Snowy Salzburg

Publication: Irish News
Date: 2009-01-10
Author: Rebecca Black

Snowy Salzburg a winter wonderland.

With a heady mix of glistering glaciers and picturesque peaks combined with potent Austrian brew, there is no doubt the resort of Kaprun lives up to the romantic image of a ski resort. Rebecca Black donned her thermals and put her best ski-clad foot forward to experience the fun both off and on the slopes.

On the first day of my week in the winter wonderland I excitedly burst out the front door eagerly anticipating the gently falling snow, only to find grey skies and rain.

Although my visit was in March, Kaprun, a small alpine town in the state of Salzburg, usually sees snow all year round; we had the misfortune to land during an unusual mizzley spell.

Sitting at the foot of the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier, Kaprun plays host to holiday makers all year round from skiers in the winter months to hikers in the summer.

We arrived on Saturday evening on a chartered plane from Belfast City Airport to Salzburg, a short drive from the resort. The dark wet evening that greeted us on arrival in Austria, close to the German border seemed disappointingly all-too-familiar.

While the Irish-style weather continued for the first couple of days, the quaint Austrian-style houses and buildings across the landscape charmed us as we explored our new surroundings. Although the inclement weather during those first days meant that many of the slopes were closed, there were plenty others open on the nearby glacier with enough diversity for both beginners and more advanced which were open.

Sadly my snowboarding skills did not transfer to the infinitely more difficult art of skiing as well as I had hoped during the flights over when I regaled my fellow passengers with tales of the year I lived in Canada and how adept I was in the snow. My hope of impressively swishing across the slopes on my first day came to an abrupt halt as I lurched from one spectacular fall to the next and spending more time in an enraged heap on the ground. Luckily by day two there was a veritable army of ski instructors on hand determined to help me rediscover my ‘ski-legs’.

After assessing our skis with a quick trial, we were divided into groups ranging from the baby ski class to those with somewhat more finesse. I earned the dubious distinction of being the only apprentice skier to fall during the test run and was therefore not surprised at being quickly escorted to the so-called baby group. Our teacher was an irrepressible Austrian who liked to go by the name of Cookie.

Bringing us to the most basic of beginners' slopes on the glacier, Cookie started us with the fundamentals of how to stand and the position of our bodies. Our group was a cosmopolitan melee of nationalities from Irish to English, German and Japanese. Switching back and forth between English and German, Cookie gently coaxed our poles out of our hands and began with the fundamentals.

A long-suffering Japanese woman in the group explained that her husband loved to ski but in 20 years of accompanying him she never developed the knack. Standing at roughly a foot taller than her at the grand old height of 5ft 10ins I began to realise the shorter the person the less distance to fall and less bruises to be gained. This was all too present in my mind as Cookie urged us to go completely against all natural instinct by leaning forward towards the fear including long white slope.

However as contradictory as the logic seemed it slowly began to fall into place and I stopped falling out of place.

After each gruelling day on the slopes the facilities at the four star Hotel Rudolfshof including a swimming pool, sauna and steam room came as a blessed relief to my aching limbs and bruised body. With two types of saunas, a deep heat treatment booth, steam room, high pressure showers and an outside area to cool off, my spirits were rapidly restored in time to enjoy the array of après ski amusements on offer in Kaprun.

Even better was the one hour massage I treated myself to. After relaxing in the tranquil pool area with a couple of gentle lengths, I enjoyed an excellent hour-long massage which proved the perfect solution to stiff muscles.

The hotel pulled out all the stops for dinner each night, introducing us to deer, rabbit and a plethora of Austrian staples satisfying the enthusiastic appetite awoken by the day on the slopes. A wide range of food was on offer to cater for all tastes.

More welcome relief for my joints came in the bar later on as we sampled Austrian beer and wine. Meanwhile, nightly activities were organised by enthusiastic team of reps determined to ensure every holiday maker enjoyed themselves including turbo tobogganing, horse drawn carts, quad bikes, ice skating, a lively mountain feast, pub crawl and even a day trip to historic Salzburg.

While I may have been disappointed earlier in the week by the weather, the soft snow that started falling on the third day more than made up for it as the resort underwent an overnight transformation into a magical winter wonderland.

The views from the cable cars taking us to the top of the slopes were truly stunning but the view from the top of the glacier across a snow coated Austria was truly spectacular.

With small bars and restaurants dotted over the slopes in Kaprun and on the glacier it was possible to enjoy the incredible views form more comfortable positions as well. Instead of trudging through the rain our boots crunched through the freshly fallen snow. The romance of it all clearly hit one Northern Ireland couple hard. Una Delvin from Lurgan and her fiancé Conor got engaged in a picturesque setting by the lake in the neighbouring Zell am See that very evening.

Back on the slopes a week of bruises proved well worthwhile at the final showdown of the baby ski class, otherwise known as the race. Ski instructor Cookie had cunningly kept the race up her sleeve for the first three days as the weaker dropped out and we became more confident.

From stumbling, shivering wrecks we had transformed into wannabe Kemi Alcott's (well in my eyes anyway) and were well equipped to tackle a short race winding around flag posts.

While a week is not long enough to turn an amateur to an expert, it certainly provides long enough to get a good grasp and a feel for the snow.

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