Mayrhofen day 7

Today started early. We all were ready to shred the slopes around 9am. We only had to take the little train to Zell am Ziller, because that was our heading for today. The sky was once again beautifully blue but the wind was freezing and it turned out to be around minus 10 degrees Celsius!

(me on the slopes in Zell)

(who's that pro chick in the brown jacket??)

Zell am Ziller is THE place to be when you own a family with an enormous amount of kids, so basically the first thing we heard when we got out of the cabin lift was a choir of crying little kids on miniature skis. After some slopes of tremendously fast boarding we met Jochem and Jurriaan (the skier), who had a bit of a sleepy start due to a night of heavy partying in one of the local bars. I tripped when coming out of a chairlift and hurt my ankle pretty bad, which was the only dark scene of the entire day. After some further rocking we had a terrific lunch in the sun in a beautiful restaurant with really odd toilets!

(Martzen's camera was supposed to be waterproof so Jurriaan tested that so-called fact with Skiwasser..)

(Jochem trying to kick his habit of chainsmoking)




We boarded further to Gerlos, where we split up our group into 2 smaller ones, namely the fast boarders and the chill ones. Guess in which of them I was, hehe..
When we got back to Zell my ankle hurt so badly it took me ages to get back to the cabin lift. Luckily, Bas was very patient with me and we did an awesome trick: the duo 360!



(Jurriaan, Martz and Ron)

(Joeri, Martz, Bas, Jochem and me on the top of one of the many mountains)

We got back in a wheelchair-taxi and were just in time for dinner at the Gasthof. I can’t really say I was happy about it though. It was a pasta salad with pieces of apple and pineapple with a sauce of strawberry yoghurt, so actually it was a starter, head course and desert in one piece. I have a few rules I have to live up to. Rule #1: NEVER EVER mix your head course with fruit, because that’s extremely inedible according to me. But I couldn’t really be sad about because the entire week we’ve had the most delicious meals!

Right now, there’s some kind of a farewell party going on in the Rider’s Lounge, and most people are wondering what I’m doing here on my own behind my laptop. They are going to town later, but I have decided I’m staying here and get into bed on time to not be incredibly tired tomorrow morning so I can do some last boarding before stepping on the bus that will take me home. Shit man, I don’t want to leave. I’ve had an amazing time here and I’ll sure be back next year, but for longer because a week’s way too short.

Mayrhofen day 6

Some of us had a bit of a sleepy start this morning. When I finally managed to throw the covers off at 10.15am I had to act like a jaguar all doped up on speed to be in time for the 11 o’clock bus.



(Bas in one of the many chairlifts)

The morning started sunny with a few clouds and we started once again on the red 7. We had a breakfast of tomato soup and a ‘toasti’ at the Grillhof at noon. It didn’t really match to the ultimate Christmas idea, but it was good anyway.




(Jochem ready for apres-ski at 11am)

(Bas taking a sip of the water in Martzen's camelbak)



After that, it was time for Mario to go to his freestyle lesson, while the rest of us took the brontosauruslift up the mountain again for some more awesome boarding.
When we finally got down to the other village, it was so extremely cloudy some of us didn’t feel like anymore boarding so they went for some food at one of the local restaurants which turned out to be closed, so they went to Eva’s bar.



(Thomas)

Bas, Martzen, Youri and me went up the cabinlift to board back to Mayrhofen, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake for me. When we got back to the Mayrhofen area, it was so terribly misty we couldn’t see more than 50cm. I cursed the clouds and in reward, they made me crash about 5 times on the same little track. The slopes were all icy and the skiers who headed back were not really appreciated either. There was this little path on which I completely lost control of my coordination and crashed and so lost Bas, Martzen and Youri. Because I couldn’t see a thing but a big white mess I felt pretty scared, namely because I couldn’t see where the mist began and the slope ended. When I finally made it to the others there was one other icy slope to conquer, which went ok from my point of view.

(Martzen)


I was so relieved when we got back to the valley in one piece. As a reward, Seline (friend with whom I went boarding 2 years ago) was in one of the après-ski bars in Mayrhofen together with her dad (Peter) and sister (Maryse). We had a lot of fun dancing to the music from hell.

(Seline, Peter, Maryse and me in the ice-bar)

At the Gasthof we had a well-deserved Christmasdinner. Steak and fried potatoes together with some delicious salad.

While writing this, the Rider’s Lounge has gone almost completely empty. It’s getting late and almost everybody has an early date with their beds. No reason for me to stay up late. Merry Christmas!

Mayrhofen day 5

I don’t think you’ll be interested in what I did on day 4. Just to give you the highlights: I spent the entire day hanging around my bed to catch up with my hours of ‘supposed being asleep’.


Today however, was a great day. We got up damn early (7.45am) and were on the slopes at 9.15am. The funny thing was that in the valley it was really cloudy and misty, but when we were halfway up the mountain we had a terrific view of a broad blue sky without even the marks of a plane that had passed!

(the lift to the red 7)



After a few runs on the red 7 (most famous slope of Mayrhofen, together with the Harakiri (google it)) we went to the 150-lift (a brontosaurus of a lift, again ‘google’..) which takes you all the way up a mountain from which you can choose a million different routes to get to another little village.



