Skiing at Kitzsteinhorn

Last year was my first year skiing in Europe, my first winter back on the slopes in three years after leaving my skis in storage back in North America while I traveled the world. You can read all about my ski story over on my Zell am See Photo Diary.

I had enjoyed five different slopes last year across Austria, and was so excited to come home from Africa to a wintery Europe to get back out there. Unfortunately though, the snow has been quite late this year, with many resorts having little to no snow and Salzburg itself where I live being completely void of snow; this time last year we had snow every day right in the city.

I was ready to try and get out on the slopes in mid-January, hoping that at high enough elevation there'd be decent snow. I met some new friends at a mutual friend's birthday party on Friday night and somehow convinced them to take me skiing with them at Kitzsteinhorn near Zell am See, about an hour and a half's drive south of Salzburg.

I'm really only a red skiier (that's the blues for you North Americans) but I had a total blast being up on the hill again for the first time in nearly a year, even if half the snow was made out of the snow cannons...!

Kitzsteinhorn is a great hill, with stunning views and loads of runs. We had a delicious typical Austrian ski hill lunch at the Gletschermühle lunch, and were out on the hill for hours, before the final ascent at 3:30pm. I returned by train from Zell am See back to Salzburg.