A mountain’ network: The Arlberg family and its benefits
The season had to come to an end eventually, but this season’s end happened to be an extra special one. After a long and busy season, characterised by a wide variety of bookings and different guests, the resort slowly began to empty as the school holidays ended. Guests were headed back to their daily routines with freshly made memories of …… still in mind. The temperatures started to rise.
Against expectations, daily bookings coming to an end does not draw an end to an instructor’s season. That is when it comes to enjoying the season to its fullest. As most instructors and seasonal workers do not leave the resort until the very end of the season, eventually, work will start to calm down, and skiing intensifies. During these final days, it is hard to find anybody in the resort who remains untouched by the anticipation of topping off yet another season with an exceptional end.
Although the first week “off “welcomed us with rather disappointing weather, our excitement cannot be diminished. Certainly, skiing at 18 degrees Celsius is not what you would wish for during your final ski adventures while sharing the resort with close to no one except your colleagues.
Nevertheless, that did not stop us. With the motto: “Everyone can ski on perfectly groomed slopes” in mind, we were eager to take on this new challenge and make the best of it. Technical training all morning long in exchange for afternoons spent on our sun-flooded terrace – a tempting mixture of a seemingly never-ending winter and the slight, distant feeling of a warm summer day. As if the weather was to reward us for our patience and determination skiing slushy slopes, it started pounding snow of 20 centimetres a day for more than one whole week. Within the last week of the season, nothing was left on the horizon except powder, powder, powder.
You could not ask for a more excellent gift with a cherry on top to garnish the season’s end. Powder days can never fail to put a smile on an instructor’s face, whether a free-ride rookie or a well-experienced, skilled guide. In our endless euphoria, every day was pow day, and we could not wait to wake up to yet another day of even deeper snow and more affable turns.
As we had almost grown into a little family by then, ‚shredding’ the runs of Stuben, Zürs, and St.Anton together was on every day’s agenda. The memories we created, riding through chest-highest-high snow together, will surely last a lifetime. One memory that always makes me smile is of one seemingly endless powder day in April spent in a smaller group.
Despite lacking experience and knowledge concerning alpine safety, avalanches, or the choice of runs at the Arlberg, we quickly got our daily powder runs on safe runs close to a proper off-piste experience. Running repeatedly up and down the Trittalp-chairlift, we never had to ski one line twice.
However, in retrospect, what truly made that day special was our luck of having become part of the Arlberg community throughout the season: One of the season’s greatest gifts was meeting so many different, inspiring individuals, all sharing a passion for snow sports.
Whether it was within the ski school, during bookings, in restaurants, at après, band gigs or simply through familiar friends, without knowing it, the new connections we had made throughout the season were about to really pay off that day: Knowing both instructors and workers such as lifties in the resort, you could barely catch a run without running into a familiar face.
As the snow was still pounding and our knees started to call for help, we decided to go for a coffee break. And why meet up in a restaurant when you can simply stop by your favourite life’s office at the bottom of the chairlift?
Whilst we were enjoying our coffee in the lift’s control room after having a private tour behind the scenes, we observed guests and guides passing by and just as we had finally made it back into our ski bindings, Nina, a well-experienced ski guide and part of our instructor’s house was passing by. When we jumped onto the same lift, one witnessed a typical situation describing the guide’s spirit and Arlberg’s lovely network.
Without hesitating, Nina checked our avalanche receivers – the famous “PIEPS-Check”, and within seconds, we had been “adopted” for the day. Just minutes later, we found ourselves in one of the most enjoyable off-piste runs of the season and – more importantly, in the best company a free-ride beginner could ask for. With countless years of expertise, Nina could have thrown herself into a more challenging and adventurous run without waiting for us, but lucky for us, she decided not to that day.
As the day went on, we could not be stopped; one ran even better than the other, smiling so brightly that our cheeks started to hurt. After having lunch together, the day slowly seemed to end, and with tons and tons of end-of-season packing still left to do, we decided to head back home.
It wasn’t until the next lift that we were greeted by yet another friendly face of one of Lech’s experienced ski guides leaning at the gates of the Rüfi gondola in Lech.
Still determined to call it a day and responsibly making our way home, we hopped onto the lift and happily chatted when he asked in passing, “Ihr fahrts noch a Rundn?” – “Are you going for another run?”. Of course, on days like these, at the very end of an exceptional season, with a ski guide on hand, being a young instructor striving to learn more and more, there is no other possible answer except for: “Fix.” – “Sure.”
And there we were, drawing beautiful lines into the untouched snow of “Steinmännle”. Not entirely unexpected, we did not finish after one run but took every little chance to dive into powder snow on our way from Lech to Stuben. Every. Single. One. As if these runs hadn’t been incredible enough, our friendly guide decided to give us a few technical aspects to keep an eye on, which later on turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice I had received all season.
Sharing knowledge and experience, as well as sacrificing personal free time, is something that most ski guides and experienced instructors never hesitate to do. It’s a beautiful spirit and a sense of community that I would have never expected to encounter and have barely experienced anywhere before. Not only did more experienced instructors offer advice, but by catching after-work runs with colleagues, we would always watch one another’s technique and ambitiously exchange ideas about what could be improved—a truly exceptional spirit.
The Arlberg and its people welcome you with open arms, and the unparalleled snow sport spirit embraced by every single community member is one of the most important and memorable things I was lucky to experience throughout the season. An extraordinary mountain with a unique ‘network’.
Ann-Marit Micheel – Ski instructor from Germany
Picture Kristof Stursa
