Downhill in the Alps

One of my hopes since moving to Germany was to ski in the Alps. Finally, after a year and a half I pulled my ski goggles out of storage to spend a day in Scheffau, Austria.

(Decent variety of trails)

My expectations were low before we even left. I figured nothing would compare to the Rockies. This ski hill was technically lower in elevation than where we lived in Aurora. For the entire drive up, we barely saw any snow and it looked like it was going to rain.

Luckily the ski companies had been making so much snow that they had about a 1/2 meter base. The snow literally dropped off sharply at the edge to the grass underneath. Apparently the previous two weeks of above freezing weather melted any hopes for a long ski season. Still, after the morning clouds rolled away, Ayelet's uncle (Gil), cousin (Yuval) and I were able to cruise around the wide trails with very little traffic. Most people avoided the shallow slopes we were sticking to.

As many of you know, I used to ski in the US on a pair of used skis with the appropriately-named "aqua boots." Thankfully the top-notch rental operation in Scheffau got me a set of modern skis that offered everything I had been missing. No longer was I destined to look like I had come out of the 70s with my skis. I was able to cut and curve and really keep up with my 5-year old cousin!

[Editor's note: one of the cutest "images" I have of this day in my mind was when Greg told me how Yuval would follow Gil down the slope like a baby duck follows his momma.]

How School Should Be...

When we think back about our days in middle school, we often can come up with a short list of memories. I'm sure for you that might involve some friends, teachers, and classrooms but not much else.

Last week, I went with 70+ eighth grade students to a small town called Hirschegg, Austria. We stayed at different mountain huts, hiked, repelled off rocky cliffs, and practiced some full-on rock climbing.

To many of you reading this, you might think that doing any of those things with a group of 13- to 14-year-olds doesn't exactly sound like fun. Especially the part where they do your safety check and belay you up and down a 30-foot rock face.

Well, I can let you in on a little secret: for as quirky as we all can be in middle school, the chance to work with young minds has always been rewarding. While being on the job for 24 hours a day for 5 straight days really thins out my "hourly" pay, but the chance to build solid relationships with my students will be what pays off in the coming months. And don't worry - I dropped in mini-science lessons at every turn unless the students brought it up first.

Macro Picture Blog Post Awaits

Ice Cave...no bears spotted

The mountain tops were blanketed under clouds all weekend as Ayelet, her parents, and I spent the weekend in the Austrian Alps. So what do you do when the weather is rainy and in the 50s??? You figure out a way to make it all seem warm and less wet. We went into an ice cave (Dachstein Welterbe).

We started our journey up the steep mountain in a cable car - no more unknown mountain hikes like in Garmisch. We went from the rain at the bottom of the mountain right up into the clouds where it was coming from. All you could see in the distance on our short walk up the hill were the tall pines about 30 feet away.

Now, don't tell on us for this next part because we did see a sign for no photos at the entry. However, I really should have asked for an explanation from the tour guide about this policy. In the future, I think instead I will just test how many people ask me not to take photos from now on. Anyway, enjoy our photos.

The entry was cold, like a walk-in refrigerator. However, there was no ice to be found. We quickly flipped through our English pamphlets(the tour was only spoken in German) and realized it was still above freezing in the first chamber. We walked with our group through the cave bear graveyard (no bones seen) and passed through a large steel door to a claustrophobic freezer. I couldn't get the images out of my head of the gigantic boulders that had fallen from the ceiling after thousands of years of freezing and thawing. I spotted one rock that looked like it was ready to break and passed my scientific observation onto Ayelet. She was not too pleased about my curiosity [AG: here you could substitute the word "paranoia" for "curiosity" ;-) ] at that moment.

Luckily, the small tunnels opened up into giant caverns with waves of frozen water. The temperature now sat around the freezing point and every now and then sprinkles of water pelted us from the rock above. We found many dry spots to pause and take pictures before leaving our dark surroundings for a balmy blast of heat outside. Mission accomplished on making 50s feel warm! The sun never really did come out for us all weekend, but the ice cave made it a memorable trip without comparison.

Ayelet and Eldad on the cable car