March 13, 2017 (Tirol, Austria)
Axamer Lizum was the original ski area we wanted to visit but as I mentioned in my last Tirol Snowboard post, weather dictated we go somewhere else. On this day, the weather was gorgeous. Too gorgeous actually as the weather had gotten a lot warmer in the past week and snow was beginning to melt, ushering an early Spring. So even as we climbed elevation in the shuttle bus on our way to the mountain top, I kept looking out of the window and a worrying feeling crept up. The dialogue in my mind went something like this:
‘Kilometer marker 8 (indicating kilometers to Axamer), and there’s no snow on the ground…’
‘Kilometer marker 4, and there’s only patches of snow on the ground…’
‘Kilometer marker 2, the snow only covers the ground 50%…’
Then to Grant, “There will be no snow on the mountain!”. Grant in his usual let’s-see-what-happens voice replied, “Stop worrying! They wouldn’t be open if there was nothing to ski on”.
We got up to the ski area parking lot where the shuttle unloaded excited skiers, and sure enough, the lot was completely dry. No snow cover. We bought our lift tickets. Fortunately, Axamer is one of the mountains where you have to take a cable car up to a higher ski lift area. When we got there, I was relieved. There was snow, with the occasional twig or rock peeking out, and the temperature was above freezing.
There was one run I really enjoyed and stuck with. It was pretty long and felt more like what a medium run would be in Oregon – I’m comparing Mt. Ashland and Mt. Hood for this. So it was challenging enough. For this run, you board a funicular called Olympiabahn, where you have to remove your snowboard or ski’s and carry them on, and crowd into each car. This was nice as I often get nervous snowboarding off of unfamiliar ski lifts. I’m a little traumatized from creating a domino effect, I fall and then bowl over the person next to me, who then falls and trips up the person on the other side of them and so on. This is really comical on a 4-person ski lift (when observed as a by-stander). Truly embarrassing when it involves strangers who are skiiers, who probably think that it’s the plank attached to my feet that suddenly turns me into an uncoordinated humunculus.
Like this:
Thankfully on this day, I didn’t have to contend with such disasters (The down-side of snowboarding). The Abfarht Dammen (Ladies’ Departure) run starts at the top of the mountain and there is a steep slope to go down where you gain speed to go up hill to continue down the slope. I kept trying to get enough speed to clear this hurdle but never quite got it. As a snowboarder I had to take off my snowboard and hike up the hill. This is great exercise and really does strengthen core muscles.
Aside from this part, the ski run was really fun. And took about 15 to 20 minutes to get down. Grant tried this run once and then stuck with the practice area, Kaserwald. He was definitely improving. At the end of the day, I convinced him to try this run again. And as a nice break, we stopped at the bar Dohlennest in the middle of the run for some glühwein.
All in all, we had a good day of snowboarding with the snow starting to melt slightly in the afternoon when the sun was at its strongest. Axamer Lizum provided more runs for beginner snowboarders than Kühtai, but the glüwein tasted better at Kühtai. Unfortunately for the Tirol ski resorts, though, Spring is definitely here early, which will mean less skiers than usual.
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