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Zuers, Lech and St Anton am Arlberg, Austria
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31 January - 7 February 2003
Trip diary by Winnie So
There? one thing that nobody can plan for when it comes to travel -- the weather. And so it was that over a six-day ski trip to the Austrian Arlberg, we had five days of snow non-stop. The first day, however, was perfect with clear, blue skies and fresh snow from the night before. At least, there was that one perfect sunny day.
We arrived Zurich on Friday morning. I have learned that there? one thing you can definitely plan for if you choose to transit via Charles de Gaulle airport -- delayed luggage. Never, never, never transit through Paris. If you absolutely must, make sure your luggage gets checked out in Paris. No matter what the woman at the counter says, your luggage will get sucked into the the black hole called CDG. CDG is an awful airport. Everything is so inefficent and some portion of the airport staff is always on strike. As the French like to say, it? so boring (meaning annoying).
Resigned to the fact that I would not see my luggage for at least another 24 hours, I headed into Zurich while the rest of the group piled (with luggage) into a Zuers taxi and headed for the Austrian resort. I had an early lunch meeting with an old Swiss friend at Terrasse on the Limmatquai. I was so early that the restaurant was not yet open, so I headed across the street to Starbucks. After a long 17-hour flight, the morning hassle, I was relieved to be able to sink down into a Starbucks club chair with a nice, hot Toffee Nut latte in hand. It brought a smile to my face.
On the dot of 11:30am, Terrasse opened. The restaurant is beautiful. It? right on the banks of the Limmat river and has views of the city across the river and the nearby mountains. The restaurant has incredibly high floor-to-ceiling windows framing these views, giving the restaurant a bright and airy feel. Both the crowd are fare could be described as contemporary European.
After a leisurely lunch, I headed for the train station to catch the direct train to Langen am Arlberg. I headed for the restaurant car, which makes for a much more comfortable ride than the second class cars. The trip from Zurich to Langen takes about 2.5 hours. Once in Langen, I boarded the Post Bus to Zuers (a 20-minute ride up the mountain). I was happy to see it had been snowing; the snow was piled high. Little did I know that more snow would be in store.
I arrived Hotel Ulli just as another part of our group was just getting out of their taxi from Innsbruck. Inside, I ran into the group that had headed straight in from Zurich airport relaxing over drinks in the lounge after a couple hours on the slopes.
The next morning, we woke up to clear, blue skies. My luggage still was nowhere to be found, so I decided to skip snowboarding since I had none of my protection gear. I managed to borrow bits and pieces from everyone to put together something of a ski outfit. By 8:30am, we were having breakfast buffet. Of the various ski hotels I have stayed at, Hotel Ulli? buffet breakfast is the one I look forward to. It? nothing fancy, but it has the right mixture of cereals and grains, cold meats and pate, cheeses and fruits that make up for its lack of hot dishes (usually just bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs). And the breads are excellent.
By 9:30am, we were on the slopes. Hotel Ulli? location is unbeatable. It? just across the street from the Zursersee chairlift. One can pole from the ski room door to two lifts (Zursersee and Hexanboden). At the end of the day, one can ski right in front of the ski room door all the way from Lech via Rufikopf. After a few runs up and down Seekopf, we headed for more challenging terrain. I credit my ability to ski to one week of skiing with Mike, my ski instructor, at Zuers over Chinese New Year 2000. Up to that point, I had only been on 3-day ski trips, struggling on the blue slopes of Val d-Isere, Whistler and the likes. But after that one week, my skiing improved by leaps, but there was one red (in Austria, a red is equivalent to a North American black and a black is a double diamond black. Zuers, in particular, grades its slopes downwards rather than upwards because of a lack of easy runs.) run that kept tripping me up, literally. That was Muggengrat.
From the top, Muggengrat looks treacherously steep. But the most dangerous aspect of that run, as my ski instructor learnt, was the narrow, quick turn onto the steep slope. I had not yet managed to control my stops with absolute precision and managed to crash into him to stop my descent, knocking him down the slope. So this year, after three, week-long ski vacations away from Zuers, I felt I had to prove to myself that I could conquer Muggengrat on my first morning back. I managed not to knock anyone over on the narrow pass. As I looked down Muggengrat, doubts started to creep in. The slope looked steep, but that wasn? the problem, there were snow piles everywhere. By mid-day, there had been enough traffic on the slope to have carved out mini-moguls. Moguls were definitely not my thing. In the end, I made it, but not in with the most grace and style I must admit. I made a mental note to come back.
