Croissants and Whippers: Our Winter Wunderland...

So, it has been over a year since our last post and man what a year it has been! Last Christmas was spent with the Salmons skiing in Galtur, Austria. It was such an amazing experience, a seriously wonderful family holiday that we both still think about often and feel so blessed to have been a part of. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Buentali was just gorgeous, the staff were super friendly and the food.... Ridiculous! A breakfast buffet that puts the Marriott to shame and a 7 course dinner made with only fresh local produce every night. It’s a good thing we were skiing everyday or I would have busted through my pants.

We had ski lessons with the hilarious Willy! Not the most patient of instructors which was as funny as it was frustrating. Learning everything from the ‘snow pluff’ to stopping quickly by going ‘Dooooown and to the mountain. Down Lady, DOWN and to the mountain!” I only had one major stack which was a pretty epic fail.... just skied straight off the edge of a run. I don’t actually even know how it happened but I properly had one of those mid-air, time slows down moments of “Oh Shit.... this is going to really hurt!” But nothing a Hot Chocolate with Stroh couldn’t fix. Stroh is this crazy Austrian rum that comes in both 40% and 80%. We made the mistake of buying the 80%. I’ve never actually drunk anything that literally took me breath away like Stroh did. It is firewater, so potent it actually gave Rich a nose bleed. As terrible as it was, we managed to almost finish the bottle over the course of 10 days. We had to leave the remainder behind though as we weren’t allowed to take it on the plane, there is actually a little ‘do not take on planes’ warning symbol on the back!

Austria stole our hearts. Hiking in the woods through knee deep snow, exploring and getting lost in its beauty. We can not wait to go back and have more adventures in the spring, summer and autumn when the snow melts away and the boulders are exposed just begging to be climbed! Austria really has the mountain lifestyle that we crave. World class bouldering, epic sport climbing, trail running, skiing, beautiful people, amazing food. We would love to do a couple of seasons to really explore this beautiful country.

Heading back to Wales after Christmas, we had to really sit down and re-assess what our goals were, where we wanted to go and where we were actually heading. We decided that it might be worth looking into what work within the climbing/outdoor industry we could get back home. I emailed our local gym (there is only one on the GC) and asked about the possibility of training up and getting work. We received an email back saying that if we were to return home, to come in and we could definitely talk about some options. So with a glimmer of hope, we put the Van up for sale and planned to be home as soon as it sold.

Within a week, we had a buyer. Unfortunately we took a massive loss on the sale but it wasn’t a good time to be selling so we simply had to cut our losses and roll with it. The guy who bought it wanted it for commercial purposes so we had to gut it before he came to pick it up. Tearing our life out of that van was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Even losing my business and shutting the doors on that was less gut-wrenching. I cried, sobbed even, as we took apart our bed and pulled out the cupboards. To anyone walking past, I must have looked like a 4 year old that had been told to clean up their toys as punishment for being naughty. Tears streaming down my face, shallow sobs and whimpers as I made trip after trip in and out, carting amazing memories with every step. That Van was our first “Home”. It wasn’t much but it was ours and it was awesome.

We booked our flights and a couple of days later, we were home.