Goodbye Austria, hello Summer!

Yesterday was our last day skiing on Hintertux Glacier for our October training camp. We seemed to time things pretty well, as the weather came in fast yesterday afternoon once we'd finished training, bringing a lot of new snow last night.

We made the most of the sunny afternoon in the valley by joining the Norwegian Ski Cross Team for a game of beach volleyball. Bizarre... to think of skiing in the morning and playing beach volleyball in the afternoon... We had a lot of fun, and ended the friendly match with pizza and beers in town.

(The new Aussie beach volleyball team in action...)

(Thanks Julie Jensen for the photos!)

All in all, the training camp has been a success. We've trained with numerous National Ski Cross Teams, including the Norwegians, Swedish and Czech teams. Tomorrow we will fly back to Australia where I will spend the next six weeks studying for my final University exams (my last semester then I get my degree... yay!), training in the gym and soaking up the rays before the long European winter ahead.

Hintertux Glacier

After a week of intense training at Stubai Glacier, we are now at Hintertux Glacier. Yesterday was our first day here, and my god it was busy! There seem to be thousands of racers here, ranging from World Cup National Teams, right down to tiny kids in race suits from the age of about five. They definitely start them early in Europe!

This morning, being a Saturday and perfect weather, was absolute mayhem at the gondola. Thinking we were pretty smart by getting to the base of the lift 30 minutes before it opened, little did we know we would pretty much be at the back of the line! Once the lift finally opens, it seems to be everyone for themselves... a true stampede of humans!

(The mad rush of Euro's in the morning)

The training here in Austria has been great so far. We've spent long days on snow (from 8:30am - 3:30pm), so as you can imagine, up at 3200m in the glacier it's pretty exhausting! Good thing we've done all the training back at home to allow us to ski at this kind of altitude and at a high intensity all day. We have six more days on snow, then we head back to Australia.

(Cute little Harry Potter-esque bridge in town)

(The beautiful flower boxes of Austria in autumn)

(Hintertux Glacier)

Winter has come early

There has been quite a change in scenery in less than 24 hours here in Austria! Only a couple of days ago it was sunny and 25 degrees here in the valley, with grass greener than anything I've seen in Australia. It has now dropped to sub zero temperatures, (-15 degrees up on the mountain) and a blanket of snow covers the ground here in town. Up at Stubai Glacier, they have received almost half a meter of fresh snow in two days.

Looks like the flower boxes might struggle to survive this week.... :(

(View from my window in Neustift this morning)

More ISFT photos...

Charlie Payne has kindly sent me a few more ISFT photos from our 'ambassadors' shoot last year...

Michael Rishworth, myself and Dan Portelli

Back in Austria

Yesterday we arrived in Austria where we will be spending the next three weeks training.
We're currently at Stubai Glacier, and next week we'll be at Hintertux.

Like this time last year, the sun is shining and the temperatures are warm. Today was a comfortable 25 degrees in the valley, and a minimum of 5 degrees up on the hill. Better weather than Australia at the moment!

(Hanging out with the friendly cows next door...)

Will keep you posted with how it's going!