Back in the States the Fort Worth office had a golf day to celebrate the end of busy season. Sounds pretty good right? Well the EY AMS assurance group did one better in the form of the 20th annual ski weekend. An annual tradition where about 100 of EY Amsterdam’s finest flock to the Alps for some ski and aprés ski adventures. What could go wrong?
On of the flaws of the EY ski trip is it’s just that – an EY ski trip is no significant others allowed. So Bill stayed behind and myself and two other GEP Americans (Christy and Jaclyn) boarded an early morning flight to Innsbruck to see what shenanigans awaited us. Don’t feel too bad for Bill though, his KPMG ski trip was the following weekend. Some interesting logistical background of the trip for those interested. The fee you pay is based on your rank. The higher your rank, the more you pay. How very socialist of them. Unfortunately for me this meant I would be paying one of the top tier prices as a newly promoted manager. Darn.
Anyway ski trip technically started on Thursday but we did not depart until Friday morning. I wanted to see what the trip was all about but also wanted to conserve precious PTO days. The flight was uneventful and we landed on a runway reminiscent of that of Queenstown in New Zealand – surrounded by mountains. It made for a beautiful picture.
After collecting our baggage it was off to the car rental station. I had volunteered to drive but was a bit nervous given I hadn’t driven since Christmas. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day and we didn’t have any issues. We stopped at a grocery on the way to pick up all the necessary supplies (champagne, peach gummies, gummy worms, croissants, etc.) then checked into our hotel. Another unfortunate logistics item of the trip was because the EY group was so large we could not all fit into one hotel so we were spread among 3. Our hotel was one of the “others” and lacked any real amenities apart from a clean room and bed which are great but I would have really loved a hot tub to sit in when I was inevitably sore from the 2 days of skiing ahead. Also we were a group of three and all the rooms were required to be at full capacity. We were, therefore, partnered with someone from the Amsterdam office we didn’t know. When we arrived, we were the first ones so we claimed beds then dressed to go crush the slopes.
Christy had never skied before so she signed up for an afternoon lesson. Being from Colorado I am ashamed to admit this but I had not been skiing in over 10 years and figured it was probably a good idea to join the lesson at least for a refresher as to not kill myself. Our lesson didn’t start until 1 so we had lunch on the base of the mountain while we waited. The food was nothing memorable but the weather was beautiful. Sunny and warm. Just the ticket for some sun deprived accountants emerging from the trenches of busy season. When the time came for our lesson we waited at where we thought was the meeting point and no one showed. We asked some instructors if this was the correct spot and they affirmed it was. After another 10 or so minutes passed, however, we asked another instructor and were informed this was not in fact the correct location and we needed to ride in gondola. We trekked across the mountain to arrive to the proper meeting point only to find there was also no instructor there. Christy called the school and they assured us someone was on the way. 5 minutes later cue Ollie – an older ski Yoda. He had us go up and down the bunny hills many times saying “leannnnn!!!” And “brakeeeeee!!!”.
After a few rounds I felt like I had my ski legs back and I was confident enough that when Ollie wished us goodbye we could do a few runs solo. Remember that warm wonderful sun I was talking to you about? If you haven’t already guessed although the sun felt wonderful for a good sunnying, it was not great for the snow. The run we did was a slushy slushy mess. Every time you turned it created a mini mogul and was extremely tiresome. After only a few rounds I was ready to switch from ski to aprés ski so Christy and I went back to the hotel to join Jaclyn and get ready for the EY organized dinner. As we were primping, we were interrupted by some loud knocking on the door. Christy answered and was greeted by some Dutch conversation. I immediately recognized the voice as that of the executive director of my main client and wondered what he could be knocking on our door about. Apparently, the evening before we arrived the other EY members had a little too much fun and some of their escapades led to the hotel almost kicking everyone out – everyone except us that is because we had only checked in that afternoon. As a result of the fraternity worthy shenanigans, there was no more drinking allowed in the hotel. As a 28 year old adult it was a little irritating I was being told that the antics of some staff had impeded on my ability to consume the champagne that had been chilling in the fridge all day. Needless to say, we were now more eager to get to dinner early and start the aprés ski portion of the day. So we did just that. We walked up to the bar and it was crazy. Tons of people, many still in ski boots and clothes, crowded around the bar with loud techno house music blasting through the speakers. We finally made it up to order and each procured our own beverages – 2 in order to prevent having to wait in the line again.
Feeling a bit of a buzz from the alcohol, lack of food and altitude, we headed into dinner. The food was nothing very memorable but it was a good base in our stomachs to prepare for the evening ahead at the next bar. The next location was an experience to say the least. First, apparently in Fiss you can smoke at the bar. I have not been in a bar in which you were allowed to smoke for years and this experience made me extremely appreciative to live in places where this was no longer allowed. By the end of the night I smelled like an ash tray. The music was also an experience. All American songs were circa 2014 and those were mixed with a selection of very interesting songs including one in which the chorus was “Johnny Depp” repeated numerous times and another which was a techno remix of “Soarin” from the DCOM High School Musical. To say the evening was interesting is an apt description. Ultimately, we wanted to ski the following day while the snow was decent so we called it a night earlier than most.
The next morning it was off to the slopes to try and get some runs in before everything turned into a slushy machine. It was so much easier skiing on normal consistency snow and before lunch I was able to try my skis at some more challenging runs. By 1 though, I was hungry and the snow was back to a sloppy wet mess so we met up for Jaclyn for lunch. I did end up doing a few more runs after but by the end my ankles were sore and tired from pushing around all the snow so I called it. We went back, showered, sun bathed on the patio (on a ski trip, weird I know) then got our lives together to wander around Fiss. The town was quaint but very clearly there was not a plethora of activities aside from drinking, eating and skiing. 
We ultimately ended up at Schlisshotel – the 5 star hotel where Jaclyn had her massage while we were skiing the day before. Now THIS was a hotel. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the views while we sipped cocktails and wine. We wanted a snack but none of their appetizers looked appealing so we asked if they had a cheese tray to which our server told us they could probably whip something up. Whip something up they did! About 15 minutes later we were greeted with a platter with enough cheese to feed a small army all for just the three of us. Talk about service!
In cheese bliss we left the hotel (although I never wanted to) and went to get an actual dinner. We went to a pizza place and split some salad (because health) and a za. In the course of our dining I think we saw basically every other EY person on the trip either eat here or attempt to eat here only to be turned away as the restaurant was full.
Feeling like we saw everything Fiss had to offer, the next morning we packed up and headed to Innsbruck to explore that city before our flight that afternoon. We arrive and enjoyed some coffees looking out onto a small plaza, enjoying the sun. In case you can’t tell I really really have missed the sun. We then walked over the the imperial gardens to check those out. On the way we walked down some quaint streets and saw the golden roof which is apparently one of the top attractions here.
Upon arriving at the gardens, I must say there wasn’t a whole lot that qualified these gardens as imperial but there was a nice little beer garden where we enjoyed a beverage. We then walked back towards the street with the golden roof and enjoyed a patio lunch and gelato before heading back to the airport closing our EY ski weekend experience. It was a very unique post busy season celebration and I was happy to have a chance to refresh my skiing skills. Next year though I think we will just plan our own ski weekend and be more inclusive of significant others. Until next time!
Have Passport Will Travel 