Jasper's Day
Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.
Monday 29 April
‘I wake up at 7 am with the pleasant foreboding that this is going to be a beautiful day. Since Saturday morning, I have been with the family in our beloved ski resort of Ischgl, Austria, to experience the last days of the ski season. Last week it was freezing heavily here and there was still a lot of snow falling. That made the decision to spend the first part of the May holiday here easy. Last few days, we have already enjoyed the excellent snow here. For today, the forecast is bright blue skies and high temperatures. That will be enjoyment on skis and snowboards!
I quickly answer an e-mail that really cannot be left lying around; the rest will have to wait anyway. We have breakfast and drive to the big cable car that takes us up to 2,300 metres. It is quiet in the area and there is no waiting time. There are far fewer tourists, almost no Dutch, mostly Austrians. Of course, it is also not obvious to plan a winter sports holiday at the end of April.
Above, the weather forecast turns out to be true. The morning clouds have dissolved by the time we start and the sun is already strong. We warm up the muscles with a few easy runs. The snow is still hard from the cold night and skiing takes little strength and energy. We soon cross over to the Swiss side of the area, where we spend the rest of the morning enjoying my favourite slopes, located in a remote corner of the area. Here it is always pretty quiet. The slopes here are trickier than average, which deters many people from coming here. We make many descents and in between enjoy the silence, the beautiful views and the great weather. It doesn't get much better than this!
The snow warms up quickly because of the sun and the skiing gets tougher. At 1 pm we are ready for a rest and have a delicious meal in the Panorama restaurant Sattel. An unoriginal name, but very appropriate in this case. From a sun-drenched terrace at 2,500 metres, we look deep into the Samnaun valley and have wonderful views of high snow-capped peaks. We take our time, because we haven't experienced it this beautiful here before.
After lunch, we ski back to Austria and look for the highest part of the area, where the snow is finest. Many call it a day after lunch and you can easily count the people on slopes. We go on for a long time and finally get back to the valley at 5 o'clock. After returning home, we first refuel with liquid, shower and then it's time for the traditional pancake meal prepared by Kamiel and me. We score well with it again, so we keep that tradition. After the meal, there are games and I watch a play-off game from the NBA (American basketball) with Kamiel. By 11 pm, I go to sleep feeling satisfied. The premonition I woke up with this morning has turned out to be right: everything about this day was right. Tomorrow will be another very beautiful day, with attention divided between enjoying the snow and enjoying the final concert on the mountain, this year provided by the Black Eyed Peas. Then on Wednesday really the last day the lifts are open, again with lots of sunshine. Home again on Thursday, just on the day when a lot of rain is forecast. How lucky we are!’