http://fscev.org The friendliest way to get to the mountains in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland en-gb webmaster@fscev.org 2012-05-20T14:08:51+02:00 hourly 1 2012-05-20T14:08:51+02:00 http://fscev.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=76 N76@http://fscev.org AGM / Season Opening BBQ 2012-05-11T13:27:01+02:00 Posted by matt http://fscev.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=51
The FSC weekend in the “Wilder Kaiser” area, the four interconnected resorts of Söll, Scheffau, Ellmau and Going, was full of fun, sun, great skiing - and icy temperatures! It was the first visit for many seasons that the FSC went back to this huge ski area in the Tyrolian mountains.

After a frozen glass of welcome champagne (brrrr….) our bus departed on time at 17:00h from Ernst-Schwendler-Strasse with a good-humoured bunch of 37 trippers, among them 14 newcomers to the FSC who went on their 1st trip! While singing along with our fabulous musician Joe, our bus driver Yusof took us safely down to Angerberg without any major delays – we arrived there just after midnight.

The check-in at the Gasthof Landhotel Baumgarten went smoothly so that everybody could go to bed and get a good night rest for the two upcoming skiing days if they wanted: unless the double bed was a bit small for two adults (like e.g. the one from Joe and Charlie) or the bar was calling for a last drink!

Anyway – the next morning (almost) everybody was in good shape and joined our bus transfer at 9.15h to Hopfgarten, our entrance to the mountains. Ski lessons for Oksana, Ruben, Sandra and Shelby as well as ski rentals and groups were sorted out – and off we went for our 1st day of adventure in the vast and freezing-cold “Wilder Kaiser” ski area.

Our cross-country trippers Ray, Sabine, Yvonne and Caroline also received their equipment quite early in the morning and explored some of the 77 km of loipes with their amazing New Zealand cross-country teacher.

To make sure that everybody was happy and enjoying themselves, we arranged to meet for lunch around 13h at the Berggasthof Tenn, an old traditional mountain farmhouse with fabulous food. We were very glad to see Daniela again who went astray in the course of the morning since she took a wrong turn on the piste. TC Sybille arrived a little late, too, because she also got lost on the way there - luckily she got everything else co-ordinated! With outside temperatures of -20°C (!) quite a few of the trippers decided so stay a little longer in the cosy hut, others tried to get their normal body temperature back at the Après-Ski place Rundell at the bottom of the Hopfgarten gondola or in the hotel sauna prior to dinner. Thanks John, the “Tequila shot” in the sauna certainly also helped to get the body temperatures back to normal! Was this the reason, why we saw this (almost) naked family (6-7 people, 3 generations) sitting at a table in front of the sauna being served dinner and playing cards? No, it wasn’t! They were real – and the situation very weird!
After a lovely dinner, Kelvin initiated a “Schnaps” tasting at one of our tables to familiarize us with the local specialities. To your health, Kelvin! We enjoyed it to the utmost!

Then we mingled with the locals at their “Schützenfest” (Austrian Rifles Party),
a festival which takes places once a year in that particular hotel. Traditional “Lederhosen” and “Dirndl” as well as a typical Tyrolean music band was only part of the fun! We wonder why this event reminded Brian of the German TV programme “Bauer sucht Frau”! We also bought lots for the raffle to support the village clubs of fire-fighters and riflemen – everybody drew blanks except lucky Joel who won a typical Austrian “Vesper” with Sausage and Schnapps.

At midnight it was time to celebrate Gary's birthday! For some buddies the night turned out fairly short and they had trouble to get up in the morning.

After a healthy breakfast on Sunday morning our bus departed at 9.00h to the pistes and we skied all day through – at “moderate” temperatures now of -16°C, again with sun, blue sky and no wind! Eiko’s ski pass evaluation at the end of the day recorded a remarkable 47 kilometres coverage of pistes! Well done! We hope that Sabine’s slightly painful knee in the evening was not a result of this heavy workout.

Allison, John, Holly and Kelvin decided to try cross-country skiing on Sunday, Nina watched the husky dog sledge races in town, others strolled around the charming village and visited the colourful church. They all were picked-up at 16.00h from the hotel after collecting the skiers right from the piste and we finally started our return journey once Andreas had gathered all his bits and pieces, such as snowboard and laptop.

We can conclude, the “Wilder Kaiser” trip was a big success and the FSC trippers had a great time skiing, boarding, cross-country skiing and other activities. The snow was good, the temperature a bid cold but the sun was shining and amazingly not too many people were on the slopes despite the fact it was the week-end.

And at the end of the day – each tripper even got € 7.00 back on their ski passes which they appreciated a lot and which they now can spend on one of the upcoming FSC trips! Yeah – go ahead and do it ….

We highly recommend that the FSC will include this lovely trip in the next winter season 2012/13 again and hope to see you there next year.


Sybille Klöpfer & Claudia Alexi


]]> C51@http://fscev.org Wilder Kaiser Report: 03-05 February 2012 2012-04-10T14:49:31+02:00 Posted by FSC e.V. http://fscev.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=50
Having pre-informed all trippers who was in which group and where there would be on the first of three days, regional passed were handed out in time to get on the on the local short (5-10 mins) bus ride to the base station in Krippenstein, where we put on our beepers and were assigned our guides/instructors. Herr Höll from the BSFZ is a very helpfull man indeed.

My group started out with a bump – or face plant to be exact! The visibility wasn't too good and our guide forgot about the 1 meter drop that came onto piste. Picking himself up but with dented pride he successfully guided us down twice before dragging us off the gondola to tell us that he couldn't go on as he had concussion. Luckily it was approaching mid day and we had all arranged to meet for lunch at the top, where it was then possible to redistribute the groups.  Corby B. was over heard saying to Rainer S. "So you broke your Guide and now you take ours" – but it wasn't like that – honest!  The snow conditions didn't let us down, though the visibility could have been better and the high winds at the top proved to be hard on some of us but there was good deep snow to be found amongst the trees and off-piste.

Saturday night after a good meal, a short Kicker Tournament was played before John W. and Holly F. entertained us with some edited footage and some raw carnage. Comments for improving one film was along the lines that it was missing the "lock on graphics of a cruise missile/fighter pilot!" This was fired up the the cheap bottles of red wine that seemed to be appearing on the table like we were staying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft! I even heard moans the next morning of such elves magically refilling half emptied glasses!

Sunday was my chance to take advantage of the 3 day trip and get to Dachstein West – the pisted area that suits people who don't necessarily want to go "off-pitse". I was pleasantly surprised at how much off-piste actually was available, particularly to those who didn't mind exploring between the trees! In the caring fashion, that I was inducted to going beyond the piste boundaries, my small group of intrepid explores (Gary V., Jens W, Fred J., Corby B., Keith T. and his lovely Sarah H.) trusted me to take them to the powder that I had spied on the way through the bushes. Not quite the "Bernie Journey" of old but a small walk out – luckily direct to the hut that we ate. The weather played along perfectly so that we actually finished the day in sunshine and a beer to go.

Sunday night saw footage from the days' trip to Dachstein West (Gossau) this time from the experienced group of Bernie H., Kelvin T., Phil G., Simon S.  and a few others who had done the epic journey towards the glacier and actually come across a huge open powder field that no-one seemed to be using – after all it's not a place for off-piste! This fuelled the plans for many to go back to Dachstein West on Monday. Christian S. was also very keen to get some shots as Monday's weather was suppose to be the clearest – and it was.

We woke to a blue bird day and new made plans for off-piste. Bernie, Andreas, Rainer and a select group had managed to secure a guide for Krippenstein and headed out in the search for untouched powder. It was at this point that  Christian, to anybody that cared to listen was heard to say, "If they were going to Krippenstein they should have told me. I would have gone with them!" He however went to DW to take some photos. I also had a group together to head to Kripp. It's funny how some people react when they can actually see what they had actually gone down blindly only two days before.

The clear skies were great but also meant that the powder had turned to either crusty ice sheets or huge icy moguls and it took a lot of searching to find any soft snow that hadn't been blown away. After several runs it was then time to head back to the base and pack and not having stopped to eat we thought that we could pick something up across the road at our small aprés ski place. The sign however said "closed till Thursday" which meant we'd have to go hungry until we could make the food stop on the way back to Frankfurt.  Luckily some of the Dachstein Westers had eaten and had a few snacks to hand out.

All in all a very good trip for all and with a few things learnt.
1) keep some snack bars in your bag
2) have a riding/skiing buddy so that if one gets stuck, he/she is never alone
3) don't ever presume there will be a cash machine that is working or in resort/the village
4) don't drink magically appearing wine – unless you have planned for an "asprin breakfast"
5) have a back up plan if the bar is closed

I could go on about other things but it is now too long!
]]> C50@http://fscev.org Krippenstein Report: 13-16 January 2012 2012-04-10T14:39:16+02:00 Posted by FSC e.V. http://fscev.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=47 The 20011/2012 ski season got off to a glorious start for the four Frankfurt Ski Club members who made the trip to Sölden, Austria on October 7, 2011. Who would have known that after weeks of unseasonably warm weather in September, we would have mid - winter conditions on the first weekend in October? The snow came, and how! Sölden reported a total of 70 cm of snow for the season after our weekend there.

   The trip was, as in past years, a combined trip with Tannenbaum Ski Club and Heidelberg Ski Club. A total of 27 people made the journey by bus. We were joined there by a handful of others who drove.

The accommodations in Sölden were outstanding. The Hotel Dominic has very nice rooms, and an excellent spa area. Both the breakfast’s and dinners were quite quite good. On Saturday night, we enjoyed a season kick-off party entertainingly hosted by John Schwartz of Scherer Tours. Much fun, many prizes and free beer were there to be had. The big prize for the night was a new pair of women’s skis and bindings that went to a lucky member of the Tannenbaum Ski Club.

  With over 15 cm’s of fresh snow waiting for us on Saturday morning, the skiing was great! On Sunday morning the road to the resort area did not open until 11:00 AM due to the night’s snowfall. Once we got up to the ski area, the skiing conditions were again fantastic. Being opening weekend, many of the top ski and snow board manufacturers offered free demo’s of their new skis and boards. For us skiers, this was an unbeatable opportunity to try out the new models of powder skis in fresh snow. Everyone who tried new equipment found something that was, if not very good, at least very interesting. I am sure that there will be some ski and board purchases made due to this experience.

   Monday morning brought what was the only bad news of the trip. Because of the continued snowy weather on Sunday night, the road to the ski area would remain closed for the whole day. So, though we all wanted another shot at fresh early season powder, we had no choice other than to pack up, and make an early departure back to Germany. It was a great weekend with a great group of people enjoying some fabulous skiing. Hopefully next year we will get ‘almost’ that much snow and have the chance to do it again.


Joe Jeannes
]]> C47@http://fscev.org Sölden: 7 - 10 October 2011 2011-11-15T15:06:28+02:00 Posted by FSC e.V.