Igls, Austria

Today was the first day of official training for the Igls World Cup race. We all had 3 runs each and our group was lucky enough to avoid most of the snow that fell today. At one stage, it started to absolutely dump, with some of the biggest flakes I’ve ever seen! Awesome.

Last night there was a festival in town and they had blocked off the whole main street of Igls. This is the start of their Christmas celebrations here in Austria. They have a tradition where after St. Nick has been through the town and handed out gifts to the small children, people dressed up as monsters get pulled into town on a flaming cart and then go around beating the ‘evil’ out of all the bad people. They literally go through the crowd, pulling random people and beating them with a switch. And they’re not gentle by any means! And the people seem to think this is funny! Luckily Lou and I have a room with a balcony that overlooks the main street where we watched the carnage from a safe spot.