Ramsau Life

Training camp often implies a certain factor of monotony.  Long hours of training are followed by napping, resting, and preparing for more training.  Distractions are limited to enhance recovery.  Tired bodies lead to tired minds which often don’t correlate with much intellectual involvement. This past week in Ramsau, Austria with my Craftsbury Green Racing Project teammates has seemed much more like a very athletic vacation than a training camp.  Each day provides new excitement and adventure.  Not once has training felt like a job but instead with each session I feel incredibly lucky to be active and outside in such a beautiful location.  

The view from behind our house.  The farmer who is renting to us even brings us pitchers of fresh milk from the cows grazing outside.

Our days usually begin around 6:15 or 6:30am with a groggy breakfast.  The first few mornings were extra challenging to wake up but we stumbled into the kitchen fighting the jet lag and the time change and hungrily devoured big bowls of fruit, yogurt, and muesli with hot mugs of coffee.  We were ready to start the day.  Our commute involves driving 10km from our house in town to the tram station, switchbacking through green fields along the base of the mountain.  Town is situated at around 1,100 meters (3,700ft) and the tram station is about 500 meters higher.  The real elevation gain happens when we get into the tram and climb straight up along the cliffs to the upper station situated at 2800meters.

I have been impressed with the vibrant green of the pastures but we have had a fair share of rainy weather to nourish the grass.

The tram ascends directly to the top of the peak without any poles.  The first morning I couldn't tell if my racing heart during the tram ride was from the elevation or my excitement to ski.

From the tram station we walk a couple hundred meters down to the trails, strap on our skis, and start the morning session.  The trail switchbacks tightly across the glacier, packing in 9km of skiing in a small area.  Sometimes these types of loops on a glacier can become repetitive but so far that hasn’t happened and the training time flies by.  Being on snow in the summer is a great opportunity to work on technique, to transfer any technical changes made on rollerskis onto actual skis so I have a focus for each session, a small goal to concentrate my energy toward.  Dachstein glacier is also one of the most popular XC summer training locations in the world so we are not alone on the glacier and are instead skiing our laps with other elite skiers from Sweden, Russia, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Austria, Germany, and Kazakhstan.  

Switchbacks across the glacier

Skiing! (GRP Facebook Page photo)

I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the snow and grooming on the glacier.  Often glacier skiing can be soft and mushy but they groom almost continuously and the skiing has been excellent with a range of snow conditions.  A couple of the warmer days were slushier but one day it snowed and we had fresh packed powder!

Skiing with the other Ida (Ida Ingemarsdotter from Sweden) during a foggy whiteout powder day (Pepa photo)

Testing new skis! Zach Caldwell, who was in Austria for a trip to the Fischer factory, skied with us one morning and we tested new skis.  I have worked with Zach for a long time and he has helped build my fleet of Fischer skis and also keeps them running fast by dialing them in with new grinds and structures. This morning we had eight  new pairs of skate skis on the snow and there were a lot of fast ones!  (Caldwell Sport photo)

After a couple hours of skiing, we take the tram off the mountain and drive home for lunch and recovery.  We are renting a big house in town with wonderful views and only a short walk into the center of town.  I usually try to get off my feet for a little while after lunch but I’m horrible at napping so I have usually spent my afternoon getting sun on the deck off my bedroom or curling up with a book near the fire on the rainier days.

The view from the deck 

Our afternoon session is dryland training and usually involves a hike or run in the mountains.  The trail system here is endless and all very well marked which makes it easy to explore.  Some trails climb high into the mountains while others meander through the pastures and even driveways and backyards.  We haven’t seen any private property signs here and instead everyone is out sharing the land and getting their exercise.  We have had a lot of cloudy and rainy weather this past week so we’ve missed many of the beautiful views in the valley but the forecast for the upcoming week looks very promising for some sunny days of training.

A misty OD hike

Climbing over a pass

Descending out of the fog

Skiwalking above town with Caitlin (Andrew Dougherty photo)

We are taking turns cooking dinners for the team and have been surprising even ourselves with the incredible amounts of food that we consume with every meal.  At first we shopping at the local market but since it sold only small European sized portions, we branched out and found a bulk grocery store for the rest of our shopping.  Containers are measured in kilograms and we still have to shop every few days.  Yogurt is of course the training fuel of choice and we easily polished off a 10kg bucket of it in less than two days!

Ethan sized pan of mac and cheese

And if the daily training days haven’t been exciting enough, we have turned into tourists on our recovery days, visiting the nearby town of Schladming on our afternoon off and the city of Salzburg on our "off" day. 

Exploring Schladming on a rainy afternoon.  The last time I had been in town was for an Alpine World Cup night slalom so it was a little quieter in town this time.

Fresh pretzels are my favorite Austrian treat.  The markets in Salzburg sold so many different flavors of sweet and salty pretzels!

Salzburg

Rooftop views

Life is good and I’m feeling very grateful to have the opportunity to train in such a beautiful place.  I have my fingers crossed and my sunscreen and shades ready for some sunny weather for the next week of camp. 

Prost!