Snowboarding, Downhill and X-Country Skiing

Our friends Dean (above) and Marie live in Zell am See, where Dean just started work this season as a skiing/snowboard instructor. Dean took a busman’s holiday and came snowboarding and skiing with us for the week.

We had mostly sunshine with a useful top-up of snow mid week. No great powder days but I managed to get back on ski’s for the first time in 15 years and was pleased to say that after a few reminders from Dean on technique I could still ski competently down those Reds & Blacks. Reckon I will do more of a mix of snowboarding & skiing in the future.

Probably one of the more interesting things we did was some X-Country skiing or Langlauf. Finding out info about X-Country in Zell am See in advance was quite difficult even with the wonders of the web. Everywhere you look claims over 200km of X-Country is available here but try to find out any specific info and blanks are quickly drawn. The tourist info in Zell & Kaprun were only able to give us a map of the immediate area and told us, incorrectly, that the Hiking Maps of the Austrian Alps: Grossglockner, Kaprun, Zell Am See (Walking Maps) did not show the x-country trails it actually has all the loipes marked as blue lines. BTW. I think 030: Zell am See – Kaprun Europa Sportregion 1:30, 000 would also prove useful.

Fiona managed to find plenty of cut, well maintained loipes in great condition to occupy her for the week doing several 20-30km days.

Marie, Trevor & I also wanted to give X-Country a go so we had a great day out with 2 hours of tution and a full days gear hire from Skischule Maresa Handl, Kaprun would definitely recommend them if you are there. After our lesson we headed out for a 12km tour on the local tracks. We all had a great day and Marie seems mad keen to keep it up.

The above photo shows the local boards that can be found at key points on the tracks.