Rainy Ski Week-end in Germany

Knowing that our ski days are numbered (what with February rolling into March and -9 becoming somewhat alarmingly +9), we are cramming in as much ski time as humanly possible. This week-end after viewing the webcams and confirming that there is infact still snow on the mountains, we decided to head back to our traditional haunt - Arber.

During the night, the sound of very wet precipitation started to cause some alarm about the feasibily of actually skiing the following day and waking up, we confirmed our fears... it was raining cats and nearly dogs. There was the occassional snow flake in the flurry and then an attempt at something more solid when it showered down inches of hail stones. We decided to lay low for the morning, updating blogs while the girls caught up on some German lessons. I am sure that if they were to have watched as many cartoons in Czech as they have in German that their grasp of the czech language would be far more advanced...

We eventually managed to persuade to girls to leave the warmth and comfort of the TV and head for the blustery outdoors with the allure that lunch is only available outside of the apartment. We had planned to take a drive past Arber ski area to see what was happening, and then to drive through the forrests and generally just explore somewhere new. After looking at options on the GPS, we headed course for Deggendorf.

This was also the week-end that the world cup ski race was planned for Arber, so there were slopes all nicely marked out and TV cameras and vans all about, but no actual skiing on the go. The slopes were all looking decidedly slushy.

There was still much attention being paid to the race course - probably the disaster recovery team eventually consoling themselves to the fact that this was a non-recoverable disaster. I am sure that the snow groomers and cannons will be working this evening to try to recover for skiing tomorrow.

Driving through the forrest, the whole mountain was becoming one big waterfall. There were rivers cascading down every hill and all the rivers below were in full flood.
Not far from Arber, we came across a beautiful lake. I had seen it on the maps before, but we had never ventured this way. I was somewhat sad that we had never been this side of the mountain previously as I could very easily see myself skating up a veritable storm here (on a somewhat more frozen verion of the lake).

Seeing the melting layer of ice sheets, it reminded me of Ice Age 2 and I almost expected to see some giant prehistoric creature swim under the shallow ice..
Next stop was Deggendorf. The hunger mites were growling from the back seat of the car, so lunch was more of a priority than siteseeing at this stage. Nevertheless, we got a good stroll through the town square before finding a suitable restaurant.
And had enough time to pick the flowers en-route

After lunch, I couldn't help but point out the sign below to Colin, who promptly whipped out his camera:
Saturday evening, while still blustery, the rain had subsided long enough for our 2 adventurers to hit the great outdoors.
We all went to bed full of expectation for a sub zero night and zero precipitation for the next day. Unfortunately our prayers were not answered and we woke up to an equally sopping day as before. Today we decided to visit the glass factory in Bodenmais, the neighboring town to Arber. We were in luck to have the girls try their hand at glass blowing once more. Sarah has repeatedly asked for us to visit the glass factories with her fond memories of her previous glass blowing experience (Sarah the Glassblower, April 2007). This time, Amber got to have a turn as well. The results of their blowings were beautiful plant watering balls.
Sarah also having a turn:
So, you fill them with water, stick them into the pot, and then they slowly feed the plant with water as the soil dries up. This very gladly replaced the wonderful invention of Colin's, which was an old milk bottle that was filled with water and turned upside down in the pot...
Aparently it is supposed to get cold again this week and slip below zero again by the week-end - here's holding thumbs!!!

All I wanna do is SKI!!

Something must have happened, but the last 2 times we have been skiing, we haven't taken a single picture - either we have just become so blaaze about it, or.... mmm, or, actually I don't know why. But nonetheless, we have done nothing else for the last few week-ends than head off to the mountains to get in that fresh mountain air and the powder beneath our skis.

The girls join in with the kiddies group lessons and complain that it is boring every time they have to stop and wait for the other kids to catch up. But it at least gives us a 3 hour break to hit the slopes (slopes other than the easy blue/green family slope). Since finding our feet in Samoens, we have braved every slope at Arber, includng the 2 black runs (the first of which I came down more in a broadside skid than a ski), but found them all quite do-able, if not elegant-able. The second black run is definitely my favourite run of the resort.

