Mini Break in Ramsau

The day after our last race in the Tour, a group of us packed up and headed from Toblach, Italy to Ramsau, Austria for six days of recovery and skiing. The only other time I had been to Ramsau was when I was there with my family over Christmas last year. This was my first time staying in the cozy Hotel Kobaldhof that the US Ski Team always stays in on trips. When we arrived, there was plenty of snow. The hotel owner said it still wasn't a ton, but there was significantly more snow than there was when my family was there last year and I was excited by the prospect of being able to ski out the hotel door. 

View from our hotel room when we arrived in Ramsau

Simi overlooking Ramsau on our first ski

I was glad I got out for a ski the first day because the following day the temperatures rose and we were sunbathing on our decks. That night it poured and we woke up the following morning to much less snow. It continued to stay warm and rain through the next day and night and we lost even more snow. We could no longer ski from our hotel, but the stadium still had enough snow to ski on and make a pretty good loop out of. Luckily, my training plan mostly consisted of off days and rest days in the beginning, so the lack of snow wasn't too much of a problem.

We were eating delicious meals at our Hotel. We each got an entire fish one night and Sadie wasn't sure how to eat it. I'm no expert, but I don't think this was the correct way.

There were still some pretty views despite the rain

Sunny deck time

Rainy ski time

When we woke up Monday morning, the rain had switched to snow! The ground was once again covered in white and we could ski from our hotel. Sadie and I went on an awesome classic tour  on many of the open trails. Our last two days in Ramsau were perfect. The sun and snow came just in time to start a little training after our rest period. 

Sadie standing in a field of POWDER on our classic ski

Sades finding some more untouched snow

It actually wasn't THAT warm, but we decided to make a little bikini ski video for Liz on her Birthday :)

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove to Munich, Germany. We reorganized all of our belongings and packed for the next 12 days in Eastern Europe. Our first stop is Otepaa, Estonia for a World Cup sprint weekend and after that we head to Rybinsk, Russia for a skate sprint and two distance races. Eastern Europe usually doesn't come with the sun and food that central Europe has, but it's always an experience and a fun part of our European tour. We arrived in Estonia last night and went for our first ski on the courses this morning. Everything looks great and we're looking forward to getting our sprint on in two days!