Gunstock Nordic Association  - Ramsau, Austria 2006

Ramsau, Austria, nestled high in the Alps, is a world-renowned cross-country skiing town. It has over 150km of ski trails in the winter which are great for running and walking in the summer. The skiing facilities there play host to World Cup events for Cross country, ski jumping and Nordic combined. The ski jumping stadium lies at the center of town and has two year-round ski jumps. Just outside town and very near to where we stayed is a rollerskiing track with different loops for all abilities. In the summer Ramsau plays host to many skiers who go there to train on the Dachstein Glacier, one of the best summer snow venues in the world. The Dachstein lies at almost 3000 meters elevation and has a 5 km Nordic ski loop which is groomed daily with perfect tracks for both skate and classic. The skiing is great and comes with spectacular views in all directions. The glacier also boasts several alpine lifts and a very modern tram station featuring a restaurant and Sky Walk. The Sky Walk, which was new this year, is a walkway where you can stand on a platform that hangs out over the edge of a huge cliff.

The view from the top of the tram down towards the Nordic skiing loop. Those little specs in the picture…..those are skiers.

            This year GNA sent 10 skiers from across New England and Connecticut to train for over two weeks in Ramsau. We stayed at the Kobaldhof, a pension owned and operated by an Austrian family. They served really great food, shared their big screen TV with us for the soccer World Cup and taught us the traditional Austrian way to use a sauna….which is quite painful. Igor Badamshin led the trip and was the sole coach for our group. We were also lucky enough to be joined by two Atomic Representatives; RJ Guiney and his kids came from Utah to ski with us along with Rick Halling of New Hampshire who was in Austria for meetings at the Atomic factory just down the road.

This year’s skiing conditions were amazing. I’ve been there four times now and this was probably the best yet. The weather was great and the snow was nice enough to warrant the use of race skis. Rick was also nice enough to gather a bunch of this coming season’s race skis from the factory for us to try out on the glacier. During our camp we trained alongside national teams from Germany, Austria and Latvia. Most days we skied in the mornings and spent our afternoon training sessions in the valley running, rollerskiing, hiking or doing strength. Even for someone who’s not fond of running the trails there are great. It’s hard to find one that won’t give you a spectacular view along the way.

This is the view from our accommodations towards the mountains where the Dachstein Glacier lies. A third of the way into the picture from the left is a very pointed peak…..that’s the top of the tram we rode everyday to go skiing.

Our off days from skiing were highlighted by a day trip to Schladming for whitewater rafting and shopping, hiking and a trip to a local high ropes course. The rafting was quite the adventure, during which we all took a plunge or two into some extremely frigid water that I’m sure came straight from the glacier. My raft had a test about five minutes into our trip when our guide fell out of our boat! At least after that he could be sure we had paid attention to his rescue instructions. Our hiking day took us to several locations high in the mountains and all above 2000 meters. The route I took went past two mountain huts open to hikers for refreshments. One even boasted live accordion music and yodeling which was quite the spectacle after a three-hour hike. The ropes course was a repeat for some who had been to Ramsau last year but it was still a blast.

Our free time found us in the pool, watching the Tour de France live on Eurosport, the soccer world cup tournament action or making the short walk to downtown Ramsau to shop for souvenirs. I know there are a few suitcases that came home overweight due to some extra chocolate or Haribo gummy candy.

Special thanks to Atomic for loaning us their brand new race skis for use on the glacier. Also to Toko for sending us wax and ski ties for our trip. Igor wouldn’t let anyone wax without wearing a beautiful yellow waxing apron. Now that I’m home and going through the pictures from my fourth trip to Ramsau I’m already hoping that there will be a fifth.

Our group (L to R) Back row: RJ Guiney, Corinne Cline, Hanna Lucy, Amy Jones, Will Anderson, Alex Howe, Danny Guiney, Elizabeth Guiney, Ted Kraus. Front Row: Rick Halling, Leah Hart, Perry Thomas, Katrina Howe, Danielle Baron. Missing from photo: Igor Badamshin