By the time we got back to Tritkopf, the group of six skiers split. While a part went up the Tritkopf cable car. I boarded the bus for Lech to go hang out with the boarders. The ride to Lech takes 10 minutes. We met the boarders in Schneggerai, a little, wooden hut at the bottom of the slopes next to the Schlegelkopf lift. Inside the wooden hut was a rather contemporary-looking bar/restaurant/late-night dance spot. The lights were a particular feature, covered with cowhide. Lunch was not packed at all, only three tables. Food was rather standard, with gulash, roesti, salads, soups etc.
After lunch, we headed up to Kriegerhorn and then up to Steinmahder, not a particularly boarder-friendly run, with stretches of flat. The day ended with a chase for the Rufikopf cable car, which shuts at 16:15. We managed to catch it and had a leisurely ski back to Zuers. This is one of my favourite runs. The scenery on the way back is beautiful. I much prefer large expanses of tree-less, white slopes (like huge peaks of meringue, as one friend put it) over the tree-lined slopes of resorts like Whistler or Aspen. Somehow, the pure white slopes against a clear, blue sky with no other sound than the swishing or your skies makes for a soothing, peaceful yet energizing experience.
By the time I arrived back at the hotel at around 17:30, I was absolutely ecstatic to see that both my bags had arrived! After a shower, we headed back to Lech for a spot of shopping at the store that has a monopoly on the resort? shopping -- Strolz. Strolz started out as the inventor of the hot-foam boots. They still make these boots. But their shop is much more. Aside from renting and selling ski and snowboard equipment, they also sell clothing, stocking brands such Prada, Tod?, Fendi, malo etc. We were there until the shop was closing. One observant friend noted that one of the tills that was being closed had rung up more than Euro20,000 for a day? sales! The shop obviously has more than one till and Strolz has several shops in the area.
By the time we all sat down to dinner, I was exhausted. Dinner is quite an event at Ulli?. It? always at least a five-course affair. The food is excellent. Every Sunday, there is a gala dinner to welcome the new guests.
I can quickly sum up the rest of the week: non-stop snow. Each morning, we would be hopelessly optimistic, looking for any sign that the snowfall might abate, the sun might peek through, visibility might improve. In the end, it was the same. So for the rest of the week, I tried to improve my snowboarding, which I had just picked up this season. The heavy snowfall made for great cushions against falls. But having snow constantly blown in your face got to be annoying as did the clumps of snow all over the pistes. So I decided to take it easy the last few days, boarding only a few hours a day.
Instead of getting to ski to St Anton, which is another one of my most favourite runs (Valluga), I ended up hanging out in the town. St Anton is larger than Zuers and Lech and the crowd is a bit younger. There? more fun to be had in St Anton. I spent part of the afternoon sipping coffee at ben venuto, the trendy restaurant bar in the local wellness center called Arlberg-well.com. The building is beautifully-designed and the view from the restaurant windows was magnificent. The resort sits lower than Zuers, so there are more trees to be seen. I also spent a bit of time in the internet cafe, mailbox, which wasn? too expensive. Shopping, however, was a bit dull.
The real adventure of our trip to St Anton, however, was finding out that the most direct route back to Zuers was closed due to the snowstorm and that the buses were no longer running. In the end, we had to pay Euro100 to get back, when it normally costs less than half that. The journey also took three times as long, taking an hour. Along the way, I did learn that using snow chains were ?iele arbeit?(lots of work). The driver had to take them off and put them back on, because it is illegal to drive with snow chains on roads not covered with snow (in this case, through the long Arlberg tunnel). This was the second-to-last day of our ski trip.
The next day, the roads were still closed, which meant that we could not get out of the resort to take the train back to Zurich or drive back to Zurich to catch our flights. We were on edge for most of the last day, waiting for news that the roads might re-open. By night, we found out that the roads were not expected to re-open until 8am the next morning at the earliest. We all had flights departing Zurich around noon and it? at least a 2-hour drive when conditions are ideal. We would be cutting it close. But there was nothing we could do. I was half hoping that we would be snowed in with perfect weather the next day. I was right about the weather, but the roads did open on time as well, so we all had to leave as the sun shone brightly.
This ski holiday was not just about skiing. It? about getting away, having a mini-retreat. In my down town, I managed to read a book (I would highly recommend Yann Martell? The Life of Pi). The company one goes on a ski trip with is very important as well; choose wisely. We were a group of nine. Apres-ski was lots of fun as we sat around with Jack Beam, Jack Daniels or ports in our glasses discussing everything under the sun from Hong Kong economics and politics to Damien Hirst and Lucien Freud to cars to Tom Stoppard to the history of the Austro-Hungarian empire to German castles to advertising campaigns. While the skiing and boarding this time around was very limiting, the conversations were limitless. In the end, I had exactly that -- a ski holiday, emphasis on holiday.
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