Mayrhofen, Day 5.

This morning M and I got up even earlier than we had been on previous mornings and were excited to see even more snow had fallen overnight. Yesterday I had a little spill off-piste (I'm going to blame my skiis, which are not designed for it) and today I had a really fat lip - good job it was freezing and I needed to cover up my face for warmth anyway!

Our first run of the day was absolutely fantastic - we were the first ones on some of the fresh snow and slicing through slabs of untouched powder is the best feeling. In fact, even though we had a destination in mind and we hadn't reached it yet, we did the first two runs all over again; this is me on Red 5. We then made our way up the 150Tux and skied down to a little cafe we'd found yesterday for Gluhwein and cake. It turns out Gluhwein is probably the best invention ever... It was pretty cold today and despite it being before 10am, some strong, hot wine with added booze was just what we needed.

We carried on down Red 13 and then cruised on to the run that had been recommended to us yesterday. If I was only going to rave about one run, this would be it: Red 11a. It's a relatively shallow slope, fairly narrow but with no surprises and it winds its way through the most beautiful forest - completely still with trees laden with snow. There are a few places to stop off and get a drink, but M and I were enjoying it far too much. Even with the fresh snow, it wasn't sticky and there was no traverse - just about 5km of quiet track. When we got to the bottom we were at the base of Eggalm, a smaller section of mountain with a few red runs and not much else. Because of that, it was lovely and quiet, and we spent a really fun couple of hours there before lunch.

Unfortunately, lunch turned out to be a small disaster - the cash machines hadn't been working in Mayrhofen in the morning so we only had debit cards... And we hadn't thought to check before eating that the restaurant would take plastic. After a lovely plate of spaghetti, we went to pay... And realised we couldn't. M is a star, and boarded all the way down to Tux-Vorderlanersbach from Christlerhof, then hiked back up with money. It only took him 30 minutes - realistically, I think it would have taken me at least an hour.

After the excitement of that, we caught the Rastkogelbahn and then headed back to the Penken area for a few more runs before we finished. It was a great day, and we managed 36km (although I think M probably did more, with his lunchtime run)!

Tomorrow, we're going to tackle Ahorn with a group of the Scottish boys, and that will be the final section of the area around Mayrhofen covered. Our passes allow us to go and play in lots of other areas - Hintertux and Zem am Ziller, which are just as big as the areas around Mayrhofen, but we've not felt the need to leave our area. Maybe next time!

To see the runs/places I'm talking about, there's a map here.