Delays

"Arlberg Transport regret to inform you that, due to a signal failure, the Galzihgbahn cablecar is suspended in both directions. Travellers are strongly advised to seek alternative means of transport. Lift passes will be valid on all local snowmobiles and hikers. Arlberg Transport would like to apologise for any delays to your journey."

No, not really. Somehow, they manage to keep the lifts going here. As I’ve mentioned before, the amount of grooming that goes on at night reassures me that my lift pass money is going in the right direction. Over the summer, the Arlberg lift company invested over €13 million in improving the lift system. I’m not sure where this has gone, but the longest lift queue has been roughly two minutes this week. Having said that, it’s also been a very quiet week, with relatively few people about, so we shall see. They’ve installed a new six-person chair up from St. Christophe (on the way back from Stuben), which even has heated seats! Apparently, it’ll move 2,600 skiers an hour, although I’m not sure if this based on the ‘land-rush’ approach of European skiers to queuing. The trails cover 169 miles of slopes, of which about twenty-five percent is ‘beginner’ level. So, plenty for everyone. Apparently, they’ve also added thirty or so new snow canons this season. I have to say, while there’s a bit of a thaw on, and off-piste is suffering badly, the pistes have been in fairly immaculate condition every day.

Right, Mackin, that’s your paragraph of informative chit-chat. Meanwhile, we went on the lash last night. After all, there’s nothing better after a tough week than a Friday evening pint. In fact, I’m still hurting, badly. Ouch. After an afternoon blast down to Stuben (where I think there was probably a total of twenty people on the slopes), we hacked it back to St. Anton for a few sharpeners in the Krazy Kangaruh, pausing briefly for Dex to take out a skier (chalk up another one for the cause). Here follows a chronological bar review…