How To: Obergurgl

Q: What do you give the man who has everything?

2020 A: A meeting with his first granddaughter and a brownie.

And then proceed to go on the best ski trip ever known to parents of young children. 

Any ideal ski trip starts on the train:

Three backpacks and four huge bags because little Biggs weren't carrying their own bags.

while doing this:

But sometimes your train is canceled 20 minutes before departure and the floor of another train heading the same direction will do.

Current bag count: 13-14: five backpacks, three small rollies, two big rollies, one snack bag, and one empty bag to put jackets/hats into

And maybe your husband has a deadline so he'll fashion a standing desk to work on a Saturday.

I was planning on giving-up complaining about AI for Lent but instead I went for abstaining from Youtube. Sorry not sorry. 

The hotel will have amazing amenities:

like a Hugie Hole in your apartment

or go-carts 

 or parcours

or ponies

or waterslides

or maybe just silly little jacuzzis that fill with sulfur smelling water when you press a button. 

There will be bro-time:

Walking-up to Neuschwanstein while eating quarkball donuts (Silver lining of the week before the pandemic in Germany, we could get in without a reserving in advance because all the Asian tourists cancelled.)

or zooming down night sledding

Needless to say, our trip to Obergurgl, Austria would not be Coco approved. This year, Papa gets a birthday dedicated blog post. Is that a downgrade from six years ago? You be the judge.

This year's ski trip was a continuation of the shift from the little kid phase of ski trips that "needed" to include hotels with a waterslide. The focuses are now snow "sureness", walkability to the ski school, and bacon availability at breakfast. Our resident trip planner has identified a few interest areas of high elevation to check out for future ski visits. Paul still thirsts for adventure and works it in where he can whilst I only travel for people I love and/or skiing. 

This year we're getting our priorities straight - planning the ski trip first and then doing our taxes. Families with more than two kids need to be extra early or you'll be paying for two rooms instead of one suite type set-up. Although two bathrooms are still very, very desirable. We got lucky this year not getting a Norovirus type illness but were less fortunate here, here, and here.

The town of Obergurgl, just up from Solden, is at an elevation of over 1900 m / 6000 ft. As such it is about as "snow sure" as you can get in Europe. Most hotels operate on a Saturday to Saturday reservation schedule between Christmas and late February. Many ski schools will do a test to determine the kids' ski levels on the first day and then they'll be in a group for the rest of the week.

Last year we made the mistake of sending our skiers into the test "cold". As such, one skier did not end up in the preferred ski group. This year, I pushed for the kids to ski with us the first day, Sunday, and then start ski lessons on Monday. I told Paul that I could likely teach the kids how to ski better than teenage, Dutch ski instructors. 

I mean, I can still ski backwards.

However, Paul was correct in his hesitations. The first day the kids looked like this. 

By the end of the week the boys could more or less keep up with us:

Carmen still lags behind but she's the happiest little straggler.

Just follow the singing and you'll find her.

Most days the kids still wanted to keep skiing after their all-day lesson. We only had an hour until the mountain closed, but because we never waited in a line more than a couple minutes, we could get at least a run in. But sometimes they wanted to hit the town.

On the last day I was in bed with the flu but Hugo wanted to keep going so Paul let him take the gondola and then a run by himself. #Europeankid

In general, the kids would rather ski with us than in the lesson. But it's really nice to have time as a couple and/or with adults we love and miss.

Happy seventh anniversary Tío Jorge and Tante Claudia!

No friends kids on powder days.

Thankfully we found that walking five-ten minutes to ski school from the hotel is manageable. However, the key is having ski lockers next to the ski school drop. Ideally we should rent our gear from the ski shop at the mountain because they often include lockers as part of the rental. #protip 

Next year we're trying our hand at a hotel with just breakfast instead of half-pension unless another family wants to join-in January 30 - February 6 2027. We attempted one dinner out with our crew before sledding and confirmed that if you're rolling this deep, you need a half-pension with dinner starting no later than 18:30 PM.

It was so nice to get a two-for-one out of this trip - seeing dear friends and skiing. And, hopefully they'll still like us even after I gave Claudia the flu. Was it worth it? These people say yes.

Happy Birthday Papa! Thanks again for sponsoring our first ski trip as a family of five and the many, many Beckley trips before it. I only wish that you'd kept the awesome gear to pass down.