The winter of 2019/2020 in my hometown of Gersfeld was disappointing. Hardly any snow, no cross country skiing in our neighbourhood. The Loipenpark Zentrum was only good for walks in the dirt. And I had just purchased a new set in 2019. So really disappointing, and then the Pandemic hit and I couldn’t see any possibility to go to Austria this winter.

But then it started just after Christmas. The snow came, and the cold came. The folks from Loipenpark reported more than 70 snow days (where tracks could be groomed and conditions were good or at least reasonable). It got very busy. People came from near and far, to a point that parking was restricted on the weekends to avoid even larger crowds.

For myself, I counted my visits to Loipenpark and I got to 40 in the months of January and February. And another 2 in March. Now that was the best that I had in the last couple of years.

And then – yesterday evening – it started to snow again. While I don’t expect that the snow will be around long enough for the folks to use the machines to lay tracks, I’m quite tempted to see if I can just get another morning tour out of it.