Allgäu

Kerry and I headed up to Fellhorn for a day’s skiing/boarding. The snow was nice, the weather was nice and I felt speedy. At lunch time Branjo joined us and we headed over into Austria and back again. It was fantastic racing down the slopes accompanied by good company.

Above: “Hello, I am Kerry. I like powder.”.

In the evening we went out for dinner with Branjo and Nils to Essenza the Italian restaurant across the road from the NTC shop at Nebelhorn. We spoke a mix of German and English with Nils and I acting as translators for Branjo and Kerry.

Above: Branjo, Nils, myself, and Kerry at Essenza.

(more…)

Kerry arrived this afternoon and we went climbing at the gym with Frauke, Martin, and Nils. A good evening it was. Above left: Nils belays Martin climbing at the wall.…

Grit, Martin, Katharina, Branjo and I headed over to Grit’s after work and cooked pizza. The plan was to cook and spend a lazy evening together. It turns out Branjo is a closet pizza chef and he used our limited ingredients to produce three delicious pizzas. We drank red wine, ate pizza, and played a game of name the river, town, drink, etc. starting with x where x is a random letter from the alphabet. I was terrible. Perhaps I had too much red wine.

Above: The lads prepare pizza and serve it to the waiting hordes.

Above left to right: Lasses in the kitchen (Martin excluded), Branjo takes a swig of his beer between swearing in Slovakian and thinking of rivers beginning with certain letters, Martin type smart.

Above: Us just before devouring of pizza. Below: Perhaps I drank too much red wine.

(more…)

I had the day off and went ski touring in the afternoon with Frauke. We headed out to Oberjoch and went touring up Wertacher Hörnle. I’d never been on touring skis before. The bindings are interesting and allow your heel to leave the ski as you walk/ski up the hill. Then at the top you remove the grippy skin from the ski, clip the boot into the ski and fall down, I mean ski down. I’m sure I looked quite amusing face planting regularly into the powder.

We went climbing at the gym in the evening with Frauke’s friends.

Above left: I couldn’t resist a short dance with the pole at the top of the mountain. Above right: Frauke and I at the top of Wertacher Hörnle. Well almost. Apparently this is the “winter gipfel” meaning what-we-call-the-top-when-it’s-snowy.

Above left: Frauke on her skis about to lead me on a perilous journey through the dark dark forest. “The trees will catch you.”, she said with a smile. Above right: Frauke and her friends at the climbing wall.

(more…)

We had a long day at work as the snow was good and it was a Saturday. Martin, Katharina, Grit, and I left the others toiling away in the evening…