my jacket and threw it away around lunchtime.

The long driveway down from the hotel is pretty steep: it felt dangerous going down there with my ski boots so I went slowly and carefully, even when I saw people running to catch the bus. There are so many people trying to get on the ski bus that I still made it in time to catch it, walking carefully.

There were also still several huge lines for lift tickets. They charge a 5 euro deposit for the card. Bet I forget to return it? My gloves have pockets on the backs for hand-warmers so I put the card into one of those. In order to pass through the gates I only need to wave my hand at them while others contort themselves to press their chests or other body parts against the detectors. There was also a crowd waiting to get on the Nasserein gondola at the base, and I took a picture of some it.

You can find a piste map of the resort here. That way you can understand what I am talking about when I say where I went. Today I didn't meet anybody worth note, but decided to explore as much of the mountain as I could on my own. Mostly German was spoken but I did hear English and, at least on two occasions, Hebrew. I skied from St. Anton up to Kapall, then across to the next mountain, Galzig, and all the way up to Schindler Spitze. Up at that peak (I think it was that one) I was surprised to ride the chairlift above a flock of ravens circling in a ravine, no doubt waiting for someone to die so they could eat him. They flew off when I tried to take a picture, so you'll simply have to believe me that they were there. I explored all the way to the lift near Stuben with a visit to St. Christoph as well. That picture is practically all there is: it's a cluster of a few hotels on the hill.

Since exploring was the goal, I tried not to ski down any run more than twice, and poke my head into many of the restaurants on the hill to see what was on offer. When I ski alone, sometimes I ski harder than with others since groups tend to stop and wait much more. I had to stop frequently to check my map, which is kind of confusing: it's hard to tell sometimes which way is up and which is down on any run on the map so it's not easy to be sure where they lead. The map was soaked and tattered by the end of the day.

Weather was nice today: it was snowing all over the hill, but softly, and I didn't feel cold. There were clouds everywhere in the afternoon, sometimes enough so you couldn't see more than a couple of meters. I didn't take a picture of that: you'd think I took a picture of my hotel room wall. The snow was wind-frozen in many places, cold and tough, but it was dry except for the bottom. It might have had a deep base, but it was mostly hard-packed so there was no powder to enjoy. The runs are essentially all groomed.

I remember myself being a better skier. Maybe it will come back to me. My first couple of runs were calm blues, but my third was black down Kapall. The difference between difficulty markings seems mostly related to iciness, as nothing looked challengingly steep to me. I thought it would be prudent not to dare to go off piste my first day or even onto the ungroomed "skirouten" trails. I know that was the right decision because I did go into one such "ski route" and it was very hard, cold moguls. I tripped on one and fell forward, landing on my thumb... The same one that I broke once. I have to stop doing that. I don't think I re-broke it but I certainly hurt it. When I found some soft, clean powder at the end of that trail I packed the thumb up in some to reduce the inevitable swelling, but not in my glove. My hands were warm: the gloves are warm, but they aren't padded around the thumbs for some odd reason (fingers yes) so are useless as armor.

A young boy who was on that slope, probably a local, helped retrieve my ski when I twisted myself to a stop. He even hung around to see if I needed any help getting my bindings on and lend a hand. I remember being a helpful young skier kid. On those slopes there were only small isolated groups of three or so skiers. The main ones had mobs. Going even slightly outside the trail markers was a nice way to get a little solitude, as St. Anton is quite full of people. Many of the main lifts had long lines in the morning, and the main runs back were crowded.

The resort seems so full of people in fact that it was difficult to find any place to have lunch. I checked in at restaurants around the hill from before noon until about 1400, and before then there was not even room for me, a loner, to join a table. I was pretty hungry and tired by the time I finally got myself a seat at Galzig (the gondola changeover station,) followed by a hot chocolate, a hamburger and fries but no bun. By 1430 people began to clear out. I gradually worked my way back to my own mountain from where I knew I could get back. My last couple runs of the day were nice black ones where moguls had begun to form from people skiing them. That made me feel younger again.

My edges are completely dull. I tried to tune them when I waxed my skis, but must not have done a good job: I had no edge grip at all and skidded like crazy every time I went over a patch of hardpack. Therefore I had to pick my turns to brace against mounds of soft snow or moguls people had piled up in passing. That was still fun. I could have sideslipped down the whole hill if those soft regions weren't plentiful on the slopes. I don't want to pay to have them sharpened, as it is expensive. When I worked I could get a full service on my skis done in the time it took me to buy the techs a six-pack of beer.

The last run for most lifts is 1615, but my legs were tired and I called it a day some minutes before that. I stepped into a ski shop at the base to buy some (way overpriced) cat-tracks: rubber covers for my boots that let them walk on asphalt without damage or slipping. I slipped them on my boots to try them on, paid the guy, and said I didn't need the box. You just have to remember that you can't run with those: I must have lost three of them before this pair; you need both care and luck or they pop right off and get lost within days. I'm glad I got them: I don't know how I would have made it back up to my hotel without them. I saw the 1611 bus leaving, but spent the 15 minutes until the next one planning tomorrow's runs.

More on the hotel: other than the safe (and the manure,) they really don't have anything here, not even a sauna as they do at most of the pensions. The rooms are spacious, but spartan. Bed's comfortable enough. The shower has only a piece of glass separating it from the sink: no door or even a curtain, so by the time the water has heated up it's begun trying to flood the bathroom. I've seen this setup and worse elsewhere, and am not fond of it. That said it hasn't flooded yet. It was snowing even down here by evening. I took a picture out my window but still pictures don't capture snowing very well so I also took a few seconds of video. That still turns out to be too big to upload; I'm afraid.

After my shower I typed up solutions to 6 riddles for my test (if everyone of my math-slaves really works on it, my share will be about 10.) Most of them we already did in class and I had the solutions in my notebook. I spent so much time on the Skype phone with my parents, and looking for ways to get back to the airport at the end of the week, that by the time I went out to dinner it was after 2100, too late for an expensive meal. I decided to skip dinner and have chocolate instead. I wrote this journal for the rest of the night.