It’s our annual trip to Kitzsteinhorn, Kaprun, Austria but let’s be real, how productive is a ski training camp here, the land of the Après? While we did get some pipe trick reps in while appreciating the incredible views of the Alps, our real focus was to maximize the schnitzel eating. And boy did we meet our goal.
The weather didn’t treat us well this trip: only getting around 6 ski days in 2 weeks, but we consoled ourselves at at Bergrestaurant Gletschermüle at the mid-station on the mountain with Kaiserschmarrn, scrambled pancakes with a dust of powdered sugar, served with applesauce. Jiggly and sweet, but some extra powder sugar (or even lemon juice for a zing) would be appreciated to add some more flavor to the otherwise flat dish.
With many unsuccessful attempts to wait out the snow and wind at the ski lodge at the top on training days, we were basically forced to sample a lot of the traditional Austrian ski lodge cuisine. One highlight was the currywurst: sausage on a plate smothered in a sweet savory curry sauce. Gnarly, but delicious. How do you make sausage that good??? We also tried Flädlesuppe, a hot, thin beef broth containing strips of pancakes inside which was perfect for the cold days.
After skiing, most of my days were filled with school work (why did I decide to take a Stanford computer science class?) and the gym (yeah I bench 97.8 pounds. I converted from kilos, every pound counts), but we also got to hit the cold plunge in the Zell Am See lake followed up by a nice long sauna sesh. We also upped our schnitzel numbers everyday with the BILLA schnitzel sandwich: highly recommend.
On one of the few sunny days, we aprèsed at Gipfel, a restaurant at 3000 meters sat the very top of Kitzsteinhorn with panoramic views of the dramatic mountains. They know how to make an aperol spritz I must say. They also know how to make a solid spiked hot chocolate. They also know how to serve a good beer. Not that I would know anything about any of that because I’m not 21. Then if you hit pavilion for a little disco afterwards, a great night ensues. (It’s really fitting that Hotch is in the background of both of these photos)
We made an appearance at Die Schneiderei a solid number of times. Their sticky ribs are crispy and layered with sweet, sticky barbecue sauce. Their pizza is basically soup: a hot, runny, cheesy first bite that will cure your hangover. Their schnitzel (seriously, someone get a running count going) with cranberry sauce is so delicious that it makes you forget that you haven’t had a single vegetable in weeks. Their burger is mediocre, though and their garlic cheese bread is BAD.
Head Skis invited us to their massive sales meeting of the year, forcing, sorry I mean, allowing me to speak in front of 150 people and wooing us with dinner and their new products for the 2024 season. Dinner was great and Heidelbeernocken, traditional Austrian blueberry pancakes, with caramel sauce was my treat to myself for public speaking; the only thing scarier than flipping and spinning out of a 22 foot ice tube.
On the last two days, we got treated to ~80 cm of fresh snow, pretty much unheard of in November here. The whole crew went powder skiing and got fresh tracks for laps on laps while the locals stuck to their regular skinning track. Apparently the one day the Euros don’t want to cram into a gondola is on the best snow day of the year.
Finally headed back to Stanford to finish out the rest of the quarter, pray for me, we stayed a night in Munich. Couldn’t forget to sample a bratwurst at the Christmas market in the center of the Munich airport. Apparently, everybody loves a sausage in the middle of a long travel day, because the lines were insane. But so was the sausage so it was worth it. We then assembled a crew to head to the Hofbräuhaus, an annual tradition at this point, to drink some insanely oversized beers. Many oversized beers were drunk. Enough said. But I still made my morning flight this year 🙂
Zoe's World 