Mayrhofen 201011

November 24th, 2010

Again this year we were a small group who took a extended weekend trip to the Austrian glacier Hintertux with Trier Ski. We where nine people this year in our group.

We arrived Friday morning (20101119) with bus in Mayrhofen were we would be staying at hotel Neuhaus. So after storing our luggage and changing into our ski gear, the bus left for the mountain. It is an approximately 30 min drive up to the Hintertux station “Talstation Hintertux” on narrow winding roads. But as it had started snowing it took a little longer for our bus driver to get us there. It looked like this was the first snow they received this low as there were no big piles of it laying around. After renting skis we left for the slopes, and hoped that we would get up above the clouds as they were pretty low today.

Three of us decided to test our legs on one of the easy slopes on the lower part of the mountain. This wasn’t the best of planes as the weather was fairly foggy with intermittent snow, and the slope itself was very mogul on the top. So after the first run we took the lifts up to the top of the mountain. This was altogether a different experience as the slopes were much better and the fog had lifted, or we arrived above it, and the sun peaked through on occasions. We had some good runs at the top, and I managed not to fall to many times ;-)

After dinner it was of to the local water hole “Movie Bar” for some after skiing. As usual it got pretty late before I arrived back at my hotel room ;-)

I think most of us was a little slow getting up the next morning, and had to take the last bus leaving for the mountain. The weather today was a little better than yesterday. And we manged to find some good slopes unfortunately there were a lot more people up here today than yesterday. But we had a great day skiing various slops on the mountain.

The last day I manged to get up early enough to catch the first bus up to the mountain, and some of us got some breakfast at the “Tuxer Fernehaus” before we left for the top. We had some really good runs on the slopes on the upper left side of the piste map but unfortunately fog and snow came rolling in at around noon. I had decided that I wanted to get back to the hotel early so after a little lunch we took the gondolas back down to the valley station.

The ski’s that I had rented for these 3 day’s had been awesome so I wanted to ask if it was possible to purchase them. So after a little negotiating and some thinking I am now the proud owner of my own ski’s, a pair of “Vist Super Mountain One”. The only thing that I need now would probably be a pair of goggles.

So now the only thing left to do is pack and get ready for the trip home :-(

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Dyvig 201008

August 15th, 2010

Weekend trip for our Junior paddlers where they paddled from Sønderborg to Dyvig.

Trip details Day 1:
Distance: ? Km
Speed: ? Km/h moving avg.
Wind from N around 4-5 m/s and clouded.

Trip details Day 2:
Distance: ? Km
Speed: ? Km/h moving avg.
Wind from N around 4-5 m/s and clouded with a little sunshine.

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Haderslev 201006

June 24th, 2010

A weekend trip for old a new paddlers to Haderslev in Denmark, where we will be staying at Haderslev row club.

Trip details Day 1:
Distance: 10 Km
Speed: 6,4 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from W around 4 m/s.

Trip details Day 2:
Distance: 30 Km
Speed: 6,9 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from W around 3-4 m/s and clouded.

Trip details Day 3:
Distance: 15 Km
Speed: 3,4 Km/h avg.
Wind from all around 1-2 m/s and extremly sunny.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 598 Km

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Schleswig 201006

June 9th, 2010

A weekend trip for our junior paddlers to the German Kayak club “Schleswiger Kanu-Club „Haithabu“” in Schleswig. We meet at Sønderborg Kayak Club at nine o’clock Saturday morning to pack kayaks and gear into the trailer. We were a total of nine paddlers 6 juniors and 3 adults. It’s about a 1½ hours drive to Schleswig so we were in Schleswig around 11 o’clock. After unpacking and eating our lunch packs we were on the water around 12 o’clock. It was quite windy and for the first leg to the bottom of the Schlei we had a strong headwind. The rest of the trip out was either with a tailwind or with good shelter against the wind. Halfway from Wiking yacht harbor and Haddeby yacht harbor one of the juniors capsized as his rudder caught on something on the bottom in the shallow water. We took a little break at this point and Birgit and I went ahead to check the conditions. We paddled up the Haddeby yacht harbor and the wind and waves up there were a lot stronger and bigger then what we had encountered so far. After paddling back we decided to turn around due to the weather even do it was a fairly short trip. Our plans had been to paddle up to Haddeby yacht harbor and the into Haddebyer Noor. So instead of a long paddle trip we went into Schleswig town to have a look around, one of the things we went to see was the Schleswig cathedral and some of the old part of Schleswig town. And the kids got a chance to spend some of their pocket money.

