J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ldavies

hi daiana,
the offer of BSM sounds tempting, doesn't it? think we ought to go for that!!
yes, easter's a possibility: let's keep in touch. niederau at easter would be iffy regarding snow. i don't know how snowsure BSM IS: if it's high,i would give it a go!!
Scotland sounds -er- nice, but bizarrely, it'd probably cost me less to fly to austria from here down south!! but skiiing is never cheap: it's only once you have all the kit and kaboodle that you find corners to cut. L.
hi ice ghost: i've skiied hintertux once: it's a glacier, so is snowsure. was fab, if i recall!!

hi blackbrook et al:
yes, the skischool will do all it can to make sure that families meet up at lunchtimes. the children's instructors will wait at the ski kindergaten for the adults to finish their morning classes (at 12.00 midday)and will not walk away until ALL the children in their group have been collected. parents: please do make yourself known to the children's instructor and that you're taking your little darling: there is nothing so worrying as suddenly realising you've 'lost' a child, when mum or dad or grandparents have innocently scooped him up. if you are later than about 12.15pm, your child will be taken to the Sportcafe bar nearby with the children who have been booked into lunch. ANY instructor, reds or blues, would never walk away from a child in the village who is obviously 'lost'.
if your kids have been taken up the mountain by their instructor, he or she will try to go to the same place for lunch. at the top, most intructors will head for Rubetzahl's near the gondola.
you can buy lunch tickets for your children at the reds ski school at any time up to just before 12 midday. a different children's instructor each day (or whoever wants to do it) is told very clearly that he or she must expect x - number of children for lunch. the kids' lunch tokens are given to the instructor who knows exactly how many he or she has. these children then go with the instructor across the road to the sportcafe. they have lunch in the back room of the sportcafe where no-one else is allowed to sit and eat. the room is non smoking. lunch is always a hot meal, based on the dish of the day and a pudding, and unlimited amounts of lemonade. they can use the toilets at the bottom of the stairs. an hour or so later, the kids are taken back to the ski kindergarten and the instructor waits until all the children have been collected by the other children's instructors for afternoon classes.
inside the skischool office, there is a blackboard, and the areas where each instructor takes his or her class for the day is chalked up on the board for all to see, so that one instructor can see where so-and-so is, if after 15 mins of waiting, parents still have not returned for their children. it's a bit of a trek from lanerkopfl but the adults' groups will make very effort to be back for 12 midday. the same is true at 3.30pm. the kids' instructor will stay with the child for about 15-20 mins, and only then will take him to the skischool office to sit and wait in the warmth.
so you can spend all day 'sur la piste' safe in the knowledge that someone else is taking care of your baby!!
i was at work today when my mobile rang: it was 'big phil', (skigirl - have you had phil as one of your instructors?!) calling from the gondola in niederau to tell me that he was just getting on the gondola to up to the top. made me green with envy!!

hi daiana,
go on your own - you'll have a blast!! i've been going to austria for 20 years and most of that time, i've gone on my own. having said that, i am one of the lucky ones who discovered niederau. A typical, small, family orientated resort which doesn't have the glitz or the cost of somewhere like kitzbuhel. on my second visit, 3 weeks after my first, the locals welcomed me back as an old timer! i ended up going summer and winter, and qualifying as a ski instructor, working for the ski school there. the apres ski is so small and intimate that the ski group you're with, unless they're boring and very rude, will welcome the company of someone like yourself, travelling alone, helping them to prop up the bar! you'll make friend and acquaintances as soon as you arrive, and no matter what age, be swapping addresses at the end of the week.
i'll email you a PM. L.

can't the little woman choose and buy her own jacket.....?!!

hi glyn,
you should book your kids' ski school lessons with the RED ski school in niederau, which is the WILDSCHOENAU ski school. (the HAPPY ski school is one which operates out of oberau, the next village along). i don't understand how you came to mention them in your email. you can book with the aktiv ski school, of course, but the wildschonau ski school, who are in red, is much the larger of the two in niederau and therefore, your kids' experiences will be much wider for that. when first learning to ski, the ski kindergarten of the reds is much bigger, it has more and better facilities. i don't know which school first choice uses, but you can easily find this out by emailing erika at the wildschoenau ski school office. go to www.wildschoenau.com and follow the links to the ski school, but be careful you choose the wildschoenau ski school link. erika speaks perfect english and mans the office throuout the season. you could even telephone her. she works every day except saturday morning, when the boss, Sepp Schellhorn, mans the office. tel; 00 43 5339 2200.email: ski.schule@tirol.com
unless you've booked everything oas part of a package, you can book your ski lessons when you arrive in resort - just go to the wildschoenau office next to the church, opposite the hotel austria, at the foot of the big car park. you can't miss it. you will pay no more doing things this way. however, if you've booked a package including kids' lessons and those lessons are with the aktiv school, you will have to keep that arrangement, as your resort rep will give you tickets for your kids which they must give to their instructor, and the instructors will know and recognise that guests at different hotels are booked with one of the two ski schools. they will see the name of the hotel/guest house on the ticket. there were a few times when it was a few days into lessons that we found out we'd been giving lessons to kids who had paid to be in the other ski school and vice-versa. it happens with adults too, so take care.
really, the reps should be able to tell you which school is which. your brochure, and other brochures, might also give it away, but if first choice is a sister company to thomson, then you will be with the wildschoenau ski school as a matter of course. the children's races at the end of the week is also a grand affair with the wildschoenau school. the instructors are all trained to the same high standard, but if you trawl thro the reviews pages of various ski websites for reports about the wildshoenau ski school, you'll be inundated with parents singing its praises. Sepp and his right hand man, Tony, take the children's safety and enjoyment very seriously; the two are constantly watching the ski kindergarten and the slopes for the children's groups, and are very much present on a monday/tuesday when the kids are trying to get the hang of the lifts and invariably taking a few tumbles!!
hope all this helps. L.

hopefully, your girlfriend has some sense and found someone else who doesn't constantly worry that she may 'spoil (your) holiday'!!!

hi glyn again,
have just watched your vidoes of what is Kropfrader, looking down onto Mittermoos. i know the runs only by their names - when i started going to niederau 20 years ago, they were all called by their names and still are by the instructors. i know red 19 only as the run down the markbachjoch!! hope you found my post to you on the ski schools helpful. L.