mobile phones in niederau

Hello

Well as you have all probably gathered now I am a bit of a control freak, especailly when it comes to the kids.

My question is this......Can you get a mobile phone reception in Niederau (I am with 3)

Also if we take walkie talkies is this a big thing and there will be loads of other people on the frequencies? bearing in mind we are going at peak time (Feb half term)

Karen

Karen,

You'll get very good quality "handy" reception here but bear in mind that you won't be using the "3" network but a local one who will forward you call to your recipient.

As for walkie-talkies that's a "How longs a piece of string" question ... The set I use has literally 100's of possible combinations of frequency and "code". I think they cost about £50 from (possibly) Maplin ... I don't have any problems.

Jan

Thanks Jan

I understand that 3 has a network in Austria so I will be able to use like I would be able to use it in UK (ie not get charged for international calls) well thats the BS the man in the "3" store gave me anyway.

How busy does Niderau get in the peak season, I mean like how long are you likely to queue for a lift at peak times, just roughly lol

Karen

karen, your UK mobile provider will likely hit you with roaming charges for calls and txts, and it won't be cheap, so it will be much better if you can use the walkie talkie's, or buy another SIM card for European use.

Time to read the small print on your phone tariff )

I cant access the 3 website at the minute but I remember telling the sales guy I was going to Austria and he said that there are a few countries where you can use your mobile phone just like you would at home, using free mins etc, without the international roaming charges being put on.

I am going to double check it though when I get back on to the website.

Karen

Karen, Looks like it's the "3 Like Home" service that will give you what you need :D

Karen,

Ski lifts queues are living, breathing, sentient beings. They do not conform to mechanical rules and “predicting” them is a mugs game.

Here are some of the forces that influence one aspect of their behaviour, namely length:

Type of resort – Resorts that cater primarily for the type of client who will take advantage of ski school will naturally have different peak loads on the lift system than those resorts that cater for “Powder Hounds” who will want to catch the VERY first lift up.

Time of day – If Ski School starts at 10:00 at the base station it’s not hard to guess that by 10:02 the queue will be growing rapidly. Equally, the queue lengths at those lifts above the base station may not be too long. Now consider 12:00, ski school stops on the mountain for lunch and suddenly the lifts are empty and the restaurants are full!

Day of week – Again, if the resort is populated by a high concentration of beginners then on Monday the lifts servicing the Reds and Blacks will be very quiet but by Thursday / Friday the same lifts will be much busier. Weekends will have a quite separate “personality” as in many resorts locals will take advantage of good snow when it’s available and “pass” when conditions are average.

Snow conditions – Not many people like skiing in whiteout conditions / rain / blizzards etc so all the above conditions will be affected by the prevailing weather. On the other hand a big dump of the fluffy stuff overnight and crystal clear blue sky at 08:45 is a sure sign that the lifts will be busy ;)

The Vacuum Effect – Imagine that you’re sitting outside a mountain hostelry from where you can see the lift queue. Isn’t it likely that if you notice that the queue is nearly zero that you’ll jump up, click on some planks and take a quick go around (possibly also avoiding that expensive round you’d found yourself in!). The reverse happens too. If you come around the mountain and there’s a 40 deep queue of school kids pushing and shoving to get the lift and a sunny terrace serving cold beer / wine you may well choose the latter, I know I would.

The Anti-Phase Queuing Technique – This can only really be perfected if you are not limited by external forces i.e. lessons, catering, fatigue, family pressures etc. If you are free of these issues then it’s quite possible to ski without queuing even in the busiest weeks of the year. The secret is to observe that “living beast” the lift queue and pick your moments to ski and your moments to revive yourself accordingly. That may mean getting an early lift and skiing until 10:30 then stopping for an hour and then skiing through the lunch hour and stopping again for a lazy lunch until say 14:30 and then skiing until the lifts shut around 16:30. This will also ensure that you don’t have to queue in the hostelries, which personally I detest much more than a lift queue!

As for a specific answer to your question, I skied around 90 of the possible 104 days here last season and I can’t honestly remember queuing for more than 4-5 mins on any day. The most unlucky may have had a 10-15 minute queue in some of the busiest spots on the busiest days.

Hope this helps,

Jan

Karen,

I've just checked my phone for different service providers and guess what? One was called "3 AT" so maybe you're going to luck out 8)

I'd be very interested to catchup with you over a beer to find out how it works out! Now according to my calculations you should have a windows on Tuesday between 17:03 and 17:13 :)

Have fun,

Jan