Mountains, mountains, MOUNTAINS!!

The past 5 days have been filled with mountainous activities..

An overview of awesomeness:
Boarding at Werfenweng (vair-fen-veng)
Untersberg
Boarding in Flachau (flah-kow)
..then a bunch of Brits joined us..
Boarding in Flachau
..celebrated New Years Eve..
Sledding down the Werfenweng mountain

Boarding in the Austrian Alps at Werfenweng. 

On the Thursday before new years, we skied in Werfenweng..  it was a great day. We were a bit worried because it was raining on the way there, but silly us.. we were going on top of a mountain!  Rain is snow up there! It was awesome!! 

It was Erika and Miranda's first time boarding, and they did great!! And Chris and Jess learned to ski! 

It was fun.. and insanely tiring.. I have NEVER been on runs that long before, and my quads were on fire! ..It definitely took some adjusting.

Boarding was soo great.. it was snowing the whole time, but luckily I had borrowed helmet and goggles from Jan, one of Louie's friends. Everyone wears helmets up here.. when I first told my friend in Germany that not a lot of people wear helmets at home, he was shocked.  But then also I thought to myself, at home I ski on a hill, not on a big ass mountain in the Austrian Alps.

We went to a hockey game later on in the night as well.

The next day we went to the top of the Untersberg.

In summertime you can hike up this nearby mountain, the Untersberg, to get to the top and see gorgeous views of other mountains and of Salzburg. But in winter, most use the gondola to get to the top. I figured that we would take the gondola up, and there would be a platform with a view and then a restaurant where we could eat. We figured this would be good, because it would give us a nice view and a break before skiing again tomorrow (nye) in Flachau...

It was a big surprise that when we got to the top, there was a hike to another mountain peak.. it didntblook too bad and naturally, most of us did it. 
= Definitely NOT an easy day.. the way was COVERED in snow.. maybe I shouldn't say just covered, because it wasn't only covered.. in some parts it was multiple feet (or almost a meter) deep! A few times I found myself knee deep in snow!  There were slopes up and down, steep and flat, but mostly steep, which made for a fun and tiring time getting there and back! Especially in boots with absolutely no traction on the bottom.
When we got to the top, it was more stunning than I could've imagined, there was a view of the city and area for miles on one side, and on the other were just miles and miles (kilometers and kilometers) of mountains. There was a cross at the top too, which I thought was nice.. especially since I have a stong faith; it helped me to remember why we have such beautiful places and who provided them for us. It was so humbling and good. I can't believe how blessed I am, with so many good people, beautiful places and different cultures all around me. I feel so Happy and proud with myself for having the courage to come on this trip, I don't know if I will ever make a better decision in my life. I am also soo thankful for everyone at home who have been soo supportive and encouraging to me. It really is/was a bigger help than they know.

All in all, it was absolutely gorgeous.  Louie and I agreed that we could stay up there for hours and not have a problem with it.  But alas, at some point it was time to return, sliding, falling and getting all snowy along the way.. it was a hard climb, but soo much fun.

Skiing in Flachau (2 days)

The next 2 days we skiied in Flachau! It was awesome! ...after spending 2 hours between renting everything and getting up the mountain on the first day. My legs felt a lot less tired. Jack and Loraine took ski lessons!  They did great!  Checked learning/skiing in the Alps off their list. Louie's coworker and friend Angela came last night with her brother Mike and his friend Marc, but are seasoned Alps skiers.. their friend Johnny came as well.. he was not a seasoned skier and well the plan for skiing 2 days in Flachau for him changed to just one after the 1st day Hah!  And Miranda and Erika continued boarding. Unfortunately since the morning took so long today went by quick.

The next day was and awesome, beautiful day.. at one point I wanted to board with no jacket, it was so sunny and warm. I didn't have goggles, because Louie's friend and coworker, Jan, came with a bunch of friends from England and I was borrowing his helmet and goggles prior, but it wasn't bad at all today because the weather was soo nice all I wore were my sunnies!

Let me take a minute to just express the amazingness of the people who joined us.. Jan, his sister Lucy, friend Gary, and Ben, along with Angela, Johnny, Mike and Marc.. and the rest of us who were already here, Louie, Stevie, Erika, Miranda, Jessica, Chris, Carl, Jack, Loraine, and Joe.. with this crew we had an incredibly fun few days and New Years Eve.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, as I did while these guys were here.. f#*&ing hilarious.

The next morning we woke up to go sledding (sledging as the English call it) in Werfenweng!

It was more awesome than I could've imagined..  I knew we were going sledding on a mountain, I guess I just didn't realize that we'd be sledding down the whole thing!  There was a small scare though, because after taking the gondola up and the chairlift over (it was at the same place as we skiied the first day), we ate in the lodge, then went to go pick up our sleds.. and well.. they didn't have any sleds! We waited awhile, Jan and Louie tumbled down the hill at one point because they were pushed, all of us laughed soo hard we could barely breath; I can't even truly express it through words.. It was soo funny watching them falling and slipping the whole way back up to us.

A guy left to go get sleds from the bottom and bring them back up, and finally after quite some time he drove back up with a big van full of sleds and nearly hit us with the truck as he parked! Maybe he was mad that he actually had to do some work??  Oh well, most importantly, we got our sleds! Angela and I road down together. It was soo much fun!  I like the parts where we were close to other sleds that had our friends on them, but it was also a little bit scary to get too close. We literally sled rode down the whole thing; zigzagging back and forth all the way to the bottom, with an AMAZING view along the way. It took a good half hour, I wish it could've lasted longer though, it was soo much fun. Angela was in front and I steered from the back. We were a great team, had no problems at the turns, or anything.. we liked to rub it in the other's faces after we were done. :)

I didn't realize we'd be doing soo much; this little holiday has seriously been amazing and soo much fun! I'm soo blessed to have met so many amazing people too.. soo many times I had to take a second to just step back, enjoy the view, and think to myself.. This really happening right now.. and it's soo awesome and I'm soo thankful.

<3 M

#mylifeisawesome