Scharnstein

How We Ended Up Here

Scharnstein wasn’t part of some big plan.

It came from a random Facebook post.

A local family, who spend their winters back in their hometown after travelling the world, were looking for other families to join them for the ski season.

To share the experience.

To live locally.

To be part of it.

I don’t think they expected a family from Australia, who had never skied before, to take them up on it.

But we did.

The Setup

We weren’t the only ones.

Another family from Norway, who were travelling Europe on a gap year, joined as well.

And somehow, it just worked.

The right mix of adults and kids. Everyone got along. Everyone was there for the same reason.

It didn’t feel forced.

It just felt easy.

Life in Scharnstein

We settled into village life pretty quickly.

It’s quiet. Slower. Surrounded by mountains and fresh air.

Not much going on in terms of distractions, which ended up being exactly what we needed.

It gave us space.

Space to slow down. Space to find a routine. Space to just live.

Kasberg — Where We Spent Our Days

Most days were spent up at Kasberg.

Getting there, gearing up, and heading out onto the slopes.

Over and over again.

We bought season lift passes, picked up some gear, borrowed what we could, and committed to it.

This wasn’t just a “try skiing once” kind of thing.

We went all in.

Learning From Scratch

None of us really knew what we were doing. Kia had snowboarded for 3 days in New Zealand back in 2011, but this time she was skiing.

So we all had to learn.

Falling. Getting back up. Trying again.

Teaching the kids at the same time as learning ourselves.

Some days felt like progress.

Some days felt like we’d gone backwards.

But slowly, it started to click.

The Kids and the Experience

The kids were a huge part of what made this so good.

They pushed through the hard parts, picked things up quickly, and just threw themselves into it.

And having other kids there made a massive difference.

Finding Our Routine

We found a rhythm.

Ski days. Rest days. Figuring out how to fit in worldschooling around everything else.

It wasn’t perfect.

But it worked.

And it felt real.

What Stood Out

The people.

That’s what made this.

Saying yes to something random, and it turning into one of the best parts of the trip.

Living alongside other families, sharing the experience, and building something that felt more like a community than just travel.

Looking Back

Scharnstein wasn’t about ticking off a destination.

It was about stepping into something new.

Learning. Failing. Improving.

And being part of something bigger than just our own trip.

Now we feel like we need to book a ski trip every year to keep our new skills sharp.

Explore Our Time in Scharnstein

👉 Read our full story of how we ended up in Scharnstein‍ ‍?? Read what it was really like to learn and teach skiing and snowboarding
👉 Follow our day-to-day experiences in our Scharnstein daily journals
👉 View our Scharnstein photo gallery