A Night On Top of Germany......IN A FREAKIN' IGLOO

Thinking back it was a little ambitious to plan to ski all day, stay in an igloo overnight, the ski all day the next day. But this is April, spring skiing, sunny warm weather.

Above was the best of the weather for the short ski trip with just me and the kids. It is quarter end close at TI, Cindy was working and the kids are on Easter/Spring Break so we planned a getaway. I should have turned around and come back home when the roundabout exit was blocked and put me into a 15 minute traffic jam a few blocks from the house. An hour and 22 minute drive turned into over two hours after the many encounters headed south. We made it to the ski rental facility at the base of the Garmisch Classic ski area in far southern Germany. After parking I picked up my phone to find a message. It was the igloo office telling me that even though the Zugspitze ski area is closed due to extreme weather we were still on for the igloo stay. They had arranged a single run of the cog train up the mountain at 3:45 that afternoon. This was a minor problem because we had planned on skiing at Zugspitze today and meet the igloo people on top of the mountain. Instead we rented our skis and stayed at Garmisch to ski for a few hours.

This is a much lower elevation ski area and it was cold and windy with blowing snow. The visibility improved as we skied further down the mountain. We did several runs, the kids picked up right where they left off a few weeks ago. It was fast skiing and a lot of runs. They started to get cold and tired so we skied from the top all the was down to the car on an intermediate run that took a while. It was several kilometers of non-stop skiing. We grabbed some lunch in town on the way to the meeting spot for the Zugspitze train.

The Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany at around 3000 meters. It is not even close to the tallest Alp and the Alps do not even compare to other mountain ranges around the world in terms of height above sea level, but this is the top of Germany. On top of this mountain in the middle of the ski area is one of six igloo villages managed by this company Iglu Dorf, most of which are in Switzerland.
At the train station the gate attendant explained how earlier in the day the winds on top were over 150km per hour and it had snowed a lot. Sounds exciting right? We got on the train anyway and started our adventure. Each of the kids had a backpack for the evening with extra cloths and warm stuff. We also hauled our skis up the mountain with hopes of skiing the next day. Backpacks, coats, ski helmets, skis, boots, poles, this was a lot of stuff! The kids did great helping to get everything loaded. The last two thirds of the trip are in a tunnel so we went from no visibility (because of the weather conditions) to darkness. The train arrived at the restaurant at the top of the ski area. We stayed in the restaurant for a while getting instructions and warning for the evening. The evening sledding and the moonlight walk were all cancelled. We were warned about the avalanche concerns, that we were walking right through one of the areas, and that we had to be out of there early in the morning because they will be grooming slopes and detonating avalanche areas. She assured us that inside the igloo we would be fine if an avalanche hit in the night.
So off we went in full winter gear with our helmets and goggles on. This was only about a 400 meter walk (1/4 mile) but nobody told us that it was almost straight up hill. It was also in an 80-100kmph wind blowing snow right in our face making visibility impossible. By the way we were also now carrying our sleeping bag from the restaurant to the igloo along with our other gear. Oh yeah, the untouched snow was about two feet deep. It was the most miserable ten minutes of my life. There was a rope leading us to the igloo since you could not see anything up there. No pictures of the front of the igloo since my phone would have been instantly ruined, I was out of breath, and carrying more than any self respecting mule should. All I saw was a wood door underneath a big pile of snow. Inside the igloo however was a different story.

After catching our breath and warming up a bit (inside an igloo) we got to look around at all of the 14 sleeping rooms. There are halls connecting all of the individual rooms.

The theme this year for the artists was Africa. The halls and each room had a different design.

All of them were amazing and very cool with the LED lighting making the snow glisten around the art work.

This Egyptian room below was the largest and most decorated. Very impressive. I loved this part of the trip since both kids were so amazed and would not stop talking about every detail in each room. They were impressed.

We ended up in this elephant room. Lucky for us this was not a busy evening or we could have been placed with three other strangers sleeping in the same area. I am not sure I would have thrived in that situation. Below was the bed, an elevated block of ice with a pad and animal furs covering for the sleeping bag to go.

Below is the entrance to our room.

After further investigation we found the bar. Due to the weather this was going to be the place go this evening.

