Picture for Sean

Sorry peeps, I have been answering dozens of PMs about Niederau, and I have no way of sending this painting by pm.

Why pm Dave? Can't you share your secrets with us?
Like your painting.
Next time I go skiing I really want it to be to Austria.

Dids1 wrote:Why pm Dave? Can't you share your secrets with us?
Like your painting.
Next time I go skiing I really want it to be to Austria.

They are not secrets, Dids, I am proud of my 40+ years association with Niederau. I worked there as an instructor for four years, and I love helping people out with information.

But one person on this forum persistently denigrates or snipes at the mere mention of the place. Hence I keep it off the forum. But I am always happy to help people out with information ~ I'm afraid I can't help knowing a lot about the place! -)

Personally i am sure its a lovely place, i would go but perhaps just for a day or weekend as it looks really small. But then i have never been so am not really qualified to answer.

That pic sure makes it look inviting thats for sure.

Thanks for sharing.

I have never understood this size arguement. I am fortunate enough to have skied many places in different parts of the world, Huge areas, tiny 5 km areas, the USA, Canada, Australia, much of Europe. Climbed mountains to ski on 200m of snow, skied in Derbyshire, Lake Distict, Scotland, our local golf course.

Every single place I have skied has been enjoyable. Even in poor conditions, I have skied down muddy snow, (or snowy mud)

I never, for any reason, expressed an adverse view on any ski area. That would be totally negative.

So, I do not differentiate on a size basis, nor really on any other basis. I love skiing, for me, it is poetry.

There are many advantages in skiing in a small but familiar place. Knowing the runs well allows you to really attack the mountain. It is no accident that I held the village day run record for 10 years. (That is no big deal, but is indicative of a benefit)

The Wildschönau/Alpbach area is now 145km, and the skiwelt is 280km. Over the next few weeks I plan to ski both several times, plus Kitzbuhel, and Fieberbrunn, plus a couple of other valleys, and some small villages.

I remember once expressing my view~ "I know 10,000 different ways down the Merchenwiess" (run 19 0n my videos)

I hope to ski with you one day, Snapzzz ~ it may have to wait until we are mutually in a 400km area! :-)

Dave Mac.. whats the significance of the painting?
Is it one of yours? i cant make out the signature fully but i think it is signed Dave M** although it could be Dave N**

MogulMonkey wrote:Dave Mac.. whats the significance of the painting?
Is it one of yours? i cant make out the signature fully but i think it is signed Dave M** although it could be Dave N**

MM, I was giving Sean some information about the building, and it's location. It was just easier for me to post it, so he could see the building in relation to the mountain.

It is an old farm, and lies opposite the Haus we lived in for several winters, when I worked for the ski school. At nights, one of us would go over with an aluminium can, and buy milk, fresh from the cow, absolutely no pasteurising!

Yes, it is one of my paintings, I have painted most of the old buildings in Niederau, some of them several times. It is a great way to end a ski day, sat on the balcony, glass of wine.....

Dave, I think you are clearly a talented guy with these paintings. And your love for Niederau is unquestionable.
But I think this "arguement" needs to be put to bed once and for all.

Niederau is often talked about on this forum, possibly because of your vast knowledge of the place. I myself was invited to visit a few years ago and published, by request, an honest opinion on what I found. It was not a place I would return to, and one of the reasons why was because it is such a limited extent which, for me, and other people, is an important feature for a ski destination when you are limited to the odd week here or there a season if you are lucky.

There has been "banter" between several people on this forum, you and I in particular. I have joked about Niederau's size, you came up with the name Mary Hofen in response to my previous regular trips there, and it seemed in the main to be good banter. The N crowd against the M crowd, as it became known!

You may or may not have noticed that I have not "bated" you or anyone else over Niederau and resisted the opportunity to post about the place in recent times and this will continue henceforth, and despite me not changing my own personal opinion of the place, I see no further point sharing those opinions with anyone on this forum. I said my peace, probably too honestly for your liking, and times have moved on.

Yes, we can all try to share a joke and a bit of banter over anything skiing, and you may question why some people ski certain resorts as much as I might question what attracts anyone to another place, be it Niederau, Borovets or Flaine for example, but everyone is different. You have skied some of the mega resorts such as St Anton and yet still return to your beloved Niederau, which only suggests you have a deep love and passion for the place - instructing and living out there I am sure had a profound effect on you. Your passion for the place continues in your paintings displayed with pride on here.

I have been guilty of appearing to belittle and take the mickey in the past which is a result of attempting to have a sense of humour on a forum, something that is very difficult to put across the right way as you and one or two others have found in particular. Clearly any attempted humour aimed in the direction of Niederau in the past has been taken the wrong way and often inflamed things at times.

I therefore wanted to say I share (as I think you know) the passion that you and everyone else on this forum has for skiing. There is little better in my humble opinion than standing at the top of a mountain looking down at the snow covered landscape beneath thinking of how you are going to attach the descent. I am a very inexperienced skier in comparison to someone like yourself who has spent much of their life skiing, big respect for that.

Therefore, I simply propose peace; a truce; an end - whatever you want to call it. My report from a few years back is available for anyone to read on this forum and it was written honestly at the time. My opinion remains unchanged in that I would not personally return to Niederau as it offers nothing in particular for me in terms of what I want from a ski holiday, but I have not passed negative comment or snide remark about it on here for some considerable time now, which I had hoped someone as intelligent as you might have recognised.

I'd like to move on. As you rightly pointed out, negativity is a bad thing, so I'd like it to stop on both sides.

I am honoured to be able to ski and spend time in the mountains at winter time, and its often easy to forget just how special that really is.