Nordkette

Date: 16 March 2017.

Location: Innsbruck, Austria.

Mission: Find some snow.

Throughout my studies, I'd never gotten to experience snow in London. Timing is weird like that because the year I left, it snowed three times in London. Three! Thick slices of white powder! I can't even with that city. Backtrack to March 2017, I decided to go look for some snow in another country. I was smart, so I went to search for locations where I knew there'd be 100% chance of snow, which was on the mountains. The cheapest mountain I could access to was the Austrian Alps (flight tickets were about 80 pounds). That was how I ended up in Innsbruck.

I'd bought a ticket to go up to Solden, a 2 hour train ride from Innsbruck. Solden is famed for its skiing sports, it was also the place where they filmed James Bond's Spectre, so I was psyched for that definite snow. What I didn't know was that there was a much nearer mountain to my place. I'd just landed in the small town and was at the train station looking at maps and buying day travel cards, when the guy behind the counter mentioned the travel card could be used for the cable car. To say I was surprised (and excited) was an understatement.

Me: cable car? To where?

Guy behind the counter: Up to Nordkette of course! It's a beautiful day! Many people are skiing today.

Me: Skii? You mean there's snow?

Guy: Yes... people skii on snow, ha!

It turns out the cable car station was a 12 minute walk from the train station. After I'd placed my bags at my host's house, I took a walk around town, then went ahead to the cable car station. I got on the furnicular, which stops at the Alpine Zoo, then a second stop at Hungerburg, where you'd need to get off to get on the cable car. All the way up, I was admiring the view below, as the town's roofs got tinier, and slowly, we were above the forest. Then, bits of white colour started taking over the land and before I knew it, I was looking down at a winter wonderland.

I wish I could say I'm pretty jaded and unfazed, but I still get so easily excited at the most wonderful sights. People were skiing down the slopes, past the coniferous trees, and the blanket of white was just glittering under the sun! On my first day, I stopped at Seegrube, where there was a coffee shop, and outside of that, just masses of people sitting on deck chairs, lounging on the snow, while below us, the valley of Tyrol just stretched on and on. I had never in my life seen a sight like this and I was almost speechless!

I spent the rest of the evening just sitting on a lounge chair before going back down. It was only after that I found out that there's another stop way up high in the mountains. On my last day, I managed to squeeze another ride up to Nordkette, this time to get to Hafelekar, which is the highest stop for the cable car. That day was cloudy, windy, and snowing pretty harshly. Our cable car swayed a bit on the way up and most of us couldn't feel our fingers when we got out. There were only a handful of people up high in the mountains that day. The snow was up to my knees while I was there, but about 5 of us presevered and went up ahead for the short walk to Karwendelblick view.

On a nice sunny day, you'd be able to see the largest nature park in Austria from that point. From here, people also go paragliding, rockclimbing, hiking, and even camping. There's even a bench at Hafelekar peak marking the highest point where people do a lot of proposals. But at the time I was there, it was snowing so thickly that I could barely see 20 meters ahead of me. Being on the mountain ridge, any wrong step and I'd have slipped and gone straight down, carried away by the wind. I attempted to go slightly higher towards Hafelekar but it was pretty dangerous. I made sure to stick to my group, and wandered around where people could see me. It was an eye opening experience to say the least. Sorry Everest but I'd never make it up to you haha. Ambik kau nak snow sangat.

Travel card information for Innsbruck: Innsbruck Info

For nordkette maps and routes: Nordkette info