We had our first Alps skiing adventure yesterday at a ski area about an hour outside of Vienna. With Cascade-like weather (a couple of degrees above freezing), we loaded as a family for the ride to the top. The ski passes here use electronic chips that are sensed as you pass through turnstyles. You just have to make sure that its in an upper lefthand pocket, or the turnstyles will lock. By the end of the day it seem like I was almost taking my jacket off to get the pass to register.
Zoey seemed ready to go, but Logan was a little aprehensive about the steepness of the first pitch. After a little bit of coaching, with me skiing backwards, she remembered what she could do and skied her most challenging terrain yet. After lunch, with the girls eating strudel in a smoke-filled chalet, I was able to really get some turns in, but the top of the mountain was socked in so I was limited to the lower moderate runs. Besides Ashley and me, we saw only one other teleskier.
So what people say about the lift lines in Europe is mostly true. Though no one skied over my skis, there is no order and cutting is accepted without even a frown. On a busy Saturday just after the holidays, there were alot of people, and I used my elbows a couple of times to keep people behind me from getting between me and the kids. I hooked up for a few runs with a local, and watching him ignore the people cutting in front of us helped me to maintain my cool. I will never scowl at the lifty police at home again.