Ski Week

OK, let's start with the fact that the kids get a week off of school in February called Ski Week. Pause, think about it. Also, given that the week is called Ski Week, you really have no choice...You must go skiing. We opted for a week in Galtur/Ischgl in Austria where many of the families from school go (This is an organized "MIS Ski Week" holiday that has been going on for years!). The advantage...There are lots of kids and families that you know so your kids have others to ski with and the parents have others to party with! First, the location...I have driven through the Austrian Alps but never stopped and experienced them. Ischgl and Galtur sit in a beautiful long valley through the Alps very close to Switzerland. The valley is just wide enough for small villages surrounded by mountains. It is the land of Heidi and Grandfather with villages and houses clinging to the mountains. Skiing has brought tourism and money but earlier life must not have been easy and you wonder how people settled in these beautiful but rugged settings so long ago. These are the high alps and we quickly learned the benefit of skiing above the tree line! No trees to get in your way...just wide open runs (called pistes). Our first experience was in the ski resort up the road from Galtur! We arrived on Saturday, settled into our flat, purchased ski passes and signed William up for 6 1/2 day ski school lessons. Skiing started on Sunday and based on US/Poconos standards the slopes were empty. Just wide open runs from beginner to intermediate/expert. You can ski the front or back of the mountain and the runs seemed to last a long time. Audrey who had not skiied in three years was scared...I always start every year's first ski run terrified. However, we both made it down...and felt great. Audrey looked wonderful on the slopes and by the second or third run was skiing really well. Like me, she is conservative and likes to stay within her safety zone. As a result, we sent Matt and Tyler (who was staying with us) off to ski at their level and we just kept to our blues (the equivalent of greens in the US). William started his ski school and by the end of the first lesson was moving from a modified ski plow to the real beginnings of parallel skiing. By the end of the week, he will be skiing blacks in great form...Lessons matter! Anyway, that day, we quickly learned what would be the rhythm of our week. Ski in the morning with friends and family who are not in lessons, pick up the kids in lessons at 12, eat lunch (in Galtur it was ALWAYS at the Almhof right on the slope and for Tyler and Audrey it was ALWAYS the Weiner Schnitzel), more skiing in the afternoon usually with a pack of 11-12 year old boys racing each other down, a quick beer in the afternoon, back to the apartment for showers and a rest followed by dinner with friends or a sponsored event (from the ski week) and if you could stay up, a couple of drinks after. Of course, the teenagers all went out in town until curfew but that's what being young is all about. So this, with some variation became the rhythm of our days. What changed is who and how. I quickly discovered that my old knees and feet couldn't take more than a couple of days of downhill...so I took a 10K cross country trek from Galture to Ischgl...It was a wonderful, solitary run across fields, through the woods etc and I loved it...Given my arthritic knees, cross country may be the main skiing in my future. Audrey too found that days on and off the slopes suited her style and she opted for a quiet day or two at home. Tyler, Matt and William skiied every day...their passes gave them the opportunity to ski at Galtur which is a great and non-crowded family slope and at Ischgl....How do I describe the difference? Galtur and its ski resort at Wirl are quiet, family and great skiing. They are at the end of the valley...the last stop. Ischgl is the Apres-ski capital of the Silvretta Valley....Frequented by Russians who ski in fur coats, with dancing girls on the bars in the afternoon and a crowded village of stylized Austrian hotels. But the real difference is where you ski. In Galtur, the mountain looms above you and you can sit in the cafes and watch the skiiers come down the front of the mountain. To ski Ischgl, you take a gondola (or Bahn) over two mountains and descend into another world. Almost all of the skiing takes place in a GIANT bowl located in the middle of the mountains. When you are there, it is, as Matt said, like being in another planet. When I saw it I dubbed it Planet Ski. So many runs surround the bowl that you cannot even count them and the bowl is so large that sitting in the middle having lunch, people look like ants on some of the runs. Remember this is largely above the tree line so it is a world of white, with ski runs everywhere. Runs last an hour and a half and if you ski over one side of the bowl, you are skiing in Switzerland. There is even a run called the "duty-free" run since you can ski it to a town in Switzerland where you can fill a backpack with duty-free goods. You can ski there for days and never hit every run. It must be seen to be believed. So Matt, Tyler, Will and his friends divided their days between Ischgl and Galtur. I divided my time between a little downhill and cross country, time spent with a friend who had torn her ACL earlier in the year and some quiet time walking across the fields and in town. Audrey spent hers skiing and relaxing. All in all a perfect week! We made new friends and got closer to old friends! What could be better. Some more highlights that must be mentioned...The barrel stave races. Imagine strapping on barrel staves, grabbing a long stick, putting it between your legs to stabilize you and skiing down a slope....over bumps, through gates and over the finish line...at night, with gluhwein. Well, that was an event. William and his friends bravely tried it and had a wonderful time. I was a little nervous about where the long stick would end up in a serious fall...but it is one of the things I love about Europe...people still do things, they haven't gotten so afraid of potential hazards or litigation that they have given up anything which has risk! We had a night of kegel bowling and an afternoon of ski racing where both William and Matt competed (Matt came in 9th in the men's division which is darn good considering the extent to which people ski over here). We had a wonderful dinners with friends, a couple of late nights out...one of which ended with my friend Jean (of the torn ACL) and I screaming our way down the base of the slope on a sled...OK maybe not too smart but lots of fun. Both kids made new friends and learned more about themselves in the process. I read "Atonement" and learned to cook in a kitchen the size of a closet....What more could you ask for except having our friends/family from home to be with us!