Today (being Sunday), we just made the trip for the day, leaving Plzen at 7.30, we were still there well in time to hire skis for the girls and check them into their 9.30 lesson. On leaving Plzen this morning it was -9 and by the time we reached Arber it was clocking in at a whopping -15! I was almost certain that the day would be in vain as the children would complain when they became solid blocks of ice... but fortunately, the sun was blazing and in almost no time it was a very comfortable -5.

Also, it is newsworthy to add last week-end we have now taken the plunge and purchased our very own skis. If you want to have some good service and very friendly advice, I would recommend Sport-Poeschl in Bayerisch Eisenstein and the friendly manager Jurgen.

Next week-end we are heading to Austria for the week-end to ski in Hochficht. So, I am sure there will be some photo stories and blogs to follow about that.

To all our millions of faithful readers

To all of our millions of faithful readers... Please be patient, this blog will be updated shortly...

So, just in case you were wondering what has happened to The Woods...

From November the 16th the ski season opened... That should say it all ;)
Then, there were the German Christmas Markets; then shopping for the arriving Marais clan; then frozen lakes for Christmas and new ice skates;
Then a week-long road trip in a vw kombi with 4 adults and 4 kids (ages 3;4;5;&6!!!!) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Followed by a week of skiing in France at Samoëns in the Grand Massives with the view of Mont Blanc
This is now our first week-end home since the 9th of November and we are wading through the over 2000 photos from the trip and planning our next ski week-end!

Bayerisch Eisenstein

The little German town one nanometer past the CZ border has the greater share of the same mountains that špičak is built on. It's a slow and winding route through the characteristic myriad of small-towns in the Czech countryside en route to BE. At the end of the road a series of snow-covered hair-pin bends adds to the driving excitement and makes sure you're wide awake by the time you cross the border.

Deciding that there was a lot of skiing to be done this season, and having experienced the consequences of poorly fitting boots on a recent outing at špičak, the wife and I ventured into the, as we discovered, highly technical and complex world of ski-boots and ski-boot fitting.

Having shied away from the prospect of braving the technical discussion with a technical Czech, we decided to look into the matter on the web and read through a thesis-sized plethora of, a thankfully largely convergent, commentary and advice on the art of ski-boot fitting.

Our first attempt, at a large sports store in Plzen, found us attended by a linguistically proficient sales assistant who, to his ultimate demise broke every rule and caution highlighted in the aforementioned thesis. Eventually leaving the store with nothing but a few pairs of socks, we determined to solve the problem ourselves and spent a few more hours in another store across town.

We made all the technical measurements, felt for the different flex factors and went through the list of fit elements, wore the boots as prescribed etc. Hayley in her characteristic decisiveness, a trait shared well with her sister, wavered till the end, and even then wasn't sure.

We left the store, 2 pairs of boots in hand (for better or for worse), boot bags, new gloves for bugz, and an unscratchable itch to hit the slopes again.

The set-up in BE seems a lot larger and varied than those in neighbouring špičak, there are slopes of every permissible colour and one in particular that was to be a great hit, but I'll get to that in a minute. On the Friday of our arrival, the entire region had been blessed with a good covering of snow just in time for our foray. Huge piles of graded snow, in places 1.5 M high, lined roads and driveways - the girls wasted no time in conquering the one in the yard of our B&B.

The view from the B&B verandah

We checked into our B&B, for the evening and, after cursing for not remembering that German B&B establishments rarely provide bath soap, forcing us to improvise by showering with the shampoo, we passed out and dreamed of the slopes waiting for us the next day. Next morning we got ourselves all outfitted with skis at the local hire shop and headed out for the slopes. The babies had a 2 hour ski lesson with Vanessa, one of the local instructors who turned out to be great for the girls boosting their confidence and desire to be in skis to new heights.

Hayley and I used the time to ski the slope adjacent to the girls and had a great time carving perfect arcs with complete confidence thanks to our properly fitting and custom chosen boots.

After the blood had abandoned all hope of ever reaching my right pinky toe again, and two decent spills on my part, (Hayley not blemishing her poise by giving way to gravity even once!) we made our way back to the babies who had finished their lesson and were waiting for us to pick them up.

Lunch at the on-slope restaurant, and a beer to soothe the shattered ankle was welcome, warm and rejuvenating. Afterwards, we decided to take the girls up the slope we'd been skiing and bring them down with us.

