Krampus!

We are packing and just about to leave Königssee, but I have to put this up before the thrill fades!

Last night was one of the top 10 nights of my life, and definitely the number 1 skeleton race after-party!

Krampus. A Christmas tradition in this part of Germany, where St. Nickolaus and the Krampus parade through town - the Krampus monsters scare and whip the evil out of people, and St. Nickolaus forgives. It's a big deal, and a rite of passage for the young men in the neighboring farm towns. They spend HEAPS of time putting the outfits together, with hand carved wooden masks handed down from father to son.

I kept trying to get a good face-on shot, but that's terrifying! Still, I got pretty close.

Of course, Krampus is also an excuse to party and get drunk, and as a result the whippings get progressively more violent as the night goes on.

I came prepared - wearing tights, jeans, AND snowpants as protection.

Some are dressed in masks with huge bells.

Some are dressed in straw, though you can still see the intricate masks.

The ones you have to worry about are the mobile ones. They carry the whips, and you want to watch out for the ones with narrow whips, since they hurt more.

The Krampus come through town in waves, with a St. Nickolaus at the head of each one.

Annie and I went off together at one point, to use the restroom, and got tagged. A whole parade of straw-bales came jingling and rattling by, and we were pinned up against the wall. At the end of this construction fence.

Here's the start of the group that got us...somehow I kept my wits enough to snap photos.

They are scary! And the scariest is that you don't know how hard they're going to hit - some are quite gentle, and some are angry teenagers using the excuse to get violent.

We pulled our legs up to take the brunt of it, and of course got whipped quite a bit, but then the last monster reached in and rubbed our faces. I'm actually jealous that Annie got the brunt of that one!

Rindy also got tagged, earlier in the evening.

So for the rest of the night, our faces were dirty. (It's a badge of honor, so we weren't supposed to wash it off.)

We had a great time with the Brits, Australians, New Zealand, Jamaica, and more.

Keslie did a handstand and had a British coach hold her legs.

Then, a British slider, who used to be a gymnast, decided to handstand-walk over to her.

Then Stokes decided to try it, and....

Annie found a stick and decided to play Krampus.

We all fell down.

At the end of the Krampus night, on our way to meet up with everyone else (for the actual after-party), I grabbed a Krampus monster and asked Annie to take a picture with him. The dialogue:

"Annie! Take my picture with the monster!" Such things aren't free, there are consequences (as I saw with a middle aged American mom tourist earlier, hugged a Krampus for a picture and got, um, smacked around) so then I said "Then he'll try to whip me and I'll run away!"

He spoke English, oops, and suddenly there's this evil panda grabbing a hold of me and saying perfectly in a sultry voice "I will do what? What is it that I'll do?" And pushed me against the wall.

I was pretty nervous, since I'd heard stories about this, but luckily he just pushed me back, smacked my leg once, laughed, and walked off. I remained leaning against the window, laughing my butt off, I couldn't help myself.

After gathering our wits, Annie, Matt and I sprinted away as fast as Annie's injured hamstring would let us, since this was a crowd of rowdy ones. We passed a mean one, who took a swing at Annie and missed, hit Matt on the backswing, and left my only welt of the evening on my knee. We couldn't stop laughing.

On our way to the after-party, Keslie decided to try her hand at being a Krampus.

Then the real after party.