Wow, I just reviewed this and realized that I have not updated this in a while.
Carrying on from my last update, my back is much better. I have a new belief in chyropractors. This lady that my next door neighbour sent me to just rocks.
So, that brings me to the last week of 'stuff'. Work brought me to London earlier in the week. However, I've decided that when it is remotely possible, that I would make the odd detour. This time it was to Austria (after a meeting with a customer in Germany).
I've spent the last 2 days skiing at Kitzsteinhorn (http://en.kitzsteinhorn.at/). For the last 2 morning, I have woken up to rain and fog. Yesterday, I only made it up for half a day, but what a half day. 3200 vertical meters in fresh snow (somewhere between 6-12"). Then, today again the same thing. However, this time, I made it for first tracks and skied the morning in the fog with the brail technique. But another foot of snow fell. I was wearing my Garmin Forerunner 305 heart rate monitor and it tracked me doing over 6000 vertical meters. So, in 2 days of skiing, I didn't hear my skiis scraping over the ice once (you guys from Collingwood hearing this?).
In the picture above, have a close look at the red and white tower. Now, notice the size of the chairlifts running on the surface. That is the tram tower and they only use it to get from the bottom of the glacier to the top. NOT from the parking lot to the bottom of the glacer (also called the alpine center).
There is alot of history on the lifts, including the underground railway that used to take you up from the parking lot. http://en.kitzsteinhorn.at/information/gletscherbahnen/history.htm. Read about how a fire killed 155 people back in 2000 on the underground lift. You can read more about it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1018153.stm.
I could see where this lift went into the mountain, but still don't have a clue where it exited at the top.
If you really like, you can spent the night in the igloos (http://en.kitzsteinhorn.at/news/?we_objectID=299). I'm not kidding. These have to be seen as they are huge.
1 comment:
Of the funicular railway's total length of 3900m only the first 600m were above ground. The top station was in the actual Alpine Centre and cannot be seen. There have been talks recently to reactivate the funicular railway to transport the 600 tons of goods and supplies needed by the various mountain restaurants each year. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though, never again will it be used for passenger transport.
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