I did another ski tour
After ascending to a valley on a road originally built by Romans to travel north from Rome through the Alps, to what is now Germany, we started at the bottom. From the Gnadenalm, just below Obertauern, we had a 2km “lauf” up the valley before the ascent began. “Laufen” just means running in German but when you’re skiing in Austria, it refers specifically to the shuffle you do when you’re cross-country skiing and alpine ski touring (skinning).
And the ascent began. We skinned up to the Scheibenkogel, to 1,997 meters (6,500 ft) above sea level. The ascent was mostly in the sun, light wind, just above freezing temp – more or less perfect conditions for a ski tour.
Ski touring makes you sweat on the way up, so despite the cold temperature, you dress light with light gloves, a couple thin layers on top and if there’s not a lot of wind, you don’t even need a jacket. But when you get to the top, you’re exposed, the wind is usually much stronger and you’re covered in sweat. And the first priority is flipping the skis over from climb to downhill. Without the skis’ brakes engaged, skis can easily slide long distances downhill, even down slopes you have no intention or desire to venture down.
So the brakes come first. Then you can get yourself warm.
Next comes peeling the skins off the bottom of the skis and storing them. Then you can finally enjoy the zen experience of being at the top, tired and accomplished and ready to shred down.
And shred we did. We dropped in on the north face from the “Gipfelkreuz” (a peak with a cross on top), into a nearly untouched field of powder. It was awesome! And so well-earned.
On the way down we stopped at the legendary Südwiener Hütte, founded in 1927, and sadly closed back in September, just shy of 100 years. The property owners and the restaurant operator unfortunately could not come to agreement; and some essential renovations have not been kept up with so it’s likely the beautiful and historic lodge will be demolished.
Downward we continued, making our way down and out the valley. For the last 2km, we had a nice breeze which I was able to use like a sail and glide the flats.
I cannot recommend this sport enough.
Lessons learned: use hot water in the hydration pack to prevent freezing, being ignorant to avalanche danger is a luxury only to be enjoyed in safe snow conditions, and no matter what just keep going.
A Peugeot drove me nearly into a wall
Peugeot, following trends popular in several other automobile manufacturers evidently, offers a lane-keep assistance feature in the car I rented in Austria. This is a complex system that uses visual sensors to detect lane lines and force the steering wheel away from the lane line and presumably toward the center of the lane. To reiterate, the car has a system that interferes with the driver’s steering operation.
Thankfully, it has a button to disable this feature. Unfortunately, the button does nothing and the feature continues to impact steering. Ugh.
So there I am driving outside Salzburg through a construction zone, where one side of the highway was being worked on, so they crammed us down to two tight lanes and the dotted white line separating the original lanes was now in the middle of my new construction-zone lane.
The lane-keep assistance was going crazy, and it didn’t matter if the feature was engaged or disengaged. It continued forcing my steering wheel toward the wall, and then the other way, toward the car beside me. I had to white-knuckle force the wheel to stay center-lane in a lane that was already uncomfortably narrow. I couldn’t believe how stupid and unsafe this “safety feature” was.
Folks, never ever try to fix what isn’t broken.
What friends are for
Sometimes it’s your job as a friend to lead by example.
Sometimes it’s your job as a friend to listen. Other times, to give advice.
Sometimes it’s your job as a friend to knowingly watch another friend crash and burn from their own choices just so you can be there for them afterward.
And I think that’s the hardest one. Some things in life are experiential – there’s no real way to learn the lesson that life offers without experiencing it. Much like a child touching a hot stove to discover what “hot” means. Some of these lessons can only be learned the hard way, by just going through it, then afterward realizing what happened, how the choices led to an outcome.
And observing another friend going through this is tough on the soul. There’s not much to say (that probably hasn’t already been said 35 times anyway) and the only thing to do is wait and be ready for this friend on the other side, with open arms, a kind heart and maybe a bowl of gelato or a glass of wine or a beer.
Have you ever had a friend make a series of bad decisions and for whatever reason they just weren’t able to shake it? Or maybe it was you? I hope that you have good friends and sincere people in your life that are there for you, to support you and offer guidance and share a laugh together.
May this year bring you copious joy, laughter, fun and love. All the best in 2025!
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