About me
We only have one life, we have to enjoy it - Ute
After 21 years of working as a ski instructor in the Arlberg Region of Austria I am now starting my own company. Destination Winter - Coaching and Guiding is more than just skiing! It is a combination of world class coaching and guiding with that in-depth local knowledge of the history and culture of the mountains I call home.
I was born to ski! I was brought up in the small mountain hamlet of St.Christoph am Arlberg, it is situated at 1793m in the heart of the Arlberg region. My days in Winter were spent going to the kindergarten in St.Anton am Arlberg in the morning and then as soon as I got back home, I would change into my ski kit and head off to ski the Maienseelift outside my front door.
My Father was a legend of an Austrian ski instructor and when he was free, he would regularly come and ski with me, improving my technique and having fun cruising around the pistes. Dad knew long ago that from all his daughters, I would be the one who would follow or should I say carve into his footsteps or ski tracks! His only advice was, that I go and study to get a qualification away from skiing and with this advice I became a fully qualified Interior Designer. After 4 years of working and designing rooms for hotels and family houses throughout the German speaking Alps, the mountains started to call and the freedom they give. I then spent my Winters working as a ski and snowboard instructor, rapidly gaining my highest qualifications.
In the Summer I spent my time travelling with my kayak, working with rafting companies and also exploring the world through the eyes of a kayaker. After 8 years of gaining valuable experience I became a Kayak Instructor and Guide and this opened up a can of worms in regards to instructing, teaching and coaching. Though the highest qualifications of Austrian ski and snowboard instructors give you a foundation of coaching, nothing compared to the knowledge and experiences I gained with British Canoeing. I really enjoyed the understanding, delivering and development of coaching and I use this a lot in the Winter when I am with my guests. It does not take me long to see how someone absorbs information and how they put that into practice, so with various coaching and teaching methods I have in my armoury I can see development in someone’s technique, understanding or mindset be it: skiing on the piste, snowboarding, cross-country skiing or touring into the backcountry. It gives me great pleasure in seeing people improve and develop during their time with me and of course this opens all sorts of terrain and areas that make someones holiday that more special. As I have said various pages of my website, I take pride in my coaching and teaching!
Throughout the Summer I am an integral part of the coaching team at Kayak School Arlberg. Spending time coaching and teaching on the river is the perfect accompaniment to my work in the Winter. With all the snow that has fallen in the Arlberg Region throughout the Winter, it now has to make its way down to the rivers so I manage to make the most out of the snow and kayak some of the best rivers not only in the Alps but also in the world!
However, it is not all just work, work, work! Depending on the season, when I have some spare time in the Winter I head into the mountains looking for new ski tour routes, with goals throughout the Winter season that I want to achieve and sometimes this is only possible in a certain Winter with the safest of snow conditions and of course quality of snow! This can also be said about my kayaking, I love spending time on the river and going with the flow. We have so much variety here to kayak and this part of Austria is one of the best training grounds for expeditions to the Himalayas, Andes or Patagonia!
I have spent a long time in the Indian Himalayas expedition kayaking, including making first descents on rivers in and around Manali and the Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh. I am the first Austrian female kayaker to kayak a host of rivers in India such as the Chandra, Beas, Ravi and Zanskar Gorge. In Peru I was the first Austrian woman to self-support, expedition kayak the Cotahuasi Canyon which is the deepest canyon in the world. I have also kayaked it’s sister and more foreboding river, the Colca Canyon, along with rivers such as the Apurimac and Urubamba which are synonymous with the Inca Culture. I managed to also appear in many kayaking magazines including 2 cover shots!
It is not just all about kayaking though, in Spring 2018 I led and guided a ski touring mission to the Himalayas in India. Hiking up from the valley into the mountains for a whole day to make our base camp and from base camp ski touring up into snow-covered Himalayas everyday was amazing. To be so isolated in a country of over a billion people is something special and the skiing was unbelievable.
