A Weekend in the Alps

Last weekend, Jay and I went down to the border of Germany and Austria to do some skiing! This was our first chance to go this winter, and we were anxious to hit the slopes! I was nervous getting started because I'm not very good yet! The first time I skied was our first winter over here. I learned in the Alps, which isn't like your normal bunny hills. I've been slow to learn, but finally got the hang of it this time. Skiing once a year for four years hasn't given me much time to practice. Jay, on the other hand, is an old pro. He skied several times growing up and hit the slopes with no problems!

On Saturday, we went up to the top of the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze. It was bitter cold and windy up there, but we still had a good day of skiing. Jay stayed with me down the first run, but then he was on his own! He went to the hard hills and I stayed on the easier ones. After lunch, I ventured out and tried a red hill, after being on blues all morning. I met up with Jay later in the afternoon and we went down a couple reds together. It was nice to be able to ski with him, and he not be totally bored!

On Sunday, we decided to rest our legs. We did some hiking instead of skiing. Sounds restful, doesn't it! We started at the edge of town and hiked our way into the mountains. We took a beautiful snow covered trail up to a gorge.

We saw so many picture perfect scenes as we walked...

The snow covered trail.

 Straight out of a fairy tale!

We then started in through the gorge. It was absolutely georgous! Even though it was super cold, the freezing water created some amazing sites!

Inside the gorge

It was a little chilly with icles all around!

The amazing view once we exited the gorge on the other side.

We had one more day to ski on Monday. We drove into Austria to try out a different area. As usual, I started on the blue hills. This was a great area where I could get all the way down the mountain without any trouble. I was doing the blues pretty darn well, so we went for a challenge! We tried out the reds!

And I was successful! I made it down every red hill on the mountain... and without falling! Jay skied behind me the entire day, making sure no one was coming behind me to take me out! He was my eyes so I could concentrate on staying on my feet!

Here is a video of me heading down the red hill. Remember.... I'm not very good yet, but I got down the hill in one piece! Don't judge me on my style! Eventually I'll make those s-shapes smaller, but for now, I need to take up the whole mountain to get down!

In this next video, don't worry about watching me ski. Instead, look at the beautiful scenery we get to admire while going down the mountain!

If you're wondering who is the amazing skier who can ski down the mountain while holding a camera and keep it relatively steady..... yup, that would be my studly husband!

And now for Jay, skiing down a black run. Don't mind the extrememly awful video, even though I was standing still at the bottom of the mountain. I forgot you can't flip videos and I lost him when he went behind a hill! I was having more fun actually watching him instead of remembering I should be looking through the camera. I'll do better next time! Sorry folks!

It was a great weekend for us! It made me excited to get back on the skies again. And Jay was excited because we could actually ski together from now on! It's just not as much fun skiing alone all day! We have another trip set for the end of February. It will probably be the last time we'll be in the Alps, so we better make the most of it!