Is it magic?

You can click here for my selection of pictures, but Rich and Brad have selections here as well.

This was the somewhat bizarre slogan of our resort in the Austrian Alps - Saalbach-Hinterglemm - which had the unfortunate effect of spontaneous renditions of one of the less memorable Queen songs. But, more importantly I guess, was it magic....

Well, unfortunately, the snow wasn't magic. Though our expectations weren't high as our daily checking on snow reports prior to our arrival showed that this year wasn't going to see a repeat of the previous year's mass of snow. However, the night we arrived snow was falling so there was reason for some cheer. But this was short-lived as this was the only snow we were to see fall for another 5 days. Of course, the flip side to this was that we did have wonderfully sunny weather, which meant great visibility and views of the valley and surrounding mountains, and long lunches at ski huts with in sunnies and t-shirts. Though the warm weather wasn't too favourable for the snow conditions (or to one-piece wearers, for whom it could get pretty hot inside) - and it was admittedly a depressing sight when we woke up each morning to see our chalet surrounded by green grass.

But it wasn't all that bad. The snow was still pretty good up the top half of the resort and the facilities superb. There were plenty of ski huts everywhere to stop at during the day for lunch or to drink - both of which everyone seems to make sure they take the utmost advantage of. Of course, while the weiss bier and the schnitzel is very good, the music is seriously bad - if isn't Oompah Band, its love songs from the 80s, and the crazy Austrians/Germans/Dutch seem happy to dance away to either. In fact, the resort lived up to is claim of having the best "Après Skiing", with most people being more concerned with drinking than skiing by mid-afternoon. So this more than made up for what was perhaps not the most ideal of snow conditions.

But the week did finish with a flourish. On our penultimate day at the resort, while we were nursing some grim hangovers from a few too many shots of Jagermeister (well, it is the Austrian national drink) the night before, a decent storm came through and dumped a whole lot of fresh snow across the resort. This made for a great last day - Rich finally keeping true to his "first lift, last lift" claim - it was fine and sunny again, with plenty of fresh powder about for some good on and off piste skiing. Anna's snowboarding came on leaps and bounds - as did her 500 skills (it took a lot of cheating by the boys to finally come out on top) - and the one-piece was seen flying down the mountain somewhat more assured and quicker than at the start of the week.

We finished off our week with one last night in Salzburg (which is only 1.5 hours away) and one last indulgence in some of that schitzel and weiss bier. It was great to get another taste of European skiing and I wonder whether I will be bothered to click into a pair of bindings back in NZ now. It might not have been magic, but it was certainly a lot of fun.