This would be my second time snowboarding in Austria. I last visited the country in 2016 when I travelled alone to the tiny, beautiful village of Vent near the major ski resort of Sölden in the Otztal valley.

This time I had company and conveniently for me, my company were all fluent German speakers. Something I had really struggled with on my last visit. We flew into Amsterdam from London and drove through the Netherlands and Germany overnight with Nadine’s family to reach the resort of Gerlos – about an 11 hour journey in total, but it saved us hundreds of pounds compared to flying into Innsbruck or southern German airports. The journey was pretty smooth going with Nadine’s sister’s boyfriend and I sharing the journey. That is until we hit a 2 hour bottle neck through a tunnel approaching the Zillertal Arena.

We stayed in the most fantastic accommodation – The top floor of a traditional Austrian Chalet; ‘Haus Bergblick’  All three rooms had a private bathroom and I have never stayed in a more convenient ‘ski in, ski out’ location. The main lift was just 100m away and a fast red run took you back to the door at the end of a days snowboarding.

I didn’t take my camera out on the slopes with me as I didn’t want to potentially fall on it but the iPhone captured moments on the mountain and I took my camera out on a hike on a rest day.

Photography conditions were challenging with clear skies, bright sun and reflective snow. Temperatures on the mountain were between 6 and 12 degrees! I really improved on the slopes this year, following last March’s trip to Sunshine Village in Banff, Canada.

Super moon views from the balcony

A highlight of the trip was taking a 7km toboggan run down the side of a mountain. I am somewhat of a risk taker but even for me, I was questioning the safety of this activity. Nadine’s family didn’t seem too bothered though!