Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 2 February 2013 SINCE 2008, when it was announced that Schladming in Austria would host this year’s Alpine World Ski Championships, the town has changed almost beyond recognition. I can still remember when the chunk of prime real estate at the bottom of the downhill race course was taken up by […]
Posts Tagged ‘Austria’
FOUR SEASONS: BOOT LOVE
Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 14 Apr 2012 AFTER almost a decade of heavy use, my snowboard boots are looking a bit Worzel Gummidge. The uppers have been chafed to a pulp by various sets of bindings, the liners are held together with strips of brown parcel tape, and the laces, originally white, are now a […]
FOUR SEASONS: GOODBYE, OLD FRIEND
Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 17 March 2012 MOST religious leaders agree: attachment to worldly goods is a terrible thing. Rots the soul, apparently. And, of course, it means you have less money to donate to your local church/synagogue/mosque/temple (delete as appropriate). But much as I try to live a pure, simple life, subsisting on Weetabix, […]
FOUR SEASONS: COMEDY SKIING
Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 3 December 2011 MANY moons ago I was invited to the Austrian ski Mecca of Ischgl to write about its bacchanalian start-of-season festivities. At an elevation of 1,377m, and with runs up to almost 3,000m, the chi chi Tyrolean town is one of the highest resorts in Austria, which means the […]
FOUR SEASONS: FOLLOW DAS BUNNY
Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 22 January 2011 THE hills around Salzburg may be alive with the sound of music, but a couple of hours to the east, in the beautiful Enns Valley, the hills are alive with mountain hares. You rarely see these pretty little critters in winter, thanks to their cunning use of camouflage […]
FOUR SEASONS: THE ART OF CHICKENING OUT
Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 13 March 2010 FOR the last ten winters now, like an oversized migratory bird, I’ve been visiting the same place in the Austrian Alps with more or less the same group of snow-seeking friends. Numbers vary from year to year – usually there are eight or ten of us, but this […]
Bed and Board
Published: The Scotsman (Section: TSMAG) 14 Mar 2009 Travelling by rail means you can sleep easy in your bunk and still reach one of Europe’s top ski resorts in time for breakfast. IT’S DAWN ON A CRYSTAL-CLEAR January morning and I’m lying in bed, watching France profonde flash by outside my window. Mostly it’s forests […]
Going Downhill: The Scottish Skiing Industry
Published: The Scotsman (Main Section) 12 Dec 2006 IT’S SUPPOSED to be December, but flowers are still blooming in the Alps – great news for botanists, perhaps, but terrible news for the ski industry. The region has just experienced its warmest autumn since records began, and many of its most famous resorts are already starting […]
The Hills are Alive
Published: The Scotsman (Section: TSMAG) 18 Mar 2006 St Anton, Ischgl, Mayrhofen, Kitzbühel … most of Austria’s best ski resorts are concentrated in the western half of the country, where they are squeezed into a thin corridor between Germany and Italy. There are, however, one or two exceptions. About 90km east of Salzburg lies the […]