J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Innsbrucker

Still really bad. I went to Seefeld Monday, and bottled out of skiing in heavy snow. Went again today and did a couple of runs down, a nicer day, snow quite bad, and several pistes not really skiable at all. Was told by a random local enthusiast on the lift that even higher resorts are still totally dependent on artificial snow, apart from the glaciers. Forecast is for things to get better tomorrow.

Comfy boots are good. I would not worry too much about skis. By renting you can always have the latest gear and swap skis if they do not suit you. And less of a worry if they are nicked.

My first 4-5 years were on a £30 skis + boots + poles + bag setup from Oxfam. I got the bindings checked & adjusted in the ski shop, just to be safe. I upgraded the boots when the linings got hard & I wanted to go touring. So-so skiiers who pretend to be aces secretly laugh at you if you have duff equipment. The locals secretly laugh at tourists who have thousands of quids worth of gear and are duff skiiers. I have friends of both types! When I started I was duff skiier with duff gear, and had loads of fun :-)

Summary: provided you are comfortable in ski boots when they are done up tight, it doesn't make much odds. Just do the arithmetic (remember to add in the cost of a ski service each year)!

As someone who skis only in Austria, I didn't like St Anton (only there for one day). I have never seen an Austrian resort with so many people sitting in the huts with house shoes on. For some reason they had chosen not to ski: go figure. Yes the black runs are easy. But the last run down, badly prepared, mogulled, slushy, and crowded with skiiers most of whom are struggling, should offer challenge and danger enough to satisfy anyone who is tempted to complain the blacks are too easy: it presents a major challenge, and if you are good enough to get down that in good style and are still left wanting something harder, you need challenges which very few pistes offer. Personally I prefer easy and safe resorts... there are many pretty, relatively low, resorts with good prices, excllent pistes, & modern lifts in Austria which I prefer to the large resorts who maybe do not have to work so hard because they are included in many packages.

However if you do go to St Anton, check out the ski musuem. It is combined with a very smart restaurant, and worth a visit.

Huts a bit expensive. Ischgl takes the busuit in hotel prices, though the hut prices were ok. Not sure about "not very challgening": look around at Hochgurgl and there are acres of inviting deep powder not far from the piste, more challenging than steep black runs for most of us.

You can ski most places these days in December owing to artificial snow. Glacier might be better snow, however, do you really want to take a young family up the glacier at Hintertux? Since you say you are fairly new to this world, I hazard a guess you may not have experienced the thin air (which some people simply cannot handle), and tendency to be windy, you find up there. And wrap up warm for a glacier in December!

I found Mayerhofen a bit a of party town. I only know about Austria, and within that I can highly recommend Seefeld as a nice easy, low altitude, well-prepared piste which will certainly be functioning by mid-December, (with a few bits of 'black' piste if you want a bit of a challenge, but nothing super-hard). And a lovely town suited to a young family or older couples (though I imagine it can be a pit pricy), but not so much of a clubbing - loud music - heavy-drinking scene. Piste-wise Schlick2000 is a hidden gem, low, lovely scenery, easy and pleasant to ski (apart from the run to the bottom, you can do down in the lift), by contrast with Seefleld nothing in the way of town, though you can stay in Innsbruck and take the free bus every day. Galtur (which has village, not a town) is another place which pushes the family-friendliness to compensate that they are not as big or glitzy as their neighbours, and like Seefeld also pushes cross-country skiing.

In December Seefeld (and Innsbruck, big-time) offer Christmas markets with events, music, and loads of mulled wine, etc. as a bonus.

I guess Schumacher can afford the medical care if his insurance does not stump up. Let us just hope for the best outcome for him.

In many European countries walking across a pelican crossing on red is not only discouraged but, unlike skiing off-piste, is a criminal office, and almost certainly invalidates travel insurance under a general exclusion for 'illegal activities', so no responsible holiday-maker would do it, and yet there will always be the odd risk-taker, and given Schumacher's profession, he may be one. I am a risk-averse skiier and feel many on the pistes going too fast to be safe, but walking at a red light or nipping outside the markers is sometimes just too tempting...

There are some amazing feature films from 1930-1950s shown at the St Anton ski museum, which are little more than an excuse for skilled skiers showing off. There must be some links to clips on the Net I would think.

Having an Austrian partner, I learned that people growing up as late as the 1960s were allowed out as very small children to play unsupervised, and skied in the woods on home-made skis, having walked up because they could not afford the few lifts there were. She still looks at home skiing in woodland.

Without wishing promote a competing site (it is not really in the same market), I have just finished the refurb of a website all about going back to 'real' skiing, http://www.doglotion.com, which covers extreme and freestyle, but is largely about ordinary skiiers who like to keep it real. The industrialisation of skiing has been good in many ways, but something has been lost too, unless you are into touring.

I thought those guys were really good. Last year on the telly one retiring top racer, I cannot remember who, was put on those old-fashioned skis to give a kind of farewell display, and boy did he struggle.

BTW the feet-together, short-swing style is still seen in Austria among those who are good enough to pull it off, and it is not altogether easy to do. Recently I posted the 'Ski-Twist' video of Hinterseer, (whose record of Olympics successes shows he is capable of adopting a racing style where it is appropriate) doing just that in 2013, and singing a cheesy song about how sexy the wedeln style is. But these days it is taught with edging so is more like carving, and is not technically 'wedeln' in the old sense, except where the snow is too powdery, steep or soft for edging to work.