Mein Flug ist in Zürich angekommen, wo ich einen Mietwagen abgeholt habe weil ich vorhatte, Bregenzerwald, Montafon, sowie Brandnertal innerhalb einer Woche zu besuchen.
Seitdem ich nicht viel Zeit habe alles zu übersetzen, mache ich ein Copy/Paste von einem amerikanischen Forum. So ist das Bericht um so authentischer! Sie können natürlich auf Deutsch antworten.
Day 1: Diedamskopf
For Europeans, this is considered a tiny "local's hill." I was told by someone at the hotel that I'd only need a few hours to ski it out, but Diedamskopf felt pretty roomy to me. I could've easily spent a couple days here. Like many ski areas in Austria, you take a gondola from an unassuming wooded base and ascend a couple thousand vertical feet above the treeline to mid-mountain and then another couple thousand feet to the summit.
http://forum.nyskiblog.com/file/n405384 ... 432f30.jpg
From there, you have a pretty wide open bit of terrain to choose from. They'd received a quick top-off the night before, but the previous big snow was three days earlier, so without hiking, it was mostly soft sloppy seconds, but the off-piste snow was in good condition.
You can walk a couple minutes from the top lift to the actual summit -- which has a cross, a feature at virtually every Austrian mountain and always a photo op -- and nail a few turns.
By 3 pm, I saw what looked like my best shot given the short time frame I had to work with -- a ridgeline along the far skier's right that you traverse for about five minutes.
At little bit further...
And then you can drop in wherever. Tracked up, but it felt good.
I could've gotten a cleaner line with a more extensive traverse, but jet lag was setting in, so I settled for a few knee-deep turns:
Reverse shot:
By 4 pm, clouds had moved in ahead of a storm system.
In short, a nice warm-up for the next week and given the two storm days coming up, these may be my only photos with clear sightlines until Tuesday. After a slow start (as was the case across the entire Alps), snow has been falling steadily and they're now at avy level 3. Yesterday at the Damüls ski area, where I'll be on Monday, two people were buried in a side-country slide with one death, so obviously, I'm not going to be going far afield without a guide.
I'm staying at the very pleasant Hotel Krone in the village of Au.
The owners, the Lingg family, are major francophiles and have created an ambiance and level of cuisine that's become a favorite with French visitors.
The convivial Herr Lingg stops by at every table to greet guests and chat for a few minutes: a very cool extra feature.
Some food porn:
Tomorrow: Warth-Schröcken