On the second day the wind had died down at bit and changed direction to a more favorable one. We stayed on the North side of the Schlei and paddled up to and into Füsinger stream. The tempo today was better than yesterday but some of the juniors still need to learn how to talk and paddle at the same time. After our little excursion into the stream we took a break just South of the stream entrance to get a little snack. On the way back we had talked about crossing the Schlei to have a look into Haddebyer Noor but with the speed they were doing it would take to long.  So only Kristian and I crossed over, as we crossed over the waves got  much bigger and the wind also picked up. At the entrance to the Noor I had to raise the rudder of the sea kayak i was paddling in because of the low tide, fortunately Kristian’s tour kayak passed without hitting the bottom. I had chosen a sea kayak for this trip because the club had a new group of beginners in this weekend, so as not to take all the beginner friendly kayak’s I was in a Trapper Barracuda. Our trip into the Noor was short just in the one hole and out the other. We did mange to get a look at the Viking museum Haithabu which looks special from the outside.

Trip details Day 1:
Distance: 6 Km
Speed: 3,9 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from SW around 8-9 m/s and clouded and on the way back also with rain.

Trip details Day 2:
Distance: 17 Km
Speed: 5,5 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from W around 7 m/s and clouded and with a few ray’s of sun.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 493 Km

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Kayak trip 20100515

May 15th, 2010

Kayak trip to HøruphavThe “Høruphav ro & kajak klub” (Hoeruphav row & kayaking club) had their 25th anniversary today. So some of us from “Sønderborg Kajak Klub” wanted to visit them and celebrate it with them. Five of us decided to paddle to their club, it is a 10,5 km trip. To get to their club we had to paddle south so I decided to take one of our most stable kayaks a “Coast Liner”. The trip south can be pretty rough as we practically have open ocean out their in the bay and depending on the wind direction the waves can get pretty big. But we where lucky as the wind was in a North westerly direction and the only place we had waves were when we passed the Soenderborg yacht harbor. There were some smaller waves just before Klintinghoved that made for some excellent surf trips. When we arrived in Høruphav we took a quick shower and changed clothes, so that we would be a little more presentable for the anniversary celebration. After a few speeches there was an excellent lunch followed by a competition. The competition was a precision paddle trip were you had to paddle 2×2 Km and try to reach the same time for both trips. All competitors made the trips with no more than 30 sec separating the 2 trips, and the winner only had 1 sec differentiating his two trips. After the competition we went inside for some coffee and cake. In the late afternoon it was back into our paddling gear. The trip back wasn’t nearly as nice as the trip out as it had started to rain during the afternoon, and we would have a head wind most of the way. But all in all it was a great day with good food and some fun :-)

Trip details:
Distance: 21 Km
Speed: 7,5 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from NW around 5-7 m/s and clouded and on the way back also with rain.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 399 Km

Kayak trip to Høruphav

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Kayak trip 20100502

May 2nd, 2010

I couldn’t pass up a day like today, the weather is perfect for a paddle trip. My destination today was Knarhøj bugt, I had decided that I would take a little break when I got there so I packed a little snack. It is not often that I get out of the kayak when I paddle. The tour kayaks we paddle aren’t very strong and don’t handle beach landings very well in the long run. So even thou I had to get my feet wet, today’s sunshine would probably dry them up quickly enough. I wasn’t the only one liking the weather today almost 10 other kayak’s from the club was logged out when I arrived. And there were a lot of other boats on the water as well, both motor boats and sail boats thou not many of the sail boats were using there sails today. With all the sun we would have today I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sit on the beach and take a little break and just enjoy life. This is the farthest north i have been to date, the next goal would have to be Ballebro ferry. It’s just a couple of kilometers further north. I had a good view of the ferry sailing across Als Sund as I was taking my break. As I was coming around Snogbæk huk there was a motor boat headed in the opposite directions, they were anchored by Snogbæk inn when I was paddling out. I don’t like this area because it is very shallow and it has scattered rocks that aren’t visible. If you want to avoid the shallow area you have to paddle more than 570 meters out from the coast. It is marked by a buoy but it would seem that this particular boat hadn’t noticed where exactly it was because they were taking the wrong way around it or just trying to take a short cut 8-O Luckily they figured it out in time before they hit to shallow water. There wasn’t a lot of wind, on the way out about 1-2 m/s from NE, and on the way home 2-3 m/s from SE. It just typical that I would have a head wind in both directions even though it wasn’t very strong :-(

