My feet had been itching to get on my board again but for a while, work took over my life. While the busy season at work is nowhere near ending, the ski/snowboarding season in Europe is and I just couldn’t bear to miss the opportunity of snowboarding this season. I had to make it happen. As always, it was a last minute arrangement. This time, a friend who wanted to learn how to ski joined me. Off we went for spring snowboarding/skiing in Kaprun, Austria.
As in the past, I booked this trip through a tour operator. I’ve tried a few: Inghams, Neilson and Crystal and had no issues with any. Normally, I’d just go with the one that offers the best deal. This time it was Crystal. Booking through these tour operators saves me not just time, but in most cases, money too. The best part is, I don’t have to plan the journey – you arrive at the airport, the reps and coach will be waiting for you ready to transport you to your hotel. Easy peasy. And while at the resort, they’ll take care of you. But, these tour operators mostly do a full week trip so you need to be able to take that long of a holiday. Our trip was from Saturday to Saturday, which is the norm unless if you go to Andorra. Then it would most likely be Sunday to Sunday.
A few surprises awaited us (me!) when we got to Kaprun.
First up: I had been checking the snow reports for Kaprun in the run up to our trip. We were scheduled to go in the first week of April. The reports said they just received a snow dump the week before and expecting more snow. Good current snow condition on-piste and some off-piste. So when we got to Kaprun and saw greens everywhere, I asked “Where’s the snow?” Even the hills and mountains looked green (or brown), with only some white at the tip. Is that all?
Landed at Salzburg airport. View from seat 2A.
Second: The next surprise came when we got to the chalet. We booked to stay at Chalet Mara. Price was ok so we simply booked. Like there was many options to choose from anyway. Last minute, remember? Beggars can’t be choosers. We merely went for the cheapest option. When on a snowboarding trip, I always prefer to stay at B&Bs or the small boutique hotels. It feels more cozy so Chalet Mara sounded good. What I didn’t realise was that Chalet Mara is Crystal owned and run by a few girls employed by Crystal. House rule: breakfast is served at 07:30 daily and dinner (for adults) is at 20:00. Everyone dines together. I must admit, my first thought was: “urgh…” but it worked out great in the end because it made us mingle with the other guests. And we did have a great and lovely group of people at Chalet Mara that week so we made new friends. The girls running the chalet were nice – Kim was my fav but I think Libby cooks the best meals out of the lot.
We got the best room: Room 9. Top one on the left side, with balcony.
Finally: The next morning I had another surprise. We’re far from the gondola station! There was no way we could’ve walked there. You need to use the shuttle bus to get to the slopes. The shuttle bus service is free for skiers and boarders with lift passes, so it was ok. It just caught me by surprise that the gondola station is about 15 minutes bus ride from town.
Lesson learnt: If I ever come to Kaprun again for snowboarding, choose an accommodation with a bus stop in front of it. While Chalet Mara is not a bad choice, it is about 7 minutes walk to the bus stop. I didn’t really mind walking in my snowboard boots. They are more forgiving than the hard ski boots. It was obvious though that Zura did not appreciate the walk in her ski boots, even if it was just a mere 7 minutes.
If you go snowboarding/skiing late in the season, I bet high altitude, snow sure resort is probably your priority. That was the first thing I considered when making the choice of where to go. While I was a tad worried of the snow condition the day before, that worry vanished when we got to the top of the gondola. Kitzsteinhorn is c3000m above sea level and boy was the snow condition still good.
I’m not a great snowboarder but I can snowboard. This was my third season. Despite that, I still signed up for classes every time I go for trips. It’s my way of meeting new people, learn some neat techniques and get the extra bit of push from the instructors that I needed.
Marisa, myself, Hepi and the “mute” boy.
My instructor and I.
Hepi is IMHO the most happy instructor on the slopes. He surely lives up to his name! Born and raised in Kaprun, he knows the mountains well and together with Marisa and the “mute” boy (he never uttered a word, honestly), we conquered the mountains. I did my first black run without even realising it was the Black Mamba. Only when we got to the bottom of the slope did Hepi tell us “Look up” he said. “See what you’ve achieved. That’s the steepest black run we have here.” Cool. I really felt like giving a pat on my back. Hepi also took us off-piste and encouraged us to do some jumps at the fun park. We even did the superpipe! Confession: I zigzagged down the superpipe. Next time I’ll try to muster enough courage to do some turns.
Olivia joined us on the third day for two days. Marisa and the mute boy only signed up for a 3 day class so the forth day was only me, Hepi and Olivia. It snowed the night before so Hepi took us powder riding off-piste. Boy was that hard but FUN!
The final day of class was just me and Hepi and with the snow still falling at the glacier, visibility was poor. But it also meant more fresh powder. Off-piste we went again. Hepi even entered me in a competition – you know the ones where the boarder/skier goes down the slope curving outside each marker, timed? Well, I got a gold medal for it! Haha!
On Friday, I had no more class. The initial plan was to go to Salzburg (remember the Sound of Music?) but it was a rainy day so we went up the slopes again – at least it was snow rather than rain there and I did a few more runs.
If you’re ever in Kitzsteinhorn, check out the ice camp.
Also, make sure to go up to the panorama restaurant. You can dine with a view. There is also a national park gallery and viewing platforms. The view from there is out of this world!
Our airport transfer on Saturday was at 13:55 so the morning was spent wandering around the quaint little village.
Our package was half-board but we did dine out on a few occasions.
- Kennidi is a good place to dine. We went there the first day for lunch on the recommendations from the girls at the chalet. I had ravioli on the first occasion. We went there again on our last day at Kaprun where I had pizza. Both were great.
- Wednesday night was the girls day off so we had dinner at the Tauern Spa hotel. The food was flavoursome – big portions so if you’re not a big eater, you can perhaps skip starter and go straight to main. We were so full we didn’t even have room for dessert – what a shame.
- Try popping in Hilberger’s Beisl. We had lunch there once. Good food, nice deco, reasonable price. What more to ask for?
Ever since I started snowboarding a few years back, I’ve always gone to different resorts each time. There’s just so many to try out, new places to see. Why go back to the same? But in the future, if I can only get away late in the season again, I would definitely consider coming back to Kaprun.