There were only eight other people staying this evening and six of them were in one group. All of them were German. We sat together for a while drinking hot chocolate and playing games. We also got details of the igloo build process and other fun information. The biggest problem they have is the compression from the weight of the snow above. All of the rooms shrink significantly over the three months they are used. The artists all made their designs longer so as the season went on they would not look squished and fat. They make all of these rooms with giant balloons and a snow blower. It takes 3000 man hours to build and they have to knock it down in April when the mountain opens up for summer tourist season. There is a safety concern of people wondering into the igloo when it is started to melt from the summer sun.  

After skiing all day and getting my blood moving with that hike I was rocking the t-shirt for the first few hours. Later on I had to put on my golf pullover and give up the beer for hot tea. For dinner we started with a yummy pancake soup that is popular in this region. It was followed by a cheese fondue. The kids opted for the optional spaghetti after trying the fondue. At least they ate something. At this point David came down with a pretty bad headache and was getting really cold.   

We decided it had been a long day but we wanted to try out the igloo hot tub first. They actually have a hot tub with a hole above it for the steam. We all changed in this tiny heated room built out of wood outside of the igloo, but attached to it just separated by a door. Then you walk on the snow to get to the hot tub. David was so cold he could not get in it hurt his feet so bad. Finally after about ten minutes he managed to get all the way in. It was nice while it lasted but we had to get out and get dry and into sleeping clothes. Our hosts suggested one layer of long underwear to allow your body heat to warm the extreme weather sleeping bag. The hot tub turned out to be a big pain in the butt trying to manage all of those cloths and keep them dry while being fast so you don't freeze. They don't mention that now you have wet swim suits and towels that are going to freeze solid overnight in the igloo room. It did get the job done and the kids went to bed warm and they were able to warm up their sleeping bag.

We all had gloves and hats and extra cloths near by. The other part you don't get from the brochure is that you have to add everything inside you bag that you don't want to freeze. A bottle of water, electronic devices, your deodorant for the next day, nasal spray, lip balm. I barely fit into the stupid thing plus I had all of my other stuff to keep warm. The night was memorable. We left a small light on in case anyone needed a toilet in the night. The shared bathroom was down two halls and was a chemical toilet since there is no running water. We were determined to not have to go in the middle of the night. Both kids had trouble getting comfortable but soon enough Katherine was asleep. David and I had a long night together looking at each other and getting to know the elephants on our walls. I swear I heard at least a few avalanches outside too. The snow walls are great noise insulators. I noticed as we walked around you could not hear any noise unless you walked by an open door. We slept some until about 3am when I heard the velcro straps on David's boots. He was headed to the bathroom. I too was debating how long I would hold out so I made the trip after David. For the next two hours we tried to go back to sleep, had a few conversations, all the while Katherine was sleeping away. At one point she had escaped from her cocoon and I was worried about her getting cold. Soon after she was buried in the sleeping bag again. She never heard us talking or getting up. I will say that I underestimated the cold. That sounds dumb unless you know that I really don't get cold in any prior situation. I thought for sure that around freezing with no wind would be fine. My nose got cold but I had no trouble staying warm in the bag. It was just a little too cozy for my taste but that is by design to keep you warm. I thought I would overheat in that thing, but it just kept me warm. The other thing I did not think about was anything left out of the bag. The other clothing around was super cold. At one point I tried to make a pillow out of other cloths and about froze.
David and I did get a little more rest. The plan was for the guides were going to wake us up at 7am in our room with hot tea. I was awake a little before that and just stayed in my warm bag, looked again at 7:12, and again at 7:18. At that point I decided I should get up and pack up stuff since we would probably be the slowest and I did not want to miss breakfast in the heated restaurant. Katherine woke up close to eight and when she returned from the restroom I heard the guide saw they were letting us sleep a little later. At this point I had our bags packed and our sleeping bags ready to travel back to the restaurant. Finally at 8:30 they informed us that there was an electrical fire overnight on the train electronics and we did not know when we could leave. The smoke had entered the restaurant and we were not allowed to leave the igloo until the fire end rescue people had inspected everything. It was clear that the ski area was going to be closed again, in which case we wanted to get home and get warm. Now we were stuck in the igloo for an unknown time frame.
After a cold pretzel with ice cold butter for breakfast in the igloo we were told that we could get on the train at 9:30. At this point our feet were frozen. Yeah another tidbit not on the website. There is no place to keep your boots warm. Even with two pair of ski socks those frozen boots are going to make you cold. At this point we were just glad to get out of the igloo and off of the mountain. The conditions this morning were even worse if that is possible. As soon as the door opened snow was blowing all the way down the first hallway. We had to use the rope line again to guide us. It is hard to describe other than to say the scene is right out of a movie. You cannot see a thing, thinking about what you are doing is difficult and you are carrying the sleeping bags and gear in the deep snow. At least this time we got to skate on our boots down the hill a bit.

