Sportgastein

Last day of the conference. I was chairman this morning and then took a train back to Munich. However, decided to go with the group up to Sportgastein and take the lift up to the top of a mountain.
It was a fantastic, warm day. Good beer too.

Bad Gastein to Bad Hofgastein creek path

Another beautiful day with 50 degree warmth and bright sunshine. I threw on the shorts for an easy run in the other direction of the past few days. I found a perfect little dirt path along a creek that took me all the way to Bad Hofgastein. 

This town apparently had the nearest grocery store, so on a whim decided to try to find it. 

I walked in a store that looked like a grocery store from the outside, but I was shooed out because apparently they only sell to hotels, not tourists. ha.

However she told me where to go to find it, and I needed to drive there, but it was only a 1-2 minute drive. I said "ok, danke" and followed her directions. A few minutes later found it, and walked through it but could not really find anything I wanted/needed. So I grabbed a quart of Joya Soya, tater chips and headed back to the hotel. 

Signs make you feel pretty good here. I think it was a 23 minute slow jog, but the sign said it would talk an hour and a half to make it back.

Grocery bag in one hand, phone in the other, I jogged back for a total of 5 miles in about an hour. 

Update on yesterday: Suspicion confirmed. I saw an old lady wearing bright red Hokas walking along the creek path. 

I found this pitcher flowing with water, took a sip, really hot.

 

Garmin Data

Bad Gastein, Austria - Day 2 - hike/snowshoe/run

The sun came out today!

Peaks everywhere. I took inventory of my remaining lunches and then plotted out a route using satellite images that goes up the ski slopes, grabbed snowshoes, waterproof hokas, and headed out. This time I grabbed a map from the front desk of my hotel and did my best to follow it. The concierge told me to look for a lift call Graukogel.

I headed up through town, passed some kids on the street that looked at my shoes, said something in German and then they all laughed. I laughed too because my shoes are so Euro, they're picking on themselves.

Onward and upward. I found a sign for Graukogel, found the lift, snuck aroud the side, strapped on the snowshoes and headed up the edge of the ski run. I saw about 2 skiers, then after a couple hundred vertical feet I found a trail off to the side with boot prints.

I followed this up a ways and popped out a hut, high on the slopes. It was awesome. I sat and devoured an orange, took pictures and enjoyed the short-sleeve weather up high on the slopes.

I continued upwards and eventually found a dirt road with poor snowpack, enough so that I no longer needed my snowshoes and could still go much higher.

Eventually at about 4700 ft, and 3-4 miles, I turned around and followed the road all the way down back into Bad Gastein and jogged the remaining couple miles back to my hotel with snowshoes in one hand and my hiking pole in the other.

Garmin data for the hike, 7.5 mi

Bad Gastein, Austria

After very little sleep working on a proposal, I hung out with the family on Saturday until my flight at 4:45 then flew to Frankfurt, Germany, 2 hr layover then took another quick flight to end in Munich. Killed 3 hrs in the airport walking around and then figured out the train system to employ my pre-purchased ticket to Bad Gastein, Austria. 3 trains, a taxi and 5 more hours later, I arrived at my hotel just in time for the start of my conference.

I checked in to the hotel, and was asked if I wanted dinner included with my stay (+24Euros/day). Since I hadn't eaten all day other than a clif bar, I tried to explain to her that I was vegan and hoped they had food I could eat, and she recommended the a la carte menu. I asked several times what that means since there are no prices on the food, and still don't know if I'm being charged $31/day for dinner or not. I got a miniature little salad and a smoked tofu dish that were very cute, but very small. Beer was good though!

Attended the opening talk and headed back to my room to finally sleep. I slept like a brick and could barely peel my eyes open at 7:30 to start preparing for my talk. Talk went very well and we ended the morning session and have a break before tonight's session, so I went out to explore the area.
I found a trail right outside the hotel that heads up a stream. Encouraged, I followed it.

It headed steeply up and up

 Cascaded wasserfallkeg

 I tried out photosynth at this turn in the trail. Captured the whole scene pretty well
Does this next photo count as blue sky? That's about as much sky as I've seen in 2 days. I was pretty excited. However the photos do not do the peaks justice. It's so gray you can hardly tell the amazing glaciated Alps in the background.

 I ran to the next town over and entered this national park with a nice snowy road, pretty perfect for running.

 Giant picture frame...

 Pretty awesome Icy cliff.

 Back into town (Bad Gastein)

 My Neighbor is gonna be pretty jealous of this setup.

Garmin Data: 8.84 mi in a little over 2 hrs (took a whole bunch of pictures and walked around town quite a bit). http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157300893