April 2008

We went to the Griabli open air in the beginning of April, the weather wasn't fantastic but it stayed dry for a great afternoon of Rock music.  Goto  http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0807/index.htm for the pictures.
The skiing looked like it was coming to an end, so we followed that weekend with a weekend at home. We even dusted off the motorbikes for our first tour of the season. We did a short tour up over the Moosegg, we were surprised at how much snow was lying in the shady parts, so we stayed low after that. The following weekend we went back to St. Anton believing it was our last opportunity to ski.  Saturday the weather turned bad just  before lunch, fog and heavy rain, we thought about giving up but then the sun came out and we had some fantastic skiing, a light dusting of new snow on freshly prepared pistes and no one around. We ended the day watching the infamous "weisse Rausch" a crazy ski race of over 500 skiers starting groups of over 100 at a time. It is an 8.5km race track down the pistes, that have been skied on that day, no extra prep for these racers, that means the slush is sometimes knee deep and the moguls are pretty big.  If that wasn't exhausting enough about 70 m from the end they build a obstacle course out of snow, so they have to take off their skis and run and climb the last bit. The amazing thing is the guy who won did it in just over 8.5 minutes. Incredible to watch but we don't think we are crazy enough to join in.  Again pictures can be found at  http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0806/index.htm
Sunday we skied with Olav and Petra. We had a lovely lunch sitting outside at Griabli not realising just how burnt we were getting.  We went back the last weekend in April to clear out the apartment, we managed to get in 2 last days of skiing, it is amazing how fantastic the conditions are, and the pistes are really empty in spite of half the mountains having closed the previous weekend.  What a great way to finish the season. Pictures at  http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0808/index.htm  This bought our total of ski days up to 63.We enjoyed a nice meal with Toni and Rosi too.  Clearing our the apartment made us realise just how much stuff we had collected there, it is time to start reviewing the packing list for next winter.

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