Top of the Mountain Opening!

Yes, Ischgl is thawing out again, it will be fun!

Finally ski foarn again.

Ski fur?

After a season break, after such a long time, you don't really know what it is anymore.

Ski foarn, as a reminder, that is buckling up your skis, climbing the cable car, wearing your helmet, thundering down the concrete slopes, and whoever gets down the fastest wins.

It's still a bit better in the afternoon than in the morning, which is due to the lunch break, when you like to drink yourself in the hut.

Jagertee, fruit schnapps and the roaring Anton from Tyrol in the skull will reliably turn every flatland carver into a downhill ace.

For years nothing beat such a day of skiing on the Ischgler Ballermann.

Then there was Corona, party break, and now it goes on.

Ischgl is thawing again.

But not quite.

The good old party times, the binge drinking, well, they're not so popular anymore.

But is it still possible at all, sober Skiing in Ischgl or related large Austrian ski areas (in France it was always different, there was Skiing), is that still possible after all these years?

Is that still possible in a place that has become one of the hotspots in Corona history, a symbol of recreational insanity?

Well, if you look up the Ischgl website, you won't find much of the hyperactive feel-good mode, just disillusionment. Ischgl isn't the only ski area that has woken up from its intoxication with a bad hangover. The current rules for après-ski and night gastronomy no longer smell of hut magic, but of disinfection: "Level 2: 2-G rule: proof of vaccination, proof of recovery (no tests valid as proof)."

Otherwise, FFP2 masks "in closed and covered vehicles (e.g. gondolas, chairlifts that can be covered) and stations". Is that still fun? In driving equipment? On the slopes? In Hüttn? At après-ski? What will become of the skifoarn now? No more Anton from Tyrol, soon no glaciers either, just artificial snow and a hangover mood. I would say that our skiing is not looking good. The party is over. And if at some point après-ski will only be a distant memory, Ischgl will still have a name. Do you remember back then? Ski foarn in Ischgl?

There were still times.

A fruit schnapps on it, and we all agree again to Andreas DerBerg's super hit “Après-Ski, that's so cool”, which goes like this: “Après-Ski, that's so cool, really cool, mega cool, everyone go steeply. ”And then Corona came.

And Fridays for Future.

That finished them off, the Top Mountains.