A new year woowoo. Welcoming 2022.

If 2022 was going to be the year of woowoo, then why wait to get it started? 

And to make sure we are all on the same page… what exactly is a woowoo?

It’s something that gets you excited. Makes you dance, or sing, or do whatever you do when you’re so excited that you have to just do something. For me that’s let out a “woo woo”.

A woowoo can come from a lot of different things. That’s what this is all about, doing more of the things that make me woowoo, and hearing stories of what makes other people woowoo. 

This first trip already taught me 2 important lessons:

• You don’t need to make it to the top to have a woowoo. Whatever ‘top’ you are aiming for, just get out and try it, you’ll have fun. 

• We’ll need to do some training to achieve the woowoos coming up later in the year!

So let’s get into the first woowoo of 2022.

The new year was fast approaching, we knew we wanted adventure, excitement and snowy conditions to match the time of year. 

But covid added some complications. Would we be able to celebrate given the current rules in Austria? Or would we end up sitting in a hotel room eating cereal bars from the supermarket?

Actually, sitting in a hotel room eating cereal bars sounds like an adventure. And with the chance to ski or hike in the snow, it could be just what we were looking for.

So we packed our bags and set off to Vienna where my sister is based. From there it was just a short trip to Spital am Semmering, and the Stuhleck mountain - our destination of choice. 

Day 1. Recon. (new years eve).

We arrived in Spital am Semmering in the early afternoon, checked into the hotel and changed into our ski gear right away, since the last ski lift down the mountain was at around 4pm. Even though we wouldn’t be skiing today, we desperately wanted to get to the top to make the most of the perfect blue sky that welcomed us. 

Buzzing with excitement heading up the mountain on a chairlift - this was woowoo moment number 1 for me. We were watching the skiers and snowboarders making their way down, thinking this could be us tomorrow.

We got a Radler at the top, and enjoyed it whilst taking in the views, watching people, and having a dance.

But we didn’t have long before it was time to head back down on the last lift, and back into the clouds below. 

We went for dinner in one of the town's few restaurants, and then back to the hotel for a couple of drinks and games whilst waiting for midnight. Approaching 12, we went outside with a small bottle of prosecco to toast the new year, and to our surprise, fireworks started going off in all different directions - we were hoping for something like that, but not expecting it from a small town in the mountains. 

Day 2. Ski day! Woowoo.

Thanks to some restrictions, and some sensible behaviour - we were fit and ready for the early start on new years day. 

After a quick breakfast, we were on our way to get our boots, skis and pass at the bottom of Stuhleck. The rental shop is located right next to the lift, so you can get all your gear and pass very easily - super convenient. 

Then the nerves hit, it was too late to turn back - and my sister, having not skied for 15 years realised that the first challenge was going to be getting on the ski lift at the bottom… and successfully getting off it at the top. We were both laughing, but hers was definitely a nervous laughter.

So we agreed to start slowly, and warm back up to it.

Woowoo moment no.2. Same chairlift as the day before, except today we were gonna be joining the skiers coming down the mountain 🚀.

The first run of the day almost became the last run, my sister was in a lot of pain and thought that something might have been wrong with the ski boots. (The boots were fine, it was the snow ploughing all the way down the mountain that was causing the pain! Sorry Rebecca 🙈). 

After a break, I managed to convince her to get back on the chairlift and give it another go. We worked on technique to take some strain out of the legs, and then the muscle memory kicked in, and the fun really began. 

The mountain got quieter as everyone started to take their lunch breaks, but now we were in the groove, we wanted to keep it going, plus we just found the most beautiful route of the day.

When we finally did stop for lunch, we didn’t want to take too long - since now we were approaching the end of the ski day, and the lifts would soon close. 

I took the ‘quick lunch’ message to heart, and instead of getting a full meal, opted for the cake and a small radler instead. Woowoo!

For the rest of the day we explored the runs that we hadn’t been down yet, making it to the highest, and windiest point of Stuhleck, 1774metres.

The wind was so strong at the top that you couldn’t hear anything, and you had to push yourself along even with a slight downhill. It took us around 5 minutes to get 100metres away from the chairlift.

Day 3. Hiking (almost).

Waking up on day 3 there were some tired legs around the breakfast table. But we weren’t ready to head back to Vienna just yet - we thought we’d go on a nice Sunday stroll first.

Our plan was to climb up the opposite side of the valley to which we skied. It was only 7km, but with around 700m elevation.

There was a thick cloud surrounding us in the valley. I just thought about how awesome it would be to break through the clouds and see the view from above.

I was excited. Knowing that hiking and camping would make up more woowoos later in the year, this was a great taster.

It was around 15 minutes before the first complaints from my walking buddies. And at around 20 minutes, 2 out of 3 of us were ready to turn back to the hotel… 

Our walk was split into 3 parts, and we hadn’t even reached the first point yet. I had to work quite hard convincing them to keep going.

We broke through the clouds to sunshine and bright blue sky. That, some snacks, and an opening with a great view helped me convince them to continue to at least the first point.

Here, we discussed our options, either going back the way we came or a different route that was longer and less direct, but took us back down to the starting point.

I kept adding the 3rd option, which was to continue to the next point of the route, up the mountain. My argument was pretty good, we had less distance to cover compared to the section before, and about the same gradient - easily manageable. And my new compromise was to make it to the 2nd point and then turn around (then I'd be happy). 

Of course the others knew we’d be having this discussion again if we got to point 2. We all knew that!

But, it worked, so we kept walking up. Woowoo. And it got more beautiful too, it was definitely worth it.

At the second point, the discussions started again, but this time I couldn’t convince them to keep going - I’d already used all my bargaining chips for the day. So we headed back down to the hotel.

It would have been cool to make it to the top - but it was still a fun day, and more by luck than judgement, we made it just in time to get the last bus to the train station. If we had gone up to the top, it would have been a very long walk to the train station with our luggage.

Information on Spital am Semmering, and Stuhleck.

• 1h30 from Vienna. Train to Mürzzuschlag, then a bus to Spital am Semmering.

• Stuhleck skiing - https://www.stuhleck.at/. 

• You could combine a visit with Semmering too; there are a lot of good hikes in the area. The train route from Vienna is actually a Unesco world heritage site, and the hikes take you to a couple of viewpoints (including a field with a bull, which was a hilarious moment from our previous visit).