trip report: part 4

Day Four: February 18

I woke up easily this morning, without any jet lag, and went down to the breakfast room with mom. Olga Klammer fed us a lovely breakfast of fresh, hot coffee, cold cuts, fresh butter and jams, and yummy brown bread that’s better than almost anything you can get in the States. I needed the fuel, too because it would be a great day of skiing.

I walked up to the Schaller house (where I’d left my ski equipment the previous evening), where I met Reini and Helmut. We all hopped into the family car for a drive to….

Zauchensee! This was a real treat for three reasons:

1. The Zauchensee area is higher in elevation and at the end of a valley, so it’s a “snow trap,” with deeper and better cover.
2. There’s a well-known FIS-homologated World Cup downhill track at Zauchensee.
3. Along with Flachau, Zauchensee is the other ski area that’s part of the Salzburg 2014 Olympic bid.

That last bit was the kicker. I volunteered at the Salt Lake 2002 games, and had a blast, so I was interested to see what an alpine nation would put forth as a speed venue.

The drive to Zauchensee took about 25 minutes, most of it on the Autobahn. Reini and I rode the gondola (there are many of these in the Ski Amadé empire) to mid-mountain, then a chair to the top of the ridge separating Zauchensee valley from Flachauwinkl valley. The runs from this ridge down to Zauchensee village were rolling and fast, and the complete expanse of the Zauchensee ski terrain was really great. Many large mountains loomed in the distance, but the terrain we were skiing was wonderful and varied.

Reini and I found our best skiing of the day on the various pistes that emptied into a three-lift “hub” in Zauchensee village. It’s an interesting design, where three different lifts (two chairs and a gondola) share a common base structure. It causes a bit of bottlenecking, but it’s also really easy to navigate. And the view from the top of the northernmost ridge is really great, too.

And while you wait in the queue, you can marvel at the sheer number of Atomic skis – Atomic’s HQ is down the valley in Altenmarkt.

We eventually skied the mountain ridge where the World Cup DH is run. There’s a funky lift to the top of the course, which was closed when we were there. Apparently, the course just meets FIS regulations for a womens DH run – I’m not sure what they’ll do for the men in 2014, though there’s a higher ridge that might hold the answer.

No matter, as you could see a lot of other features from the top of the gondola. The most striking feature was a large snowmaking pond, which had come in very handy this season. The pond was in a steep ravine, and signs a’plenty warned of the dangerous route ahead if the pond was your destination.

We then tackled the DH run. As far as World Cup DH runs go, it’s not much: a few steep sections near the top, then a long, rolling glide in the middle. Some sweeping turns with a few bumps near the finish are the only really interesting terrain, with fall-away features and some decent changes for air. The A-nets were still up, and the curves had been skidded down to the ice from the January races – great fun for Reini and me, but frightening to most of the less-able skiers who slid into the nets with some frequency.

We eventually worked our way back to St. Johann-Alpendorf via Flachauwinkl (a major snowboarding mecca in the area), Kleinarl (fun terrain, but too low to have good snow), Wagrain (with another stop at the hutte), and back down to Alpendorf. We caught the shuttle bus to St. Johann, and had dinner waiting for us.

Mom told stories of her wanderings. She, Maria and Helmut drove to Salzburg to look at the other Schaller house, as well as to take in the views from the surrounding mountains. Hannes joined us soon afterward, as he was teaching a group of kids from Swansea, Wales, how to ski. Much food and wine was consumed, and I planned for my final ski day in Austria.