The CMSC 2018 Europe trip began on Friday January 26, 2018 with Champaign at the airport. This year, it started at 9:00 am at the Delta Airlines check in area. Trip participants came in and received baggage tags, a CMSC 2018 Kitzbühel flag for their ski pole, and a glass of bubbly. All would be well if we all read our boarding pass. One person almost lost his seat on a plane and did get disconnected from his luggage for a couple days. However, 97 members of 22 CMSC clubs got to Kitzbühel for a week of fun.

We stayed at the Hotel Maria Theresia in Kitzbühel. The 3* hotel has the old world charm and warmth and grace of a family operated hotel. A large buffet breakfast and excellent 4 course dinners were included daily. Town was just outside the hotel door making Kitzbühel nightlife and shopping easy to access. The hotel also has a large bar and public meeting area that a group our size could use.

Our early arrival in Kitzbühel gave everyone time to explore the beautiful, quaint ski town, home of the Hahnenkamm ski race. They also found time to buy ski passes, rent skis and visit the local bars and restaurants. Before our first dinner, Ski.Com sponsored a welcome party with drinks and hors d'oeuvres plus speakers from the Kitzbühel Tourist Office.

As the trip played out, we had a wide variety of weather conditions. The beginning of the week was warm blue bird skies with spring like conditions. There was a day of fog that could be avoided with a lot of maneuvering around mountains. The end of the week brought snow. The last day had a few inches of fresh snow on the slopes which made a great day of skiing. Jeff took a lot of pictures.

During the week, there were a few injuries and illnesses that kept some folks from having an optimal trip. For the first time in Europe trip history, there were a couple of injuries that required a helicopter extraction off the mountain. Part of this was due to the nature of Kitzbühel. The ski patrol there uses snow mobiles instead of skiing with a ground based sled. If you get injured and cannot be towed by a snowmobile, then you get picked up by helicopter. This is another example of demonstrating why participants should purchase trip Insurance.

The skiing with Bill Gleason was great. There were a lot of great Hutte stops that kept the troops happy. At Kitzbühel, skiing with Bill typically resulted in a long bus ride home. The views of Austria mountain tops was spectacular.

Some participants took side trips to other locations while in Austria. One group went to Salzburg and another went to Innsbruck for day trips. The Innsbruck trip went to the Crystal place where sparkly trinkets could be purchased.

On Saturday, the group that was returning to Chicago, ate breakfast, and loaded the bus by 6:00 am for departure to the Munich Airport. The next group got picked up for a 9:00 am departure to Munich for the 3 day extension.

In Munich, 62 people stayed at the Eurostars Book Hotel 4 star Hotel that featured deluxe rooms within walking distance to the train station. The excellent buffet breakfast was included, but dinners were on our own so we could visit the restaurants and beer halls.

Munich was a real good extension location. Some folks went to the Marianplatz, Dachau Concentration camp, lots of beer halls (Hofbrauhaus, Ratskeller, etc), Castles, BMW plant, and more. Some people scrambled to make purchases of gifts to take to folks at home. The Munich experience was a big history lesson. Most of Munich has been rebuilt since WWII.

The long journey home from Munich on Tuesday February 6 was a lot of work, but worth the effort of participating in a great CMSC Europe ski trip.

Ed Gordon – Assistant trip leader, CMSC Europe Trip 2018 to Davos