First turns of the 2013/14 winter season

The Tirol Snowcard went on sale on the 1st October.  Today was the first opportunity for us to go up to Hintertux to use it.  The weather forecast was quite uninspiring – cloudy, rainy, unsettled.  However, the reality was really not so bad.  Visibility was a bit short at times, but nowhere near as bad as the day we were up there in April.  In fact, the sun came out a couple of times and precipitation fell as snow rather than rain, which is always a good thing!
The snow was quite soft, but there was plenty of it, for the time of year.
As ever, it was interesting to see actually how many rocks are buried by the snow during the winter.  We normally ski across where the rocks are in the picture below.

There were a lot of race teams, mostly kids and juniors, up there.  A lot of them were local-ish ski/race clubs, from Tirol and Bavaria, though there were a few from further afield, including a couple of groups from France.  I guess it must be worth the drive across, considering there are a few glaciers in France where people do race training.

The renovated Tuxer Fernerhaus is open for business, though not yet completely finished.  What we saw looked very smart.  The self service seating area looks brighter and lighter, much more pleasant to sit in.  There is a new lift , so now the wheelchair users can access everywhere without having to go through the delivery entrance and through the kitchens.  The waiter-served restaurant is still being worked on, but there’s no doubt everything will be finished in time for the winter.

It was good to put the skis on and do some turns.  Looking forward to the winter 🙂