Ischgl, AT 01/28/13

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
For Day 2 of my Paznaun Valley visit, I headed over to the Big Show: Ischgl. Since I wasn't staying in town, rather in a satellite village several miles down the valley, I may have been able to evaluate the skiing a bit more objectively. Weather To Ski correctly rates it as one of the most snow-sure non-glacial ski resorts in the Alps with most of its ski terrain above 2,000 meters. It doesn't receive huge dumps or 400+ inches of annual snow like the nearby Bregenzerwald region; rather, it has more of a Colorado profile with excellent snow preservation enabling long seasons, usually well into May.
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For Americans, the total ski area feels large; however, Germans always point out how "compact" it actually is, about six miles across at its widest point (similar to Vail). If you're looking for a natural ski experience, this ain't it. There are lifts literally everywhere, adding up to 235 km/140 miles of trails. They were calling for several inches of fresh snow, and by the time I got to the upper mountain, it was coming down pretty hard. Conditions were really nice, but with everything above the treeline, visibility was poor: seriously flat light. At one point, I had to sit down for about 40 minutes to get my head to stop spinning from the vertigo:
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While the groomed runs were crammed with people, virtually all of the lifts were ski-on. Regardless, it was easy to find untracked/lightly tracked snow just a few yards off-piste. Finally, around 12:30 with about seven inches down, the snow stopped and the sun came out. The groomed trails were sweetened up nicely and the bootcuff deep offpiste was fantastic:
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Around 3:30, on what was going to be my final run of the day, I found a beautiful knee-deep line that I followed for about 500 vertical feet, then got greedy and unknowingly skied past an obvious exit point, missing one of these:
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I finished up the day with a beautiful 1,500-vert run through a natural halfpine in the trees:
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And took the village run all the way down into Ischgl:
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Back in town, I got a quick look at its renowned post-skiing festivities. Here's the infamous Kuhstall (Cow's Barn):
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Girls, Girls, Girls:
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Miss Russia:
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I stopped on the pedestrian main street for my favorite Bavarian beer:
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I heard that Miss Russia runs a snowboard related website from Soshi near the Great Black Sea.
 
jamesdeluxe":866yofj3 said:
Local Color: Stefan, A**hole of the year


Miss Russia


There must be a very *cough* pleasant *cough* story behind your description of Stefan.... :stir:

Tony is still beating you in the girls pics department.... :popcorn:
 
EMSC":1x5j6bzg said:
There must be a very *cough* pleasant *cough* story behind your description of Stefan.... :stir:
No back story: that's what it says on his coat.

EMSC":1x5j6bzg said:
Tony is still beating you in the girls pics department.... :popcorn:
For sheer prurience, I don't know how I'll outdo Tony's Strolz pic.
 
jamesdeluxe":2qj91u1s said:
No back story: that's what it says on his coat.

See and that right there is why public school language teaching is so worthless. 2 years of HS German and not one swear word learned. Of course I guess could have google'd it.
 
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