I took this picture from inside the restaurant. This almost captures the scene except that the building was protecting this side from the wind, so there was some visibility here.
We all made our way to the train and sat down for twenty minutes. Then alarms in the building started going off and we learned we were delayed again. This time they made some hot food and we got to warm up in the restaurant. At least the miserable cold part was over for now. It was another 90 minutes before we got back on the train. After waiting a few minutes the driver got in and started down the hill. Literally 10 seconds after entering the tunnel he stops and says something in German to the group. It was translated to me that someone at the station needed a key that he had. The guy started to head back towards the station when some dude with a flashlight was coming down the tunnel. He got the key and we started going again. Five minutes later the train stops. I am told that this time we are headed up another tunnel to take two guests from a mountain hotel down with us. So we have to switch the track and head back up another tunnel. We start down again and get all the way to the end of the tunnel, almost.

Now there is a snow machine clearing the exposed tracks, I guess that is a good thing, but why not do this earlier? We stopped and waited for him to clear. Below you can see what the kids thought about this little trip down the mountain. That is the driver standing in the back and you can see the daylight at the end of the tunnel.

Not much further down another train was headed up and we had to wait until it entered the divided track area so we could pass. Then we caught back up with the snow machine. While we waited there the driver handed off a huge tray of foil wrapped baked potatoes and two cartons of water to some guy in a shack at this part of the tracks. A little further down we see some guys finishing up removing two huge evergreen trees that had fallen on the tracks from the storm the night before. We just had to slow down since they were cutting close to the tracks. Luckily most of this work was done earlier. So after about five and a half hours we were back to the car. I was told to talk to the office at this station about my ski lift tickets for today. Being stuck on the closed mountain made them worthless. Back in the restaurant the guides had assured me that they will refund the ticket, after all they were promising a free pass to all of us due to the trouble. I asked them if they had a voucher or something, they said no, just go to the office at the bottom of the mountain and tell them. I explained to the guide that my experience in Germany and dealing with customer service reps is that they want order, follow the rules. It turns out I was right. The guy had no interest in giving me a refund. Still needing to drive back to the Garmisch Classic area to return our skis I was done dealing with this guy.
We got to the rental place and it was raining so I ran the rental gear inside while the kids stayed in the car. As he was checking in the gear I asked, I know this was no fault of yours, but this is what happened, any way to get our money back for the rental today? To my surprise he said yes and they cheerfully refunded the days rental. I then headed to the lift ticket office to try my luck. The lady tried to give me a lift pass for a later date and told me I would have to drive to the main office in the middle of town to ask for a refund. Giving up once again I told her that I needed to start heading home and explained that the rental company, that had nothing to do with the train failure, gave me a refund. Again to my surprise she asked me to wait while she called the office. She got permission to refund our second day of skiing. Things are looking up now.
The dive home was really quick most of the way. Once we got out of the mountains and on the autobahn it was on. There was some bad traffic around Munich and I ended up having to drive right through the middle of it on side streets, but we still made it home in under two hours. It was nice to have a shower and reflect on the trip.
The guides told us that this was by far the worst weather they have seen for a night in the igloo. Other similar weather events the night was cancelled in the past. This is one of those things for me that, now that it is over I will remember the good parts and feel accomplished coming out of it unscathed with both children still fully intact. I think the kids will also remember it forever. In the end we did not get a lot of skiing done and it would have been nice to do the igloo with nice weather and the outdoor activities, but I will take these memories and treasure them just as much if not more.