Skiing at Zell am See

I learnt to ski in 2015, at the age of nineteen, and felt hugely behind in picking up this skill set, especially living in Canada where it seems kids are literally raised on skis!

I spent the next three years after that honing my skills with my then-boyfriend who just so happened to be an absolutely unreal skier and who I am forever grateful to for his patience and teachings. His family owns a property in Whistler which helped hugely and I feel lucky to have been able to have that access and experience.

Then, long-term traveling and ultimately moving to Europe, meant leaving my skis, along with everything else I owned, behind. Firstly in a storage unit in Canada and later with my parents in California, my boxes waited patiently for me to one day (three years later!) to come and claim them again.

When the US border finally reopened late last year after nearly two years of COVID-related closures, I was finally able to make the trip back to California for the holidays. It was an ideal opportunity to go through all my stuff and decide what to bring back to Austria, including my boots and skis!

Last weekend, for the first time in over three years, and for the first time ever in Europe, and for my first time ever alone, I went skiing. It was wicked fun. Hugely nervous going into it - and I think I just psyched myself out - my muscles kicked into memory and I zipped down the hills like it was nobody's business! It felt so good to get some mileage back on my gear again.

While I neglected to bring my camera on that first trip up the mountains in Schladming, I did vlog the entire day.

This weekend, after a few days of heavy snow, I made my way out to Zell am See, a beautiful ski hill overlooking a massive lake. Although the visibility was low for most of the day given the continued snowfall, in the afternoon the lake became just visible and I spent my last run of the day with my camera out capturing these stunning views: