Company: Martin, Marek, Alar, Artur, Kaarek, Elina, Laura, Kert, Taavi, Kristjan, Risto, Tanel

Planned route: Tallinn-Copenhagen-Munich-St. Anton am Alberg-Munich-Stockholm-Tallinn

It’s the third year in a row when almost the same company gets together to go an exciting place to snowboard. The destination chosen this time was St. Anton am Alberg in Austria. On the morning of the 20^th of January we all met up in Tallinn airport. Flight to Copenhagen with Estonian air began at half past 12 at lunch. The flight lasted for an hour and after waiting in the Copenhagen airport for 2 hours our journey continued with a SAS flight towards Munich. At 4.30 pm we were in the airport and went straight to the Sixt car rental to get our 3 brand new cars. Once we had loaded the cars with our snowboards and bag the trip continued on German freeways and at 9 pm we crossed the Austrian border. The road conditions in the mountains were rather slippery which was not very good as two of our cars did not have winter tired. Finally at about 10 pm we made it to St. Jakob which is about 3 kilometers away from St. Anton. We had booked one house for 4 people and another one for 8 that were located high up the mountains. As it was really impossible to get up the mountains with slick tires we decided to leave two cars down the mountain and just walk up.  

 We got the house for 4 people and the lady of the house also gave us a small overview of St. Anton and also sold us mountain lift tickets for the next 6 days. The evening was very calm and everybody just could not wait for the morning to get to the mountains already.

 The wake- up call was very early the next morning and at already 8 am we were waiting in full gear for the free ski- bus to take us to the lifts. The weather on the first day was rather bad, it was cloudy, at some parts snowing and the temperature was -5. But on the other hand there was a lot of snow and for the first time we tried some off- road. On that day we decided to conquer the highest peak of the center. It took quite some time to get to the top as the lift system was very big and complicated. Once we made it up it seemed that we were the only ones there as the weather had turned even worse. Coming down from the top was pretty dangerous as the visibility was only about 3 meters which meant that it was pretty hard to distinguish the trail from the gorges next to them. We ended the mountain day at 4 pm and turned back to our house exhausted. After dinner we decided to go to the spa in St. Anton to find at least some cure for our acing muscles. As there were some kind of festivities in St. Anton that day there was a free bus to downtown that we of course used. The spa was very nice. There were 4 different kinds of saunas (steam sauna, Finnish sauna, kelo-sauna and infrared sauna), in addition it was mixed sauna where it was forbidden to wear bathing suits. It was a bit unusual for the shy Estonians. Next to those was a large pool with massage corners and two outside pools with fast stream and massage places. After going to the saunas we were all so tired that once we got home we just fell asleep.

 The next morning was very painful for everybody as the first day had left a mark on our muscles. But we did not notice that and decided to visit the main center in St. Anton called Rendl. It turned out to be a fantastic day as the clouds disappeared, the sun came out and we found amazing slopes covered with powder snow that nobody had used before. The sun was very intense and so we had to start using our sun-blocks. After a very tiring but emotional day we decided to go and visit our familiar spa again. After relaxing in Jacuzzis and saunas we decided to stay in the town and get acquainted with the local night life. The locals had recommended for us to visit the Kandahari bar and so there we went. By accident we tried out a cocktail called Jäger Bomb which is a mixture of Jägermeister and Red Bull. We spent time until late night ours drinking there and after decided to move on to a club called Cuba, but as it was really packed with people we decided that a better idea would be to go home so that we would be fresh and ready to hit the slopes again in the morning.

The morning was a bit foggy and the Jäger Bombs that we had last night had had an effect, but nevertheless we as the brave soldiers still went up the mountains and decided to stay in the main St. Anton center and leave the exploring for the following days. The visibility was rather low again but it had snowed even more during the night. I cannot remember anything else special from that day as we called in an early night so we would have strength the next morning to go exploring to other centers.  

When we looked out from the windows the next day sun was shinning again. We went up to the Stuben ski resort where we found once again amazing views and hill slopes covered with untouched powder snow. It was another fantastic day where we explored different valleys all covered with powder snow and enjoyed the magnificent sunshine. We went back from Stuben to St. Anton again by climbing with snowboards over the mountains and made it back only after 4 pm when it was already getting a bit dark. We spent the night quietly in our house by playing cards.

The next morning we decided to sit on the bus and go to the other side of the mountains to the Zürs center. There we took the lift up and then descended to the other side of the mountain chain to a center called Zug. To everybody’s luck there we found a big slope that was filled with small pines and covered with untouched powder snow. It seemed to be too perfect to be real, but it really was there. We spent the whole day in Zug and after lunch took a bus back to our village. After changing our clothes we took our car to St. Anton downtown and started shopping for souvenirs for the people at home. After shopping for about an hour we decided to go back to our loved spa and spent a very nice evening by enjoying different saunas and pools  

As Marek had injured his knee the day before on the last day he was forced to stay back. This time we took a car to the furthest center called Lech and again hoped to find beautiful places with powder snow as we had during the days before. Unfortunately that day the sun was shining again and it had started to melt the top layer of snow. That meant that there was a crust on the mountain and riding our boards was not an easy task. Still we went and tried out the snowboard park to try out some jumps and tricks until after lunch I fell and hurt my hand quite severely. After that I thought that my body is probably rather tired after working hard for 6 days and decided it is enough of snowboarding for me this time. Artur and Alar still decided to descend a few more times, but that it was time to go back home and start backing our things to go back home.

We started our trip back at 8 am in the morning and we did not have any problems on our way to Munich. We had to give back the rental cars at 12 at the airport and at 11.55am we turned in to the airport lot. Lufthansa’s flight to Stockholm took off at .3.30pm and after 2 hour flight we made it to Arlanda airport. After that we waited about 1.5 hours until Estonian Air flew us back to Tallinn.

I will remember the trip to St. Anton for a long time as that kind of perfect snow conditions I had never seen anywhere in the world before. In addition the shining sun, high mountains and perfect travel company. St. Anton is a center where there is enough to do for snowboarders and skiers whatever their skill level is and it is a place where I definitely want to go back.