Langlauf in the Kotschactal

Off the beaten track - January 2011

By the riverside in the quiet valley
Come on - keep moving!

One disadvantage of downhill skiing is the need to wear many layers of clothes, clip on heavy boots and to carry heavy skis. Going cross-country skiing you only wear thin clothes and the boots and skis are lightweight.
Cross-country does have a plus point after all!


The valley stretches out ahead
So suitably attired, or unsuitably as is turned out, we headed for a favourite valley the Kotschachtal for a bit of cross-country. We should have known it would be cold, the sun doesn't find its way here until midday at this time of year.. We set off up the valley; the snow was soft and powdery with no prepared tracks. No tracks was a bit of a shocker!
TW is freezing!
When TW was here before, last year, it was all beautifully prepared. Today, we had to make our own way, forming personal tracks in the virgin snow. This was actually rather enjoyable. Unfortunately we could not go as far as we would have liked as barbed wire halted our progress up the valley. This was probably a blessing as, by this time, TW was starting to shiver. She headed back at full speed to the Sonnschein Restaurant for a Kaiserschmarren, a traditional pancake dish she likes.

The Sonnschein
Happily thawed out we headed back on the bus to Bad Hofgastein and to the open fields behind our Apartment. They were bathed in sunshine and the tracks were well prepared.

So why didn't we go there in the first place? Beats me!


Bad Hofgastein - looking towards Kotschachtal and the Tauern Mountains
Back in the warm sun in our wide Gastein Valley
Back on track in Bad Hofgastein
Location: Bad Hofgastein, Austria

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