Early on 8th February, 2003, we both departed Heidelberg for our second ski weekend of the season and as a warm-up for our forthcoming ski holiday proper !
I had arrived late the previous evening after departing Bournemouth Airport on a Ryanair flight bound for Frankfurt-Hahn. Upon arrival, collecting the hire car, I was given the opportunity to upgrade from our expected Opel Astra to a brand new Mercedes C180. Needless to say, I didn't need much persuasion and half-an-hour later I was heading down the Autobahn towards Heidelberg (it was the first time I had trusted myself to make the journey solo!)
After a largely uneventful journey, we arrived in Oberstdorf late morning and were greeted with the sight of HUGE amounts of snow. (Luckily for us there had been massive snow dumps throughout the whole week leading upto our trip!) It was still snowing as we arrived and with the visibility fairly poor, we decided to make the short trip to Söllereck, since we felt that the chances of Nebelhorn and Fellhorn having good conditions was doubtful!
Söllereck was the ski area where we had spent our second day the previous year (see Oberstdorf2002) We weren't disappointed once again as we had a fantastic day in wonderful snow conditions. The long blue run was as enjoyable as ever and we both took the opportunity to practise our skiing technique on some of the less demanding slopes! We also managed to get down a satisfying red run which had been closed the previous year, which led to the longest ever T-bar lift that I've ever experienced!!
There were plenty of other amusing moments on the first day (most of which were at MY expense!) including a comical T-bar moment when I was pulled by my coat pocket up the slope before having to hang on for dear life with my arms for the remainder of the lift! This moment was complimented with an even funnier comedy crash where I managed to fling myself about 15m through the air (losing my ski in the process!) before landing off-piste in about a metre of snow .... much to Kirsty's amusement!
After a few more embarrassing moments (oh ... and quite a bit of good skiing!) we headed off back to the Gasthaus Alpina, which was where we stayed the previous year!
The next day we decided to head off to the Nebelhorn, which was the ski area where we were unable to visit the previous year due to high winds. We were once again worried about the poor visbility, but we were soon to discover that our worries were illfounded. As the cable car ascended through the clouds, we were greeted with bright blue skies and perfect skiing conditions.
The view from the top was breathtaking with uninterrupted views of the Alps (even Oscar was impressed!)
We had a great day's skiing trying out all the runs that the Nebelhorn had to offer! My decision to go back to using my old skiboots yielded immediate dividends as I didn't have to remove them ALL day .. quite an improvement and my joy was clear to see!
We had great fun taking photos of each other (as you can see!) and numerous short videos (including a classic comedy "verbal strop" from Kirsty!) and so stayed on the piste until the lifts stopped and relunctantly went to catch the last cable car down.
All in all, another FABULOUS weekend, which, even when confronted with a huge stau on the way back couldn't dampen our enthusiasm (after all we were in a Merc!)
Roll on Mammoth Mountain (well ... hopefully not literally!)
