Spring Ski tour, Austria

The time had come around once more to be heading off to the Alps for a few days in the mountains with skis. Bryon and I had discussed where to go and settled on an area East of Innsbruck with access to the Zillertal and Tuxer ranges. For the first time Steph would come with us, as she wanted to expand upon the days in the new year. The arrangement was for all of us to meet up on Sunday night in Ifold and make our way over on Monday morning via an overnight in Strasbourg at a refreshed F1. Then on the next day to an area east of Innsbruck above the Inn valley where I had booked an apartment on the road to the little ski area of Hochpillberg above Pill
Once there we would make the most of the local resorts travelling most days.
The return would be a repeat of the outward journey, however as we had no time pressures we would try to complete in one straight run.

Ferry on time, but hanging around with the check in time mess. Then time for an early lunch on the ferry - curry like last time - all the menu was fixed I guess. From Dunkerque driving up to Brussels then along to Luxembourg and down to Strasbourg - a long day with rush hour traffic in Brussels.

Finally getting to the hotel around 11pm local - I expected a machine on the wall to give us a cod number, but this was refurbished so we had to page the reception and get someone to come and process us and hand over a key card. We had three bunks along one wall and a shower/ basin/ toilet unit in the corner.
Next day after the usual buffet breakfast we made our way across to Germany and along the Bodensee to Budenz, picking up the Austrian autoroute and pass on the way.

We arrived at Pill a little early so off to find a supermarket - Schwatz. then up to the Kellerjoch bergbahn to investigate options before dropping down to our apartment - a fine old house - tired but big and very suitable.

• Arbeserkogl - Up and beyond the Kellerjoch ski area
• Sonntagskopfl - Ascending summit to outside of Hochfugen ski area
• Patscherkofel - Up and beyond the Patscherkofel ski area
• Lizumer Hutte approach  - The hut appraoch from Walchen camp
• Glungezer - Local Up and beyond the Glungezer ski area. 

After 6 nights in Pillberg we extended our stay for a further 3 nights Staying in the same apartment

• Rain/ Snow Day - A walk down to the valley bottom in the rain.
• Weather day - snow day recce to Mayrhofen
• Largoz - A local 5* summit
• Axams Lizum - Another ski area route

The return journey started after a day at Axams Lizuma. We changed in the car park after drying all the kit a little then packed it in the van and headed off back to Strasburg. The weather turned during the journey with some heavy rain, and then it cleared up a bit as we got through Germany.

This time we stayed in the Ibis Budget - next door to the F1 we had used on the outward journey. This was the same price, but the breakfasts are better... and this one had an innovative third bed in a cupboard.

The next day was more of the same - sunshine and showers - some very heavy hail thrown in for good measure.
We arrived at Dunkerque at around 3:30  and went through the rigmarole of the immigration and refugee searches, to be the only vehicle on the waiting area, before we were waved onto the ferry as the last vehicle as they closed the doors.
We headed to the restaurant for some food as we left the harbour into a gale - same menu again.

The crossing was helped by the devices on the ferry to calm the swell, however we were and hour late getting into Dover.
Through customs we then passed huge queues of coaches waiting to cross for easter holidays .... they would be there for ages waiting to get through immigration.

A really full trip with lots of varied conditions and different days out. We only had two days where we were had a limited palette to work with (and one of those was deemed a rest day!), starting with a bright cold day, they gradually got cloudier and warmer and, after some welcome snow, turned even more variable - all with some fantastic skiing mixed with heavier snow.

We surpassed 79Km and 6000m on our tours this year, which was also at the top of our statistics.