Oh, I can also definitely feel muscles that I was not aware of before today! Stupidly, I wasn’t quick enough of the mark when we arrived and failed to book a massage - a quick swim and a sauna had to suffice for my aching limbs before dinner in Seefeld. After wandering through the picturesque centre of the little town, snow softly falling all around, we came to the Krachelemoos, a fab restaurant tucked away in a corner side street. This originally started life as two farmhouses several hundred miles apart, but they were carefully demolished and rebuilt in the centre of Seefeld. As well as the atmospheric decor, the food itself was absolutely fantastic – a particularly mouthwatering shashlik of pork on creamed Savoy cabbage with a traditional slice of surprisingly light Tirolean dumpling. The description barely does it justice - I haven't had anything so beautifully cooked for ages - but this was followed by apfelstudel with a cinnamon and toffee ice-cream and the now obligatory schnapps.
After the strenuous activity of yesterday, today’s plan of snow shoeing and dog-sledding with www.tirolalpin.at Tirol Alpin sounded a lot more chilled. However, I hadn’t reckoned on being leashed to Maggie, the most inconsistent and noisy husky on the planet. She didn’t get off to a brilliant start by lying down in the snow to have her tummy scratched and it soon became clear that she just wanted attention - running up the hill with me lumbering after in my unwieldy snow shoes only to stop dead and wait for me, just as the gradient increased. After the first hill, she was relegated to the sled and I was attached to a rather less high-maintenance dog to enjoy the walk through the walk. Tramping through the trees in the woods behind Kirchplatz was lovely – so rarely do you get to wander quietly and just enjoy the scenery rather than whizzing past it. However our destination was a gorge further up in the forest for a spot of canyoning.
Now, I have to admit that I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to throwing myself off cliffs. I probably shouldn’t be as I spend half of my childhood clambering over rocks, climbing trees and swinging across the garden on ropes, but I generally prefer to hold on wherever possible! The zip-wire across the gorge was great fun but I was distinctly less keen on the 40m abseil when we got to the other side. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. So with jelly legs and a white face, I braved it for the descent. There was quite a large over-hang so I ran out of cliff to walk down after 15m or so and it was with undignified relief that I reached terra firma and was able to clip myself onto the ropes strung across the rocks.
As it was pretty nippy so we didn’t explore the canyon for very long and emerged at the top to a picnic, complete with tea mit rum and a rather good schapps. (It seems that anytime is schnapps time in Tirol!) After racing home through the trees on the dog sleds, there was time for a quick coffee before collecting our stuff for our final cross-country trail.
We’d already pumped Steve, the Headwater rep, for information about where to go, so armed with maps and cross-country skis and with the light slightly fading, we were dropped off at Moos for our 5km langlauf home. Our route took us along the floor of the valley with views over the Wetterstein to our left. After a great deal of faffing getting into our skis, we made quite good time and became so mesmerized concentrating on the tramlines in front of us that we only stopped for a quick hot chocolate when we were in sight of Kirchplatz - about 5 mins from home. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good move as sitting down made my newly discovered muscles start to seize up and it was with great difficulty (and not a little swearing) that I clipped my skis back on for the final 200 yards towards home.
I think next time I go cross-country skiing, I might spend a little bit longer preparing my pretty pathetic leg muscles. The Vikings who allegedly invented this great sport were probably a darn sight hardier than I am!
First published on welove2ski.com
After the strenuous activity of yesterday, today’s plan of snow shoeing and dog-sledding with www.tirolalpin.at Tirol Alpin sounded a lot more chilled. However, I hadn’t reckoned on being leashed to Maggie, the most inconsistent and noisy husky on the planet. She didn’t get off to a brilliant start by lying down in the snow to have her tummy scratched and it soon became clear that she just wanted attention - running up the hill with me lumbering after in my unwieldy snow shoes only to stop dead and wait for me, just as the gradient increased. After the first hill, she was relegated to the sled and I was attached to a rather less high-maintenance dog to enjoy the walk through the walk. Tramping through the trees in the woods behind Kirchplatz was lovely – so rarely do you get to wander quietly and just enjoy the scenery rather than whizzing past it. However our destination was a gorge further up in the forest for a spot of canyoning.
Now, I have to admit that I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to throwing myself off cliffs. I probably shouldn’t be as I spend half of my childhood clambering over rocks, climbing trees and swinging across the garden on ropes, but I generally prefer to hold on wherever possible! The zip-wire across the gorge was great fun but I was distinctly less keen on the 40m abseil when we got to the other side. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. So with jelly legs and a white face, I braved it for the descent. There was quite a large over-hang so I ran out of cliff to walk down after 15m or so and it was with undignified relief that I reached terra firma and was able to clip myself onto the ropes strung across the rocks.
As it was pretty nippy so we didn’t explore the canyon for very long and emerged at the top to a picnic, complete with tea mit rum and a rather good schapps. (It seems that anytime is schnapps time in Tirol!) After racing home through the trees on the dog sleds, there was time for a quick coffee before collecting our stuff for our final cross-country trail.
We’d already pumped Steve, the Headwater rep, for information about where to go, so armed with maps and cross-country skis and with the light slightly fading, we were dropped off at Moos for our 5km langlauf home. Our route took us along the floor of the valley with views over the Wetterstein to our left. After a great deal of faffing getting into our skis, we made quite good time and became so mesmerized concentrating on the tramlines in front of us that we only stopped for a quick hot chocolate when we were in sight of Kirchplatz - about 5 mins from home. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good move as sitting down made my newly discovered muscles start to seize up and it was with great difficulty (and not a little swearing) that I clipped my skis back on for the final 200 yards towards home.I think next time I go cross-country skiing, I might spend a little bit longer preparing my pretty pathetic leg muscles. The Vikings who allegedly invented this great sport were probably a darn sight hardier than I am!
First published on welove2ski.com
A quick scoot across town and a boot swap later, we were kitted out and ready for our first foray into langlaufing. There are two styles of cross-country, classic and skating, and we were going for the former, apparently the most efficient way to move across a flat area of snow - although maybe not the way I was doing it! The 
