Skiable snow by Thanksgiving is a good start to winter in my book. It’s exciting to see the World Cup season kick off in Ruka, SuperTour in SilverStar and Ski Festival in West Yellowstone. For me, the season started last weekend in Leutasch, a village in the 245 km Seefeld trail network.

My first day of skiing happened to overlap with my birthday…a perfect birthday gift. Having a great crew to ski with was an added bonus. Leutasch has a “snowfarming” loop, where they pile up snow at the end of the season and cover it over the summer, then lay it out when temperatures go below freezing in the fall. Coincidentally, natural snow fell last week, which blanketed much more than the snowfarming loop.

The first ski of the year, especially on a small loop, is a great opportunity to catch up with ski friends on the trail. It’s also a great time to get used to being on snow again. We spent most of my birthday party playing games on snow… Sharks and Minnows with a bunch of skiers ranging from mid-20s to mid-60s is a sure way to get people laughing and feeling a little younger.

The most popular activity was relays (who doesn’t love a good relay?!) with human batons. Each skier was pushed by their teammate down an out-and-back course. Then the baton skier became the pusher, rotating until everyone on each team had been a baton and a pusher. I’m happy to report that Team USA won out by a lunge over Team Austria (sorry Raphi).

The ski season continued after the weekend with a photo shoot on Monday. Corinne Prevot, owner of Skida hats, was in Tyrol and had the idea to photograph the new Skida Field of Dreams collection in Seefeld. Lumi has given Skida hats as a gift to our guests for the past several seasons. I was thrilled to help show Corinne and her photographer some of my favorite ski spots around Seefeld for the photo shoot … kind of like leading a Lumi trip for two. Of course, we ended the day with a mug of Glühwein at the Seefeld Christmas market and gave Corinne her very own Lumi Skida hat. Prost!!

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All of our 2023 Seefeld trips are already, but if you’d like to ski here this winter, you still have time to sign up for the Worldloppet x Lumi 2023 Seefeld & Engadin Trip Giveaway. Sign-up soon! The raffle closes December 15.

Or, you can also pick up a Lumi Gift Card or 2024 Trip for your favorite ski buddy.

See you on the trail,
Garrott