Messages posted by : johnski96
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Hello,
We're off to the Tux valley at half term (20th Feb) and I've started my obsessive weather forecasting! Some reports indicate there may be more snow later this week - does anyone have any good info? We've always got the Hintertux glacier as a fallback but it would be nice to get good snow at Penken/Rastkogel! Anyone out there now? Anyone have snow clairvoyance? Johnski96 |
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Webby,
I have a Dift X170 from actioncameras.co.uk. Its lightweight and quite compact but designed for sports use so quite tough, water resistant etc. Its £130. If you search "johnski96" on youtube you'll find a video I took at Hintertux last March using the camera. I think its great. Johnski96 |
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Tony, we're going the week before (half term) and staying in Lanersbach, which is at the foot of Eggalm part of the Mayrhofen ski area. Mrs JS96 and I had a long weekend there in March and have booked for a group of 18 next Feb.
I can thoroughly recommend staying in L, its easy to get on the mountain and also only 12 mins on the bus from the glacier - that end of the area is also quieter on the pistes but still easy to get to Rastkogel, Penken etc. I'll make sure its all well groomed for you before we leave... |
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Trip report as promised!
Pension Alpengruss, Lanersbach (Tux), 10 - 14 March 2010. Travelled with Easyjet to Innsbruck, hired a car, 90 mins drive. Very easy and a cost effective way to do it. Infinitely better than flying to Munich. Pension Alpengruss: Traditional Tirolean look and feel, great welcome and hospitality. Very clean, spacious room (probably 30m2 for 2 people), slightly pokey bathroom - shower only. Small but pleasant wellness area. What I'd expect from 3*. Food better than expected, 4 course served at the table. 30m from the Eggalmbahnen Gondola. Excellent value overall - we've booked for 19 of us next year! Lanersbach: strung out along the road, but with a smaller centre off the main road with a church and some pretty chalets etc. Certainly no high rise or apartment blocks. We found a lovely old bar (can't remember the name) in the village and had a good apres ski with the Germans and Austrians. Not for the all-nighters, but no ghost town. Ski day 1 - Eggalm: Bad weather, low cloud/light snow/flat light kept us to the local slopes. Excellent piste conditions with below zero temps and some fresh snow. There are only 21kms of piste on the Eggalm, but some lovely skiing, especially red 2/4, fast wide and down through the trees. A skiroute takes you either back 'home' or to Vorderlanersbach and the Rastkogelbahnen. A couple of lovely mountain restaurants, the aptly named Eggalm and the Voldersnest. Ski day 2 - Rastkogel/Penken etc. Much improved weather, sun soon shifted early cloud to open up the magnificent views. We took the Rastkogelbahnen to link with the main Mayrhofen ski area. Some fun blues up on the Rastkogel then over to Penken for more challenge, including the infamous Harakiri (black 4), which with good snow and sun was not too tricky. The area felt much more like a 'big resort' with a lot of skiiers and even more of those strange sideways folk on their ironing boards (only kidding!!). Great range of pistes including some fun reds (5 and 27) and a thigh burning black (17). Restaurants bigger and not as nice as on Eggalm, but we still found a reasonable place - Kressbrunnalm - and had lunch in the sun! Getting back 'home' involved passing through the substantial (ironing)board park then up the big cable car. Which was nice. The skiroute back to Eggalm is a cracker, slightly wider than most and a really nice run through the trees with a perfectly positioned hut for a cheeky late afternoon drinkie on the way. Ski day 3 - Hintertux: We took the 15 min bus ride up to Hintertux. Very extensive skiing on the glacier, once again cold but sunny. Perfect. There is a chain of 3 big gondolas to get to the top at 3200m and a few chairs and several T bars to get you round the 80+km of pistes. Some really wide flat slopes up here, perfect for long fast carving and the snow was uniformly excellent. Note that some of the red 'skiwegs' on the pistemap are un-pisted and quite tricky, e.g Red 13 - how apt! Red 2 from the mid station to the glacier base was great - see the video in another post. Overall the glacier area was much better than expected, although a little characterless as its all above the trees. Bit of a moonscape! Question here - there was a big flat area roped off, with a 'pistebully' going up and down almost like it was ploughing a field - why? (It didn't have its 'blade' down, so not making flat piste). Answers on a postcard.... Prices: Beer ranged from E2.90 - 3.30 for a half litre and lunch from 6ish for a Gulashsoup to perhaps 10 for a more substantial dish (8.50 for Tirolergrostl - yum!). We typically paid between 20 - 30 Euros for lunch for 2 with a salad and a couple of drinks. Schnaps after dinner was invariably supplied FOC by our amiable host Herbert! Overall: Perfect for us (I know others have different criteria). - Not overdeveloped (there are still chunks of mountain that could be dug up for more skiing, but haven't been; you sometimes ski past a small shed with cows (rather than bunk beds) in it etc). - Ample, rather than extensive, amount of skiing (200+km) with good variation - Correct prices - Austria does not rip off its visitors - Traditional feel, cosy bars, yodelling music, any excuse for a schnaps! - Not too many crowds/queues or super-rich English/Russian/French/German whatever show offs Thats it! Johnski96 |
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"Different" season for me, in the past we've always been at Feb half term and one other trip. This year we went xmas - new year, mid March and we're off again at Easter.
Our 26 Dec - 2 Jan trip had the worst skiing weather I can remember, only half a day of sun, too warm, rain at 2,000+m. The March trip was great, plenty of base snow and still cold. Based on the last couple of years I think we'll give up the Christmas trip, its expensive and too risky! Feb and March / April from now on, just be sure that the late one is high up e.g. Monterosa. Johnski96 |
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Wickers, its a Drift Technologies X170. I bought it just before Christmas and I'm very pleased with it. One small problem was that a small plastic 'arm' broke off the clip that holds the camera to your goggle strap - I emailed Drift and they sent a replacement part through the post within the week. That's good service!
The batteries (2x AA) supposedly last 4 hours. I've basically found one set of batteries lasts the week for me, but I don't take the camera out every day. More videos soon, I'm off th Champoluc in a couple of weeks. Johnski |
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Thanks for the techno help Pablo!
Yes the snow was perfect, there had been a little fresh and it was quite cold (minus 5 or 10), sun and no wind! The tuck was on the road (skiweg) bit. And the lump on the side of my head is the camera! Johnski96 |
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Inspired by Dave Mac !
This is me having a blast down an almost empty red on the Hintertux. Johnski96 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/user/johnski96?feature=mhw4[/youtube] (let me know if it works, this is the first time I've tried to add a video) |
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