My alarm goes off at 7.45am but of course I snooze it until 8am. I’m a night owl and don’t do early mornings but this is different. It’s a bluebird powder day, not a cloud in the sky and a foot of fresh snow has fallen over night.
The bus comes at 8.36am so time for a quick shower, breakfast and pull on my ski gear that I laid out the night before. I have a tendency to snooze the alarm so I often get things ready in advance so I don’t end up rushing the next morning.
Plans were made on the Whatsapp group last night so everyone in the house is up, ready and in the ski room pulling on ski and snowboard boots.
The bus picks us up from our front door and takes us straight to the bottom of the lifts. On today’s agenda is Rendl. Having been here a few weeks now we have found the best spots to avoid the crowds and find the best untouched powder. We bumble through the gates and join the short queue ready for first lifts.
The powder is just as good as we’d imagined, we have pistes to ourselves and the blue skies make everything seem a hundred times better. We spend our morning on ski routes and bouncing around in the white stuff on the side of the pistes. We have a mix of abilities and half the group are on skis whilst the others are on snowboards so we split at the top of the chairlift and regroup at the bottom.
Before we know it it’s 10.30am and time for the first coffee of the day. Coffee in Austria is so much better than England but we already have our favourite places and today is no different. We stop at Rendl Beach, pulling up stools on the panoramic bar overlooking the snow park. Lattes and Cappuccinos have been ordered and it’s only now we’ve stopped we realise how tired our legs are. This powder really does take it out of you.
We finish up, take one last photo for the instagram story, aka bragging rights to our friends back home, and ski down the home run. This run actually happens to be one of my favourite in the resort and before long we are back at the lift station. I agreed to meet some friends on the other mountain so we throw our skis over our shoulders and walk the 200m to Galzig.
Another two hours of skiing and now the legs are definitely feeling the burn. That’s the sign it’s time for lunch. We’ve stopped at Heudstadl because the Goulash soup is amazing but more importantly it’s only a 5 minute ski from the bus stop. As it stands I have 3 appointments this afternoon but it’s always good to be prepared incase another appointment comes in.
It’s 1.35pm, we’re on the bus back home after the best morning of skiing. I’m home in 10 minutes so have time for a shower and to get everything ready for my afternoon appointments. My physio bag is already packed and I’ve loaded up my massage table in to the car ready for my first client.
3pm. These are my favourite type of appointments. I’m seeing a seasonnaire with a ruptured ACL. We’ve been doing some really fun things in her rehab and we’re moving onto Plyometrics in today’s session. I’ve been seeing her for 6 weeks now and we’ve got a really great working relationship.
4.30pm. I’ve been picked up and taken to my next appointment, it’s a couples massage with my colleague Anna. I love working with Anna, she’s an amazing massage therapist and I always learn so much from her. We’re working in one of the exclusive chalets in St Anton. I could not even imagine being able to afford a holiday here, it’s so beautiful.
6pm. Final appointment of the day. Another successful and happy client. A gentleman fell while skiing today and twisted his back, and I’ve booked him in for another appointment tomorrow. He’s already moving so much better so I can’t wait to see him for another session and see what we can achieve.
That’s the best thing about my job. Well, two things really. Firstly, I love how varied my evenings are. You don’t really know what you’re going to do everyday and that makes it exciting. Secondly, you have the chance to make a huge impact on someone’s well being and achieve great results in a short space of time. Most guests are only here for a week so it adds to the challenge of getting them back to full fitness.
By the time I get home I can’t wait for dinner, I had a snack between my appointments but we’re having a house fajita night this evening and I am so excited. I live with five colleagues and it’s awesome. We have a really great group of people and there’s always someone around to go for an adventure, or even just out for a coffee. We’ve been taking it in turns to cook and host a themed dinner party and Mexican is my favourite. Some of us have the day off tomorrow so we decide to head into town for a beer and carry on the evening.
It’s days like today that I realise just how lucky I am to be working my dream job.
