Planning holidays around weather seems to have become less predictable than in the past, especially around skiing. I recall driving up to the French alps in 2022 as torrents of rain ran through the river along side of the road. We did manage to pull of some good skiing (including a visit over to the Italian side of the pass), but you never knew how it was going to turn out until the end.
Fast forward to fall 2024, and while searching through Airbnb I found a lovely house in walking distance to the lift in Bad Gastein (the place where I slept through the very first Eagles Superbowl victory). Forecasts were on for big an early snowfalls in 2024, so we booked in with Teo’s schoolmate’s family (Damien and Elsy). But as we got closer to the season, it seems there wasn’t so much snow as anticipated. In fact there was no snow in the East of Austria. So with 2 days left in our cancellation window, we decided to find another solution. At least we had the apartment in Munich to use, and from there we could do day drives to different mountains.
Closing in on the holiday, there was one mountain in Austria which seems to be getting a good amount of snow (Swiss Alps also were performing better, but the Swiss Francs made it a much pricier option). In a stroke of good luck, I found another big apartment right by the Gondola in Sölden. It was only for 3 nights, but would definitely be better than driving back and forth from Munich. And thus the snow hunters were on the move.
We all met up at the Munich apartment on the Sunday. I had been feeling under the weather, so the initial plans of driving through the Nuremburg Christmas markets (and my favorite burger joint Hoserer-Rolly’s Amerikanische Küche) were squashed.
Chika wanted to do some ski lessons before starting the season, and I wanted to relax and sleep in. So on Monday, Chika, Elsy, Teo, and Damien took off before sunrise by car to the mountains while Kai and I took a nice train trip via Innsbruck where we had a great brunch at a rooftop restaurant Lichtblick and some additional time to finish holiday shopping.
After another train and a bus, Kai and I arrived at the Airbnb. It was a massive place with 4 separate sleeping areas. As we were heading into the holiday, Kai and I did a grocery run to get us sorted out for the next days. We ended up eating our meals in the house (although we needed to keep our Christmas ski tradition of take out sushi.)
Our first day on the mountain was a bit ominous — many of the lifts, especially at the top, were closed due to high winds. But by the afternoon, things started to settle down and we even saw the sun. The next 2 days were incredible days of skiing, with clear skies and good snow. Teo turned into a dynamo on skiis — I could barely keep up.
Sölden was a really nice mountain, and as a James Bond fan I couldn’t resist visiting the site used in the 2015 Spectre film twice — first for drinks with Kai and then for lunch with Chika. Really unique experience.
The only downside to the trip was that after taking a photo of Kai jumping in the snow park, I must not have properly put my phone into my pocket and as of the time of this writing is still lost on the mountain.
As an epilogue to this story, we wrapped up this year with a first time ever race for us as a family and me altogether — the Berlin New Years Eve run. We did the 2K version, which was perfect for me — I still got my medal and Berliner donut.
