A collision of chaos and opportunity, the Hintertux gondola line is an interesting epitome of summer skiing in Europe. While skiing isn’t a terribly diverse sport, the profile of people edging their way into the metal-fenced corral (a winding 200 ft queue that leads to the gondola) is broad. You have the people like my team, World Cup skiers who are desperately looking for the best training to prepare ourselves for the fast approaching season. In our case, staying home isn’t really an option, it’s more about which glacier we chose. Then you have American teams, mostly academy or something to a similar extent, who choose Hintertux as their fall training camp because either they have connections there, it’s one of the cheapest options, or they just like the challenge of the unforgiving, inconsistent and often unpredictable weather and snow conditions. Next, you have the seemingly endless amount of euro-kids. These kids are either part of a ski club, a team, or a camp where anyone can join (ex. Austria Ski Camp has been going to Hintertux for years and pretty much anyone can join). The euro-kids come from across the continent (although Hintertux has a considerably large contingency from Italy) range from around five to seventeen years old, and are easy to spot in the lift line: very chatty, a little bit discombobulated, and very aggressive with their elbows! Finally you have the public, as Hintertux isn’t just open for training, but anyone who needs a summer/fall ski-day fix. This makes the weekends particularly busy, but on any given day there can be a hundred public skiers sliding about. I would personally recommend waiting for the winter to recreationally ski.
For the past couple weeks, finding the right time to arrive at the base of the gondola has been a constantly moving target. Depending on the weather, the day of the week, and seemingly a million other intangible factors, the corralled line will fill sometime between 7:00 and 7:40. (This may not seem like a big window, but an extra half-hour of sleep in the morning feels like an eternity during a four week ski camp). The issue is that if you arrive and the coral is full you are forced into the mosh pit that forms at the entrance to the corral. At approximately 8 am the athletes are allowed to go up the first gondola as the coral is opened at the front, which leads to absolute mayhem at the end of the corral as everyone begins to shove their way in. You become consumed by the singular focus to get to the corral entrance. One day we were just outside the entrance to the corral when we arrived, and we were practically lifted off our feet and swept with the crowd towards the opening. I wish I could have taken a video of the chaos, but it is all hands on deck to get to the line with both skis and poles in hand.
The whole experience is exhausting and a bit overwhelming for 8:00 in the morning, so we usually opt for being safe and getting to the gondola at 7:10 which means we are in the line for about an hour each morning before heading up to ski. During this time, there is an incessant chatter of a million different languages being spoken as kids fill the time or catch up with friends. Luckily the weather was never too cold, and I recently made one of the best $10 purchases of my life, and have a nice three legged stool for sitting on the mountain in between runs, or waiting at the base of the gondola. This time is a nice opportunity to think about the day ahead, and also to reflect on the fact that despite Hintertux seeming like the melting pot of ski racing, we are all connected by our similar love and passion for skiing.
Here are some photos of the lift line and also of the past week!
P.S. Exciting news on the team front: Marusa has expanded her lunch repertoire and ate packaged $2 teriyaki noodles for lunch for most of our three weeks in Hintertux in addition to her trusted tuna, corn, tomato noodles. Big steps!
P.P.S. I am starting to learn stick shift which has been very fun, but I will never take double lane roads for granted again.