Trip details:
Distance: 22 Km
Speed: 7,3 Km/h moving avg.
Wind from NE around 1-2 m/s turning SE around 2-3 m/s and sunshine with scattered clouds.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 351 Km

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Kayak trip 20100413

April 14th, 2010

My first trip with our junior paddlers, this is there second trip this season. Only 3 of them shoved up today and we where 5 helpers! But to be fair we havn’t really set up any kind of schedule yet for us helpers. These are still the juniors from last year, the new lot dosn’t start until 11th of may. We left from the club and paddled North toward our 4 Km marker. The tempo wasn’t my usual but after a 2 week cold, it was a nice startup again. And I didn’t expect them to keep my usual speed.

Trip details:
Distance: 8 Km
Speed: 6,3 Km/h
Wind from E around 3 m/s and nice sunshine.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 300 Km

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Zell am Ziller 201003

March 26th, 2010

An 7 day ski vacation to to the Austrian Zillertal Arena ski area.

We left late Friday evening around 21:00, we drove by car this time. We were 6 people in 2 cars. The drive down was pretty long, and the last 400 km there was a lot of traffic. So we didn’t arrive before around 11:00 Saturday morning. We had some late breakfast at our apartment, before we left for the rental store and the slopes.

It felt a litlle funny to get into all ones ski gear when down in the valley the sun was shining and there was no snow in sight - and very hot to. Even when we got up on the slopes the weather was still pretty warm. Which in turn had turned the snow into slush.

The first trip was from Übergangsjoch and over to the other side of Isskogel. we were having a drink a a little bar when we noticed that time was running away from us. The last lift back to Übergangsjoch left at 16:00 we arrived at 15:55 so still 5 minutes to spare :-| . When we got back me legs were completely spent. The day we left I could fell that I was starting to get a cold and this was draining a lot of my energies.

Sunday we got a late start mainly due to the switch between winter and summer time, we weren’t on the mountain before 11:00. There were low hanging clouds and a little snow during the day and the temperature was a little lower today. This was the first time that I have ever skied off piste. It was a small run next to one of the slopes, it was a lot of fun even though I did fall a lot. But fortunately the snow off piste is very soft, the last fall was face first and I buried my arm completely in the snow. Even do I had some fairly long breaks my legs were extremely tired when we got down. One thing one has to remember when renting an apartment is to shop for food, which we had all intention of doing except we had forgotten that it was Sunday so all the supermarkets were closed today.

Monday we drove to Kaltenbach which is approximately 7-8 Km from where we are staying. I only had one run today and this because of the snow, on the top it was okay but half way down the slope it became extremely soft and very hard to ski in. There is a small child with us and today was the first time I saw him ski alone, he had a lot of fun on one of the flat slopes.

Tuesday we drove to Hintertux, I was here last November as well on a weekend trip. They have some great slopes but unfortunately the weather wasn’t with us today. We had low hanging clouds, a little snow and a lot of wind. Most of the slopes were closed due to the wind and clouds. But I did get some runs down the blue slopes at the bottom. During the morning the snow was a little icy but during the afternoon it became a little softer and very nice to ski in.

I didn’t go skiing Wednesday, my cold had gotten worse and I was a little feverish and very tired. Instead I walked into town to look at ski boots, so far I have been renting both ski’s and boot’s. I only found one pair that fit me adequately but they were quit expensive. The shop would try to get some more boots in my size by tomorrow from one of their other stores. After browsing boots I took the lift up to have lunch with the others.

