Snowboarding meets T-Bar

After a week in Austria my tired muscles asked for a break today, and a little bit of protein. I've skied once and boarded 3 times in 7 days. I've visited 3 separate resorts too. As I mentioned though, there is very little new snow. There's good news on the horizon though, it's raining right now. Hopefully about a thousand feet above me it's falling white.

As you all know skiing and snowboarding is a social sport where after a period of exercise you get to sit on the lift and glorify how hard your buddy crashed on the last run. Of all things, the lift should offer no opportunity to crash on its own. Yet, in Austria, they've figured out a way. It's an old piece of machinery, long since removed from the States--the dreaded T-bar. It's a device that is shaped like a T and it drags you up the hill while you ski/board up. While skiing, the T settles nicely under you bum (you face directly uphill), while boarding, it goes in between your legs and pulls in an ever so invasive manner at your inner-thigh (you face sideways). There is no socializing, take a few unkind words as the bar yanks you up the hill. Below is a lousy picture of people attempting the ride up the dreaded bar. Above is me risking my body to take a picture while dragging up the hill.

On a brighter note, Austria is beautiful. Even if the snow has been compacted, it still offers great scenery and an intriguing mix of cultures (many other nationalities vacation here, such as Romanians, Slovenians, Italians, etc.). I'm just sure that the people in the background of this ski-train photo were speaking Romanian.