Many would be cowards if they had courage enough. Also, skiing.
Another picture, a panorama from the top of Hohe Munde, the big bastard Robbo and I climbed, click here, then click the image to magnify it. The mountains behind the cross are in Italy, the green valley you can see to the far right is in Germany, all the rest is in Austria.
Going to the right from the cross you can see the Valley where we started, moving up the saddle between the peaks (halfway point), then rough valley (the nearby cliff face) and the last gravel path to the peak. Wait, why don't I just draw a line. here.
A few more photos of my trip are up. First up, running of the bulls:
http://www.pbase.com/ianm_esquire/bulls
As previously reported, a stolen watch stopped me getting a great spot from which to photograph the run, but I found three pics that pass as tolerably interesting. Most of the rest are of street scenes of Pamplona madness and filth. For obvious "I payed a lot for my camera" reasons, there are no pics of the actual bull run I was in, or of the roundabout we slept and were robbed in.
Now to the second set. Regular readers may recall that on my last day in the alps I intended do some more hiking in an area where chair lifts do most of the work. Well, that was Tuesday, and as per plan I set off to the bus station in Innsbruck to head towards the Stubai Valley, a beautiful area about 50km south of ibk. Sabine's friend Dani grew up there, and had given me some tips. (Incidentally, Dani's brother is an olympic gold medalist in ski jumping.)
As I was boarding the bus, three girls ran up, noticeably out of breath, and one attempted to ask me something in German. I gave a confused shake of the head and said "English?". Much relieved, another asked me in English, with a strong Aussie accent, "is this the bus to Stubai?". "Why yes it is, young ladies, and its departure is imminint!" I said. Or words to that effect. Perhaps slightly less gay. Anyway, turns out two of them, Jo and Jaz, were shire girls (but otherwise decent) and the other, Linda, (who had attempted the German) was dutch, and had met the other two at their hostel that morning.
So we gots a chatting, and they were there because they had heard that there was a glacier deep in the stubai valley where you could still ski! In the middle of July! Obviously, I quickly hitched myself aboard that train.
Turns out it was the last week the resort would be open for skiing, and only one run was left open. The conditions were, umm, somewhat slushy. We got lots of confused looks from the staff as to why we would want to ski in such shit conditions, but we were super keen. We heard many mutterings of "crazy bloody aussies" (or the German equivalent) but we got our ski gear and headed up to the glacier.
Photos are here:
http://www.pbase.com/ianm_esquire/austria_ski
99% of the people around were there for hiking. We got many looks from Austrians that seemed to ask "what the hell are you doing that for in summer???", but we had the glacier almost to ourselves. At any time, there may have been three or four other skiers around, other times it was just us. Pretty cool!
It being 35 degrees in the valley, and around 15 on the peaks, by early afternoon conditions were somewhat lakelike, especially at the base of the lift. We were literally waterskiing up, and snow skiing down!!
Probably the crappiest snow I've ever skied in, objectively speaking, but also one of the most fun days I've ever had skiing, for the sheer unexpected randomness of it, meeting 3 cool new friends and suddenly changing my plans, waterskiing on a t-bar, all the confused looks we got, twas gold!
I had recently had some shocking nights at hostels getting scarcely more sleep than our nights spent bum-style, which had set me thinking that backpacking is for jerks and lesbians. But it's days like our random glacier ski trip that keep bringing me tearfully lovingly back to it!!
Going to the right from the cross you can see the Valley where we started, moving up the saddle between the peaks (halfway point), then rough valley (the nearby cliff face) and the last gravel path to the peak. Wait, why don't I just draw a line. here.
A few more photos of my trip are up. First up, running of the bulls:
http://www.pbase.com/ianm_esquire/bulls
As previously reported, a stolen watch stopped me getting a great spot from which to photograph the run, but I found three pics that pass as tolerably interesting. Most of the rest are of street scenes of Pamplona madness and filth. For obvious "I payed a lot for my camera" reasons, there are no pics of the actual bull run I was in, or of the roundabout we slept and were robbed in.
Now to the second set. Regular readers may recall that on my last day in the alps I intended do some more hiking in an area where chair lifts do most of the work. Well, that was Tuesday, and as per plan I set off to the bus station in Innsbruck to head towards the Stubai Valley, a beautiful area about 50km south of ibk. Sabine's friend Dani grew up there, and had given me some tips. (Incidentally, Dani's brother is an olympic gold medalist in ski jumping.)
As I was boarding the bus, three girls ran up, noticeably out of breath, and one attempted to ask me something in German. I gave a confused shake of the head and said "English?". Much relieved, another asked me in English, with a strong Aussie accent, "is this the bus to Stubai?". "Why yes it is, young ladies, and its departure is imminint!" I said. Or words to that effect. Perhaps slightly less gay. Anyway, turns out two of them, Jo and Jaz, were shire girls (but otherwise decent) and the other, Linda, (who had attempted the German) was dutch, and had met the other two at their hostel that morning.
So we gots a chatting, and they were there because they had heard that there was a glacier deep in the stubai valley where you could still ski! In the middle of July! Obviously, I quickly hitched myself aboard that train.
Turns out it was the last week the resort would be open for skiing, and only one run was left open. The conditions were, umm, somewhat slushy. We got lots of confused looks from the staff as to why we would want to ski in such shit conditions, but we were super keen. We heard many mutterings of "crazy bloody aussies" (or the German equivalent) but we got our ski gear and headed up to the glacier.
Photos are here:
http://www.pbase.com/ianm_esquire/austria_ski
99% of the people around were there for hiking. We got many looks from Austrians that seemed to ask "what the hell are you doing that for in summer???", but we had the glacier almost to ourselves. At any time, there may have been three or four other skiers around, other times it was just us. Pretty cool!
It being 35 degrees in the valley, and around 15 on the peaks, by early afternoon conditions were somewhat lakelike, especially at the base of the lift. We were literally waterskiing up, and snow skiing down!!
Probably the crappiest snow I've ever skied in, objectively speaking, but also one of the most fun days I've ever had skiing, for the sheer unexpected randomness of it, meeting 3 cool new friends and suddenly changing my plans, waterskiing on a t-bar, all the confused looks we got, twas gold!
I had recently had some shocking nights at hostels getting scarcely more sleep than our nights spent bum-style, which had set me thinking that backpacking is for jerks and lesbians. But it's days like our random glacier ski trip that keep bringing me tearfully lovingly back to it!!
posted by I-Rock at 4:15 PM
2 Comments:
Backpacking is not for lesbians in ALL countries. They warn against it in Morocco you know. I know because I know, alright?
Well in that case, I speak for myself but I think others too when I say morocco doesn't hold half the appeal that it once did as a holiday destination.
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