Thursday morning I went back into town to see if they had gotten any more boots. They had received another pair of Atomics not the same model as the one I tried yesterday. And these fit me nicely and was also a little cheaper. It was a pair of Atomic Hawx 80 that I got for €315. Even thou i was extremely tired I had to try them out on the mountain. So back to the apartment and change and up with the lift. I only had a few runs due to the weather, it was snowing and foggy. But the boots fit nicely. I think the next investment needs to be a pair of ski goggles as my shades just isn’t cutting it in weather like that ;-)

Friday the weather was very nice, there was some new snow to test out me new boots in. And sofar they seem to perform very well. I took a lot of breaks but managed to ski most of the day even in spite of my cold, which hasn’t gotten any better yet.

Saturday was our last day and we had to pack and clean up the apartment. So there was no skiing today. It was a long trip home especially due to my cold. we also had to change a tire early on as the left rear tired had deformed itself. We were home late Saturday evening.

All in all a good trip I could have done without my cold, and some of the days we could have wished for better weather but it is late in the season so I think we were lucky. And driving by car instead of taking the bus also gives you more freedom to drive to other lift stations than you would normally have had the chance to use.

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Kayak trip 20100324

March 24th, 2010

First kayak trip in over 2 months, it was a little hard to start again as I haven’t had much exercise in those months. I started from “Sønderborg Kajak Klub” (Sonderborg Kayaking club) and paddled north to our 5 Km marker. I was paddling in one of the clubs Tour Kayaks namely a Coast Runner. As the water is still extremely cold I kept pretty close to the shore. One involuntary trip into the water this year has been enough for me. It was a nice little trip to start off with again.

Trip details:
Distance: 10 Km
Speed: 7,3 Km/h
Wind from SE around 4 m/s clouded with a little sunshine.

Total distance paddled in season 2010: 292 Km

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Campitello 201001

February 1st, 2010

An 8 day ski vacation to the beautiful Dolomiti Superski area in Italy.

We arrived early Saturday morning (20100123), after a fairly long bus trip. We were staying in Campitello Val di Fassa in Sport Hotel Enrosadira. After getting our room key and changing into our ski gear it was of to rent boots and skies. Our travel agency had an agreement with Sport Walther in Canazei, so after a short bus ride to Canazei (Get a good hold in the buses because the Italian bus drivers are insane) we had our skies and was ready for the slopes.

I had 3 days of ski school for 3 hours pr. day. It was great to learn the basics, it helped a lot on my style and my ability to ski more securely. It was a group team, with varying degrees of ability, but the instructor was great and able to teach all of us independent of our abilities. They were also good at moving people around on different teams so that the group was more equal in their abilities.

One of my friends had never tried skiing before so we went to Alba and took the lift up to Ciampac which is a great beginner’s area. We had a lot of fun that day and she really got the hang of the basic’s. But when skiing for the first time you get tired really quickly, and being out of shape to begin with doesn’t help! This was also the first time i ever skied down a black slope, which really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We went down pretty slow and I only fell once, it was a gentle fall, which i think was pretty good considering it was my first time.

The last day it had snowed during the night and we had fresh snow to ski in. I went with a group of older people to some of the easy slopes. This was a great day during the morning, the easy slopes and the new snow was great. After lunch i hooked up with some of my friends and we took some of the medium slopes at good speeds.

At early afternoon it was time to leave the slopes we where in the Campitello area and I had to return my skies to Sport Walther in Canazei. And as it was Saturday the buses didn’t run as frequently as on the other days, and I think that the others in the bus would appreciate that i showered as well before leaving. I’m not sure that I would choose to ski on the last day next time if I have to do even a little traveling to return skies and boots. I felt a little pressed for time, but did manage to get showered and eat before we had to start the circus with getting the luggage packed on the bus again.

We left early Saturday evening (20100130), just after dinner. We were informed that 12 more people would be riding home with us, this however required us to travel with a baggage trailer. Despite of the trailer we were home around noon Sunday.

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