Ramsau to Craftsbury

Well, somehow it's been almost a week since we got back from Austria, I honestly don't know how that happened. That means I also have less than one week until I fly out to Utah for a ten day USST camp, so I'm trying to soak up all the Vermont fall time I can! We were all pretty excited to wake up after flying in from Europe late at night and look around at the foliage in Craftsbury. There is some serious fire burning on the hillsides with the reds, yellows, and oranges out.

Anyways, I promised a big Austria photo share, so here are some of the trip highlights. After taking a few days to decompress after our travel, I'm looking back on the camp and am truly amazed how much high-quality ski time we were able to fit in, even under some less than ideal conditions. I mostly had my camera out on the perfect, sunny, t-shirt weather days on the glacier, but the truth is we had about 50-50 of those days versus really nasty days. Dense fog, 25+ mph winds, visibility not even to the ends of your boots, you name it, we experienced it. Skiing in those types of conditions is frustrating because you feel like you aren't getting high quality training, and you find yourself just trying to make it to the end of your allotted two hours of training (so you can warm up with a latte, some soup, and a hot shower!), rather than focusing on the process. But considering that ski racing has a huge mental component, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to train in trying conditions. We experienced a lot of mental toughness days, and having to learn to ski when there's snow blowing in your face and snow drifting across the tracks will probably come in handy when the weather is less than ideal come race day.

Much of the camp was spent either training or resting for training, so I was really excited to spend an off day in Salzburg experiencing the historic old city. Here's the view from the Hohensalzburg Palace, looking back towards the mountains and Ramsau.

Adventures with the (K)Caitlin's!

By far my favorite part of Salzburg was the Mirabell Gardens. I mean, they filmed the Sound of Music here, what's not to love?

That building directly behind us is the Hohensalzburg Palace, one of the distinguishing features on the Salzburg "skyline", if you can call it that

And just like that, we were back up on the glacier. This day was one of the more dramatic for scenery. As we made our way up the tram-line, we pulled out of the fog, but it still clung to the valleys below.

A little fresh snow cleaned things up nicely on the glacier and made for some awesome skiing. Hard wax at first, and then bomber klister tracks

View from the top of the tram

Some years they groom this side of the glacier, but I don't think they had quite enough snow this year to do it. Instead we skied on the so-called "tourist track", but it definitely didn't feel that easy at 9,000 ft!

Had a great time with these ladies! GRP Women L to R: myself, Caitlin, Kait, Ida

Skiing back up to the tram at the end of a workout

That same day they let us ride down on the top of the tram. The views were amazing, but I was terrified the entire time. Turns out that my fear of heights, which usually doesn't apply to chairlifts (I think because I've been riding them my whole life), well, it definitely applied here!

Working on engaging my arms correctly in double pole. I had a focus for every session, and if it slipped my mind, Pepa was out there with her iPad capturing video and reminding us to keep working.

Taking it all in at the top of the mountaineering trail that winds above the glacier trails.

Bit of a drop off here, not a good place to experience vertigo!!

Kait with some climbers getting ready to ascend that peak in the background

Little ski trails and little skiers ants down below

During our second week in Ramsau we did a really fun adventure ski/hike day. We skated in the morning and then hiked off the glacier and wound around the mountains, ending up at the guesthouse where we stayed.

Spot the skiers (and their yellow and green Rudys!)

Stopping for a quick drink break and natural beauty appreciation

We could see the town of Ramsau, but it was a long way down!

The top of Mt. Sinabell, one of the peaks that was easily accessible during our hike

OUCH

All of the houses and hotels in Ramsau had these perfect little flower window boxes.

Our last day nice day on the glacier, before the weather turned sour.

Panorama with the Dachstein tram

That cable coming out of the snow is actually a climbing route! Yikes

Can you ever have too many panoramic shots when it's this beautiful out?

And here's my one piece of photo evidence that we actually did have bad weather. This day we were supposed to have a Level 3 piece partway through our workout. It was a little interesting because the fog was so dense on the downhill that you could never really be sure if you were on the track or just careening blindly towards a glacial crevasse! So, we strode up the hills in L3, and then pulled out our best snowplows and somehow made it down the hills, all while bumping into snowbanks and skiing on and off the trail. I wish that someone would have been able to video the whole thing, because I'm sure we looked ridiculous.

If this photo were zoomed in, I'm sure the expression on my face would be less than pleased

All in all, it was a fantastic camp. I think the bad weather near the end made it a little easier to come home, but truth be told I was feeling a little tired and ready for my own bed. Craftsbury has been really nice since we've been back, and though I'm currently fighting a little cold, I think I will be good to go in a week when we head to another training block in Park City. I'm also really excited for the Oktoberfest races we have this weekend! I'll be hopping in the biathlon running race, and it's been fun to get back to shooting after a little break. Thanks for reading if you actually made it to the end of this post, and stay tuned for updates from the Park City camp!