ABCDE Travel sunday, november 28, 2010 BEDCHECK
Guess who slept here? After a recent update, this classic Washington hotel is top-flight once more. F2
Q&A Around the world on $5 a day—and the kindness of strangers. F2 Deals Best travel bargains of the week. F2
Going OurWay It’s snowless in Seattle, but you can ski nearby. F3 CHAT We answer your questions Monday at NOON at
washingtonpost.com/travel
IMPULSIVE TRAVELER
Park yourself and have a drink Forget the teetotaling image: Utah’s kicking up its cocktail culture. F6
SKI2010 Valleyhigh
There’s nothing like a little down time in Austria’s Zillertal
can knock you off your feet BY ANDREA SACHS
T BY STEVE HENDRIX On a wintry evening outside Lassen
he best view from theHotel Theresa wasnot the spectacular panoramaof Alpine peaks out the back (though they were truly breathtaking as I gazed at them, over my toes, from the outdoor hot pool each evening at sunset). No, the viewI couldn’t get enough of was on the other side of the hotel,
from a third-floor balcony overlooking the little village of Zell am Ziller. Below was a flesh-and-blood diorama of domestic life in a tiny Austrian mountain town: the Playmobil-style train that trundled by every few min- utes; the timber frame barns, the wholesome Hol- steins; the schoolyard full of kids who knew that with hardworkthey, too, couldgrowuptobethegovernor of California. It’s this twinning of down-home setting and world-
class skiing that is the special charm of Austria’s Zillertal, a valley in a deep fold of the Tyrolean Alps an hour south of Innsbruck. The Zillertal is a place where the keen schuss of the slopes is followed by the mellow hush of the hills, which are alive with little more than the soothing clank of cowbells and the hiss of glacier melt tumbling down the Ziller River. It’s the Lost Horizon with strudel. Shangri-lederhosen. Late on a Tuesday morning, squinting through the
steam of a cupof fine Vienna-style chocolate, Iwatched students pour from the school, a modern building on the edge of a pasture across the road frommy balcony. They had book bags and ski boots, the uniform of Zell students during the blessed snowy months. Some had snowboards, marking the limits of tradi-
tion even in these time-forgotten crannies, and white Apple earbuds were a fixture inyoungZell
ears.Most of the youngsters disappeared into the winding lanes of the village, but a dozen peeled off to board the train that was pulling up to the little station in front of the
zillertal continued on F5
VolcanicNational Park in northeast Cali- fornia, I walked alone on a snow-packed trail lit by a round, plump moon. The stars overhead sparkled like glitter on a black velvet cloth. I had no destination but to go deep into the darkness, relying on the sky to illuminatemy path andmy
In Calif., a dormant volcano and frozen landscapes
snowshoes to keep the course. But then I heard howls. Distant but clear. A call of the wild that could have been a commu- nal shout-out, a “hey there” among coy- ote friends, or a “yum, dinner smells good” signal. As much as I wanted to see how this
story ended — would she be eaten, or would she commune with the canines, learn their languageandbecomethenext Dian Fossey? — my feet were not so curious. To save face, I could say that I turned back because I needed to return my borrowed equipment. But to be hon- est, I had it for one more day. Ah, the exhilaration of snowshoeing in and around parkland that resembles a
Adeep-snow skier blasts through the terrain in Austria’s Zillertal; below, the viewfrom Finkenberg towardMayrhofen.
F EZ
ABOVE: IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY; LEFT: IAN DAGNALL/ALAMY
Solitude, one snowshoe at a time
snow globe, stocked and shaken by the hand ofMotherNature. “The open and flat spaces, and the
depth and type of snow, make it perfect for snowshoeing,” said Steve Zachary, a veteran park rangerwhostarted Lassen’s guided snowshoe program in the mid- 1980s. “Within minutes, you’re having a wilderness experience, finding solitude and beauty without the worry of going too far.” To snowshoe, you obviously need
snow, and the national park set at the confluence of the SierraNevadas and the CascadeRange delivers: about400to500
lassen continued on F4
Amountain haven for hard-core ski bums BY JOHN BRILEY Special to The Washington Post My autumn daydreams, like those of
any committed skier, settle on some variation of: abundant snow, radical ter- rain and enough onlookers to cheer my audacious feats but not somany that they poachmy lines. Or, in geographic terms: SilvertonMountain, Colo. Spread over thousands of acres of
former mining claims high in the San JuanMountains, Silverton is a hard-core ski bum’s mountain. Literally: Owner Aaron Brill, a longtime back-country skier,openedit in2002to fulfill his vision of an area for advanced and expert skiers and snowboarders only; i.e., one that Brill and his buddies would love. The severe, saw-toothed peaks of the
San Juans had the goods: sustained steepness and consistent snowfall. Sil-
DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES silverton continued on F4 Aaron Brill opened Silverton in 2002 to fulfill his vision of an area for experts only.
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