For those of you who have missed them, the regular blogs are back!
We started the northern winter early this year with a two-week training camp in Stubai Glacier, Austria. The enormous glacier with a peak at 3200m is open year-round for skiing.
The Australian National Ski Cross Team, consisting of myself and three others, as well as the coach and ski technician, all arrived here in Austria on Monday.
We didn’t get off to a great start on day 1. It was foggy and pouring with rain (it actually reminded me a little of skiing back at home in Australia!). We also managed to get a little lost at the very beginning of the day. In search of the restaurant that was supposedly at the top of the mountain, we ended up hiking up around 200 steps to nothing but a lookout point. For our first day at high altitude, it was hard work! The view definitely would have been worth it on a clear day.
Today we had an amazing day skiing. There are a number of teams training at Stubai, including some world cup alpine teams. The conditions were great, and the training is ideal.
(Heading up to Stubai Glacier)
(Emerging from the fog...)
After four hours training at such high altitude, we were pretty exhausted and happy to come back down to Neustift, the town we are staying in. The weather down in the valley was beautiful, around 25 degrees this afternoon…probably hotter than Melbourne at the moment! The four of us went exploring and managed to find a hiking trail in the mountains. Then we finished off the session by deciding to sit in the river with fast flowing glacial water… frickin’ cold but good recovery!
(Stubai Glacier in the background)
(Bush walking in the woods)
(Neustift)
We’ll be training here for the next two weeks before we head back home to Australia. Will keep you posted!
