I’ve always been a “sea” person rather than a “mountain” person. And as well a “sport oriented” person curious to try every physical activity that would enrich my adrenaline based experiences. Mentioning few sports I tried and liked: swimming, diving, tennis, volley, skating etc.
This winter, a new bucket list opportunity came up: skiing. And what other better destination to do it than Austrian Alpes, in the enchanting region of Tirol.
I hit the road confident that this would be a first time to remember ski adventure. And it definitely was, but not quite as I was expected to be.
Before moving on, I must warn the beginner skiers readers that skiing is not such a spontaneous sport as it seems. You need to do your homework before a ski adventure and have at least the basic ingredients needed:
- ski costume consisting of: ski pants, , ski jacket (both waterproof), pants braces (better have these ones if you don’t want to introduce the cold and slicky snow to your warm back skin at first fall, and believe me, you will fall..)
- first layer consisting of : insulated pants and fleece blouse
- waterproof gloves
- scarf
- ski boots
- ski + sticks (optional)
- helmet (recommended)
- goggles (recommended)
If it’s your first time, I suggest you to borrow these accessories from a more passionate friend and if you like the experience then you can upgrade your ski wardobe acordingly 😀 .
Going back to my adventure, the first day at ski got me very excited . I had all equipment needed in order to have a great start. My friends volunteered to teach me the hole process and I was counting on their assistance to start small but consistent.
Long story short, skiing wasn’t that easy as I expected to be. The first slope I had to ride was giving me dizzy spells. It took me 30 minutes to go down on a slope that normally you’re going down in 5 minutes. I literally felt from 3 to 3m.
Despite all the advices, patience and cheerleads, I found skiing the most difficult and dangerous sport I’ve ever tried. Once you speed up around 50km/h and feel like the next thing you’ll stop into will be a tree, a hell, or a human body, it makes you decide quickly that is not a masochistic but a smart idea to lye down on your knees and let your body hit the slope, or the slope hit you, whichever you prefer.
After three days of giving multiple chances to this “amazing” sport, despite of all bruises and headaches (third day, in Hintertux, we caught a snow storm when riding the most difficult slope by then, that gave me no other option than going down perpendicular with the slope), I must say that I’ve had some unforgettable and unique views, both from Kitzbuhel mountains and Hintertux (3,250m).
In other news, after I blew out my knees, the remaining days I’ve spent time visiting:
Innsbruck, where the ski jumping “Four Hills Tournament” takes place every year
Hintersteiner See