We had a wonderful clear view of everything and I dare say that this day was probably the best day of the week, though I haven’t checked the weather forecast to know for sure.

(Bas, Juriaan and Martzen)

(Bas and Mario on the red 7, notice the enormous cloud hanging in the valley)

We got back from our exhausting tour around 3pm and because we were all starving we went for a delicious pizza at our daily hangout, the Grill Hof Alm (serves the best pizza in Austria, according to most of the SAIKO boarders).

(Moniek, Jasmijn, Martzen and me)

When we got back to the Gasthof, it was Christmas Eve and time to party after a dinner of extremely spicy chicken which I didn’t like that much.

As it started to get later and later, it seemed as though the entire town of Mayrhofen had come in to our Rider’s Lounge to enjoy a long evening of partying. The dresscode was suppodes to be ‘green and sharp’ but it turned out I was the only one who actually honored the code (except for the green part, green doesn’t suit me so I chose black instead). My feet hurted like hell when I got to my room. I was so relieved when I finally could take off those 8cm heels.

Mayrhofen day 4

Alarmclock went off at 8.30am. OUCH! Every single muscle in my body hurted like hell. It was again really hard to get out of bed, BUT the sky was partly blue and we could see a few rays of sunshine!

Mario looking really cool. =)

We went up the mountain at 10.15 and up there it proved to be cloudy anyway, but we had a good clear view of the slopes. After a few runs Yannique, Thomas and me met Marit (my other roomie) and headed to the Grillhof (a restaurant on the slopes which serves the best pizza) for a drink and did some more boarding afterwards with Mario, Bas and some other people.



After lunch Marijn gave a clinic, in which I didn't take part. Marit and me met Ben and Rami and we went for some more boarding together.

Rami and Ben.

Marit and me in the Rider's Lounge.

When I got back to the Gasthof I longed for a nice hor shower at the apartment, but today's water was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g! Dinner was good (french fries with disgusting mayonaise and icecream for dessert which I didn't have)

While writing this the kareoke night has begun and I can't say I'm really happy about the songs being tried to sing and the volume. I had to sing 'Happy Birthday' to an Israelian guy who turned 16 today together with Martzen and Marit. Luckily, the crowd sang along so we were barily audible.

I guess we will see what the nights brings. Now, it's time for a beer.

Mayrhofen Day 3

(Gasthof Zillertal, owned by SAIKO)

After a night of not so much sleep, Martzen and I got up at 7.30. We had went to bed around 2.30am, so throwing off the covers was one of the hardest jobs in the world.

The day started cloudy and continued to be so, which wasn't so good for me. I don't think I've ever crashed so many times in one day of snowboarding. I was completely soaked within 3 hours. It snowed terribly hard and the wind wasn't an appreciated guest either. Goggles were foggy all the time (cleaning them didn't work) so basically I saw nothing but a white blur.

There was a tour given by Marijn which was supposed to show what the slopes were like and lasted all day long. Apart from all the crashing it was great fun although I couldn't really tell what the area looked like anyway.

Marijn looking sweet.

After an exhausting day on the slopes we had a beer at the bierstube on the mountain (not really advisable because the music in there comes straight from hell and all the people have a volume of 28 and are drunk). We had to walk back to the Gasthof because either the buses stopped riding or we had missed it. I don't remember.

Martzen enjoying her skiwasser.

At the Gasthof we had a delicious dinner of salty champignon soup and pasta. The shower I had was either ice-cold or friggin' hot, so I chose to be burned. DJ Bazza showed his skills in the Rider's Lounge and proved to be really good. He definitely chose the right tunes =). After several table-football matches and a beer or two I headed to bed to make sure the next day would be better.

Mayrhofen Day 1+2

NEVER EVER take the bus to your snowboard destination. I did it and I’m glad I live to tell the tale.

I got in at Utrecht, where a guy named Maarten didn’t show up till 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave. When we finally got to Germany a major accident had occurred on one of the main roads (lorry with dangerous liquids had fallen over) and we were stuck in a major traffic jam which lasted from 11pm till 3am.

Luckily, this didn’t ruin the fun we had. Beer was quickly bought at one of the other 25 buses standing still.

And, I met some really cool people!

From left to right: Bas, Yannike and Mario

Martzen and Maarten

And this is Barry, our DJ (DJ Bazza)

When the traffic eventually started moving again I was sound asleep and didn’t wake until 8am.
This wasn’t the end of all the trouble, though. Around 11am we were again completely stuck. This time it was a tunnel which was somehow blocked. We were allowed to get out of the bus to stretch our legs and so we walked along with the bus when it got to move a few meters. A snowman was given life and cars were attacked in snow fights.

There's no further need for details, we all were exhausted when we finally arrived at the Gasthof in Mayrhofen at 11.30pm! This was more than 12 hours late! Dinner was fortunately still served and after that we hung out in the Rider's Lounge and had our first Austrian beer, which felt damn good after being in a bus for more than 24 hours!