Skiing at Axamer-Lizum, outside Innsbruck, Austria

I lived in Salzburg and then Innsbruck, Austria from August 1967 to June 1968, one of 36 guys in the University of Notre Dame's Innsbruck Study-Abroad Program. Recently I was thinking about one glorious day in late winter, probably March of 1968, when I skied with three friends at the spectacular ski area called Axamer-Lizum, about 10 miles outside the city of Innsbruck. My friends and I had skied often at Lizum (as we called it), where the Damenabfahrt (Women's Downhill) ski run from the 1964 Olympics took place. The ski area was at a very high elevation, with lifts going up a peek on one side called "Hoadl," and a lift going up the opposite side of the valley to "Birgitzkoepfl." On the eastern edge of this area was the most spectacular mountain scenery in Tirol--the incredible limestone spires called the Kalkkoegl (see photo above).

On this particular day, Tim Forward and I went skiing with two Austrian friends that we had met in Obergurgl, Austria when we were at a week-long youth ski school. These friends worked at a governmental office in Innsbruck called the "Forstlichebundesversuchsanstalt"--what a wonderful German name!--The Federal Institute for the Experimental Study of Forests--or something like that. These girls were Caecilia Werth (now known as Cilli Kirchmair) and Liselotte Schartner). Someone had jokingly warned us Americans never to invite an Austrian girl to go hiking (you'll end up on an exhausting day-long hike!); they should have warned us never to go skiing with Austrian girls. Because Caecilia and Liselotte couldn't afford to buy lift tickets. We spent the entire day hiking up Birgitzkoepfl and skiing down that slope--over and over again. We felt like we were the first people in the history of the world to ski that slope without ever buying a lift ticket (by American standards, the lift tickets weren't all that expensive; by Austrian standards of 1968, they were pretty dear).

[More coming!]

Skiing in Austria (Part 1)

During the year I lived in Austria, I skied in many fascinating areas. The first place I ever skied in Europe was actually in Sued Tirol (the German-speaking region in Northern Italy) at a place called "Rosskopf" (literally, "horse head") near the town of Sterzing (called "Vipiteno" in Italian). Here's a link to Rosskpof, called in Italian Monte Cavallo: http://www.rosskopf.com/en/home.html
This was the first big snow of the year and a few of the Notre Dame Innsbruckers hopped into a car and drove the 30 or so miles south through the Wipptal, through the Brenner Pass, to this Italian ski area. I remember Charlie Schaffer, Tim Barry, and Bob Wingerson and possibly Leo Lensing being there and probably a couple other guys. I quickly found out that skiing on the Alps was different than skiing on the hills of Northeast Ohio! I broke one of my skis in half that day--and most importantly, I decided to try to find some ski lessons!

During the Christmas break that year (1967), Brian Wilson, Tim Forward, Bennie Thomas, and I were able to get into an Austrian ski school in the high alpine town/ski resort of Obergurgl. This ski school had one of those astonishing long German names, which I can no longer remember (it wasn't "Forstlichebundesversuchsanstalt," but along those lines). Obergurgl is fairly close to where the famous "Ice Man" (known as "Oetzi" because of the Oetztal or Oetz Valley there)was discovered.

The Austrian approach to ski school was very interesting and it involved heavy-duty conditioning. We always had to walk up hill after skiing downhill, using either a side-step technique or a herringbone technique--there was no using the lifts. This helped strengthen our legs and gave our hearts and lungs quite a work out! We seemed to take lessons about 5 hours a day, both before lunch and after lunch, and this program went on for a week or ten days, if I remember correctly. By the end of the program we all were much better skiers and confident that we could handle the alpine runs. Of course it took all of that year and many years after to really master skiing, but that very solid base was established at the Obergurgl ski school.

Besides all the skiing instruction, we were provided with three simple but hearty meals per day, and if I remember correctly, the entire program, all inclusive, cost us about 20 dollars (maybe $18). It was an astonishing bargain. We did not have separate rooms in Obergurgl but slept in dormitories filled with mattresses up on platforms (I think called "Matrazenanlagen"). The "students" were quite a strange and motley crew, with one older student reading Kant's "Kritik der Reiner Vernunft," The Critique of Pure Reason, in his down time. Not my idea of liesurely reading! There were some nightclubs in the little village but things were so expensive there that we rarely bought more than one small Coca Cola per night. On Sylvesterabend, New Year's Eve, Tim and I met two great Austrian girls, Liselotte Schartner and Caecilia Werth (now Cilli Kirchmair) and remained friends with them after the ski school ended. For a view of the village of Obergurgl, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://www.austria-trips.com/Obergurgl/Obergurgl.htm

[more coming]