Austria and Ski Touring

Last weekend was a three-day weekend at school, so I took advantage of the extra day off and rode a train for 9 hours to Salzburg, Austria. My friends Hayes, and Jen are working at an international school just outside of Salzburg, so I was there to meet up with them. The weather was crummy (cloudy and rainy), but we still had a nice weekend together. I would like to make it back to Austria at some point in time while I'm still over here.

At the AUGUSTINER ABBEY & MÜLLNER BRÄU BREWERY

Overlooking Salzburg

Hayes and I

Overlooking Salzburg

Here in Leysin, and a majority of the other resorts over here, we've been suffering from a nearly snowless winter. We went around 60 days with no snow...ridiculous. But Friday night it started snowing, took a break on Saturday, and has been snowing all day Sunday. Finally we have some real powder to ski in. Yesterday I went on a ski tour with five friends (Shane, Pezz, Aaron, Erin, and Ethan). We were out for about 5.5 hours and in that time we only skied down for about 20 minutes. A lot of work with little reward. But we found untouched powder and got an amazing workout while at it.

A nice break on top of a saddle

Prafandaz Restaurant for a post-ski drink and snack (chocolate cake)

Post-ski beverage

Aaron and I (I'm exhausted and it shows)

(Thanks for the pics Shane)

The Last Two Weeks

Well my life during the week continues to be rather mundane. Work. Dorm Duty. Maybe skiing. Knocks on my door when I'm not working. Same restaurants. Same people. But all in all relatively good. We haven't had a real snow in some 53 days. Watching all the snow fall everywhere but here was crazy. Last week instead of skiing I rode my bike...yes, it was that nice out...a bit cold in the shade, and plenty of water on the roads from snow melt, but the temps were right.

My friends Peter and Leslie visited two weeks ago and spent a couple days here in Leysin and then we went down to Chamonix. They brought me some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and NyQuil. The Reese's are nearly gone. They NyQuil hasn't been tapped into yet, thankfully I don't need it. It was so refreshing to spend time with people from back home. I have friends here, but it's different. Their visit was great and they even got engaged when we were in Chamonix! A very ideal place for a proposal!

This past weekend I went to Paris for my 2nd visit. I fee like I'm getting acquainted with the city now and I'm excited for my next visit which will be in the summer for the Tour de France...maybe sooner.

A couple of weeks ago I went tubing with my "family" from school. The tubing is much better than the skiing. With the warm temps during the days and cold temps at night, it turns the tracks into ice. We had a lot of fun! Here's a video