X-Country skiing in Austria

This weekend we drove to Lienz, Austria for some X-country skiing. Lienz is about 100 miles from us but driving through the mountains it takes 3 1/2 hours. Crossing the pass the snow looked good, including this ice sculpture ouside Dobbiaco. As we got into town, the snow was obviously old and looking prettty weak. Lienz sits about 700 meters but is surrounded by high valleys of 1900 meters. Lucky for us that evening it started snowing! The next morning there was a fresh inch or two on the ground and 6 " up in the valley we planned on skiing.