The slope has 2 parallel drag lifts that have "T" shaped bar that is supposed to fit under ones bottom and drag one up the slope. The "T's" are made for a pair of skiers to ascend together. We went through the turnstiles together and made our way to the lift with the expectation of taking a single lift up the slope. One of us on each arm of the "T" and a baby each between our skis, and up we go... right? Well, not precisely. Amber and I somehow lost communication with Hayley and Sarah even though they were less than a meter behind us in the Q. We made our way onto the launch pad, moved over to the left side of the T as had been strategised, and looked right expectantly for Hayley and Sarah... who were not there... in an instant the next "T" bar found my bum, Amber was waiting between my skis and the tension in the tow line was being taken up... off we went, and I am thinking "they'll be fine - perhaps on the next T after us..." up we went.

About 100m into the ascent we look back, again with expectation and there is nothing but a bunch of empty "T" bars behind us... odd... oh well, they must be there someplace and we carry on chatting, admiring the frosted trees and generally enjoying the scenery.

Suddenly the entire conveyor is brought to a stop. The soft sound of snow squeaking under the skis, the only one apart from the wind was gone and a peaceful silence descended on the slope. one of those silences that makes even Amber whisper to me. We speculate as to what could have happened, here, another soft sound enters - it is the intuitive voice in my head that tells me that Hayley has something to do with this breakdown... I tell myself that it can't be true and we wait... and wait... and wait. The line of people ahead of us is now looking around wondering what to do, the conversation has died down and there are increasingly confused people deciding if they should just left go of the line now and ski down the slope that they've climbed so far...

The line starts up again and a few minutes later, we (Amber and I) disembark at the top of the slope and once again, turn to look for Hayley and Saz in the oncoming stream of people... but they are not there...

"There they are!" I tell Amber as I spot them about 500M down the slope, "where?" she's straining to see them that far away...

When they eventually crest the slope I ask the most pressing question. Turns out that after missing a hook, being bonked over the head by the second, catching the third and being pulled over by it, conked again over the head by the fourth the line operators, bringing themselves back to sanity after the spontaneous onset of hysterical laughter stopped the line and some bystanders helped Hayley and Saz stand up, approach a stationery "T" bar and hook it under her bum. Making sure they were still standing, the operators then started up the lift again... slowly...

The downhill run went rather more smoothly than the uphill one had gone and the girls loved the trip. The slope steepens toward the end and Amber (still between my skis) and I put on some speed - a bit more than I would have liked, but I can't snow plough efficiently enough to brake for the both of us, so I made her affirm how exciting it was to be going so fast down the hill ensuring that panic remained a second option as I brought the flying company to a controlled stop at the bottom of the slope.

Hayley, far more poised, with Saz came down as slowly as they went up, but with lots more control and finesse.

If you want an early night, one of the nice things about winter here is that the days are only about 8 hours long - 16:30 is dusk and the illusion that its later than it really is almost impossible to escape. We bundled the girls into bed by about 8 and followed them an hour later. Lovely.

Sunday was a slow day to start with, we got to the slopes at about 11 and hyped the babies up about going up on the bigger slopes. We had done the "family slope" the previous day while Amber and Saz were having their lesson and found it gentle enough to put the girls on. It runs for a good few Km's and is a pleasant, sometimes too gentle run which the girls took to instantly.

We held our ski poles together and out to the side so that Amber and Saz could hold onto the poles for any stability that they needed. They loved the huge 6- seater chair lift that gets you to the top of slope probably more than the subsequent run down the mountain... at least for the first time. Displaying less nerves than I thought we would have to deal with (thank you Vanessa) they both ski'd the slope next to us with not a whimper or sign of panic. By the second run Amber was wanting to attempt parts of it alone, with Sarah imitating too. The third run, Amber did substantially alone and even took on the steep ending where the slope bottoms out into the last part of the red run. Sarah also was far more solo, but a still a little more tentative than her older sister.

During the last lift run, I had dropped a glove from the lift and we'd stopped on the decent near the bottom where the family waited while I trudged up the red slope in my ski boots to retrieve the glove.

If walking up a red slope is that difficult, I can't wait to see what it's like to ski down!

This is the red slope on the left of the lift... someday soon...

Anyhow, a snowman bust was erected at the spot to greet skiers with a smile as they ended their runs.

This place is wonderful - we'll be back.