Tag: Skiing

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Skiing on Glaciers

Kevin’s two images reminded me of ski resorts, and I love skiing. I’ve skied in my native country Sweden, in the Alps, as well as the Rocky Mountains. The mountain in one of Kevin’s images above remind of Matterhorn, a mountain in Switzerland, and part of the Alps. Therefore, I decided to write about a couple of adventures that I had in the Alps.

When I was young me and my brother and a friend bought Interrail passes, and we travelled around Europe. I should say that since we lived in Sweden that’s where we started. We visited several countries including Austria (not to be confused with Australia). We stopped in Zell Am Zee to ski on the kitzsteinhorn glacier. It was the end of June, which is a perfect time for glacier skiing. It is warm but you still have snow. We skied in our shorts and t-shirts, and some women skied in their bikinis. The snow was a bit wet, but it was still good skiing.

In the slope we met a Swedish actor and his girlfriend. The Swedish actor was a celebrity in Sweden so to us that was very exciting. We ended up spending the entire day together.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

My next adventure was more of a misadventure. I was with a group of friends who travelled from Sweden to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southern Germany for a ski vacation. First of all, we had booked a rather strange youth hostel for our stay and second of all I had a ski accident resulting in amnesia. Having amnesia was a strange experience.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a beautiful Bavarian town, and it is one of the most famous German ski resorts. Zugspitze Germany’s highest mountain is nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen providing for an impressive scenery. I was there with a large group of Swedish friends, and we stayed at a youth hostel. As is typical for a youth hostel men and women were separated. What was a bit unusual were all the loudspeakers.

Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig.

At 10:00PM on our first evening at the youth hostel the loudspeakers came on and someone started shouting “Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig. Alle Gäste müssen gehen und sich die Zähne putzen. Musik ist verboten. Die Lichter beginnen zu dimmen.” We had to be quiet and go brush our teeth. The lights started dimming and women and men had to go to their quarters. The loudspeaker came on every now and then barking orders at us in German and all windows and doors were locked electronically. Being from Sweden we followed orders, but we were laughing about it. Suddenly new voices started shouting in the loudspeaker. It was younger sounding voices. It was still in German but this time we were told to rebel against the hotel management, we were told to refuse to go to bed, and they started singing fighting songs in German. Then, suddenly the loudspeakers went quiet. The hotel management was back. We all had to go to bed. Well, it was budget lodging after all.

The Ski Accident

What happened the next day I do not remember myself, but this is what I have been told. I decided to go down an icy double black diamond slope despite the sign saying that the conditions were dangerous. I fell badly, hit my head (I had no helmet), and I got a severe shoulder displacement. My arm was hanging on my back. I went looking for my skis and tried to put them back on, but some Germans came down to stop me. They were screaming at me and calling me crazy. An ambulance was called, and they sent snowmobiles to pick me up. However, the snowmobiles were unable to get there so they got a pist-machine to get me instead. I had no pain, but I was confused, and I discovered and rediscovered my severe shoulder displacement about 10 times before I got to the hospital. I had no short-term memory, and I had forgotten my friends and most other things.

My memories come back

I remember my friends coming into my room asking me questions such as “what’s my name?”, “do you remember where we are?”. I kind of liked all the attention I got but I understood that something was not right. No one knew whether I would ever get my memory back and going through immigration and customs might be an issue when you don’t remember much. The leader and organizer of the trip was very upset. However, a few days later my memories came back very quickly within just a few hours. It sorts of clicked. I should add  that the 2-3 days that followed the accident are still gone. I have to admit I was happier when I couldn’t remember anything. The world is so much better when you don’t remember how bad it is.