9/4/09- Stelvio Pass, Italy! Trip Day 1 & 2: Travel Days Christie made us cookies for our trip! And lots of them. We could barely make it out the front door of her condo building without people asking where the party was and how they could get cookies too. We arrived at the airport at around noon and didn’t have any problems checking in. They didn’t even charge us for overweight bags which was a good thing as our ski bag was probably pushing 70 lbs. We boarded the plane in Burlington en-route to Washington D.C. and ended up spending an extra hour in the air circling before we landed in Syracuse, NY to re-fuel. There ended up being severe weather in D.C. They shut the airport down until it passed. So we waited on the plane as time ticked by and our 5:30pm flight to Munich came and went. We knew there was and 8:00pm flight, so as long as we got out soon we’d make it. Finally they cleared us to take off and we landed in D.C. to find a traffic jam of planes. Every plane it seemed was sitting somewhere on a runway or the tarmac waiting to take off. It was a mess. We then sprinted down to the Luftansa counter to see if we could get on the flight and the let us on, but the people behind us weren’t allowed on, so we really lucked out. As we got to our seats a flight attendant came down the aisle and proceeded to ask every male around us if they were sitting in seat 37C. That was my seat, so I showed her my ticket and she gave me a funny look and very skeptically asked if I had checked a “weapon” onto the flight. I said yes and so our rifles was cleared for the flight and that was that, we were on our way. 8 hours later… We arrived in Munich and find BethAnn and Dave (teammates and our partners for the trip). We get the rental car and proceed to stuff 2 ski bags, 2 rifle cases, 4 duffels and a number of back packs and computer bags and 4 people into a car the size of a Subaru outback. We all had seat belts and the skis were secured on tight on the top so we were good to go. We next made our way down to the German town of Schlecking where our ski grinder, Muck, lives. There was lots of “stau”, German for traffic jams, on the way. We arrived in Schleching to find it time for siesta, meaning all the shops and restaurants were closed for several hours during the middle of the day so people can go home and take a nap, as Muck was doing. We were at his place to pick up some skis, ammo, and wax equipment. Once that was loaded we got some very disapproving looks as to how we were traveling. Muck asked us over and over to check the skis in Innsbruck to make sure that they were still tight on top of the car and he laughed at us being so crammed into the car. 3 hours later… We made our way out of Germany through Austria, past Innsbruck, and into Italy. We always joke that Germany and Austria can be cloudy, but once you get into Italy it’s sunny and nice. Well today it was raining in Germany and cloudy in Austria and of course sunny in Italy. I think it comes with the culture. The Italians are so cheerful and laid back and it was apparent on our drive to Stelvio pass. We kept encountering road signs that would tell you how many kilometers it was to the pass, first it was 38 then 42, then 35, then 37. And we were supposedly getting closer. But with the Italians who cares how far it is, it’s about 37 kilometers, or so, you’ll get there, you’ll make it, in the mean time sip some cappuccino and enjoy life. It is that way with time as well. An Italian will tell you they’ll be there in 5 minutes (everything is 5 minutes by the way) and they could be there in 3 minutes or a half an hour, but that doesn’t matter. It’s only 5 minutes down the road (more like 2 hours) or they’ll open in 5 minutes (or tomorrow). I love it. It’s such a different way of life and it’s so nonchalant. It’s quite relaxing at times. So, we are made our way to Stelvio pass where we’ll be skiing on a glacier for 2 weeks. The road to get up to the top of the pass has 48 hair pin switchbacks. And there are signs to mark each one, counting them down from the bottom to the top. This section of road is famous as a stage in the Giro d’Italia bike race. A grueling climb… something we are extremely excited to bike. We’ll bike the pass next week! It’ll take anywhere from 2-3 hours of straight uphill climbing. It’ll be an epic bike for sure. The road itself is a little more than one and a half lanes and there are sections where you can look straight up and see the next corner and then the next one. At one point you come out of the trees and you can see the road up ahead snaking its way back and forth up to the top. The top of the pass is around 8,500 feet. Our hotel, the Thuni 3000, is at 3000 meters or just about 9,000 feet. The glacier where we’ll be skiing is close to 10,000 feet! When we made it to the top of the pass we reached a village. A cluster of 3-4 hotels and a couple of shops and bars… not much at all. We started to look around for our hotel and couldn’t find it. We asked some of the locals and no one seemed to speak any English and our Italian is very poor if not completely non-existent. We finally managed to find out that our hotel was up the mountain further on a very steep, very windy 4WD road. The way to get there; take the gondola (which was closed) or call the hotel and they’ll come pick you up. So we opted for the later and 10 minutes later we were greeted by a banged up range rover hauling a small trailer. We then piled all of our duffels and ski bags into the trailer and hopped in the car. By now the sun had set and we’d be guided by the cars headlights. We left the paved parking lot and started up a narrow dirt road, but not before the driver put the car in 4WD. We then proceeded up the extremely steep bump road trying to hold on best we could while our bags jumped all over the trailer in the back. We were all very excited to finally make it to our destination. We had a late dinner and discussed how we each thought we wouldn’t be able to sleep that night because we were all so giddy. Stelvio pass is one of the most unbelievable places I have ever been. It is so breathtakingly beautiful and not just because the air is so thin at 9,000 feet.