Well, it was more piste to be honest but we did ski some powder so I'm claiming it.
I'm in Austria right now and it seems that winter has already arrived over here, with heavy snowfall down to about 1600 metres. I went for a training hike with my mate Robbie on Wednesday and this was the scene at 1900 metres -
It was awesome to feel winter arriving but I might have appreciated it slightly more had I not been wearing trainers....A beer and knödelsuppe sorted everything out.
With bad weather also forecast for Thursday, there was no way Sharon and I were going to be working on Friday, especially given that Stubai was due to open for the ski season that day. (Yes, I know it's only September but Stubai has "guaranteed" skiing between October and June, plus any other time they get snow, which is my sort of ski resort).
Conditions turned out to be superb, with some pockets of lovely low angle powder and some immaculately groomed pistes. As if that wasn't enough, we also enjoyed an excellent (and reasonably priced) lunch and a cheeky weissbier too. Life in the Alps can be so tough.
Sharon loving the creamy pistes.
Austrain efficiency - this is at nearly 3000 metres!
We even found a peak to scramble up, although I couldn't figure out from the map exactly which summit it was.
Matt "The Alpine Clown" Livingstone, who is a regular fixture on this blog, would appreciate that his standard mountain greeting was engraved on the summit book holder on our little peak.
Loving the view.
King of the castle.
Sharon on some nice, low angled powder with an amazing cloud inversion below.
