J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Mel C

Am off to Scheffau on Saturday and wondered if anyone knows the resort well enough to recommend a blue piste or two to start off on to ease ourselves back into skiing?

Thanks

I'm trying to find somewhere in Austria for a pretty competent but nervous skier - been four times now and all i want (!) is a resort with some fairly wide, true blue runs preferably back to the village (but not essential). I prefer to build my confidence cruising and mastering the blues rather than testing my bravery on narrow red runs!

I have been to St Johann and loved it some am looking for something similar for anyone who knows the resort.

I've come across Neukirchen which i have never heard of but seems to be pretty good for what i am looking for and i'm also considering Scheffau and Kaprun and Fieberbrunn.

Any thoughts/advice would be most welcome.


Many thanks

Hi there - i went to St Johann three years ago and it was my third time skiing. I would describe myself as a fairly competent but nervous beginner and i found the resort to be excellent.

I cant say i skied the whole resort so cant comment on the entire area but i too was in ski school and i felt the instructors took us on pistes which matched our abilities (we were all 2nd or 3rd time skiers) and concentrated on building confidence on those slopes rather than getting us to cover the miles.

After ski school in the morning we often went and tried the same slopes on our own in the afternoon and with the instructors "top tips" from the morning sessions we did very well.

There are a couple of lovely long undulating blue runs which we loved and they run from the top the 1st cable car (Harbischel 1) back down to the base - one either side of the cable car. They both have branches off of them so you can make 4 or 5 slightly different runs out of the 2 and we found this brilliant for beginners like us. The other thig i liked is that several of the pistes interlink - so if your friends get confident enough they can start a red from the top the cable car car but then halfway down re-join a blue back down to the bottom. Again i found this a real help as i knew i didnt have to dread the whole way down but at the same time pushed myself a little more!

They are several mountain restaurants so its easy to stop off or take a break on your way down.

The village itself is small but very pretty with a few shops and restaurants but as can often be typical for Austria you really need to go into the hotels to find the bars.

On the whole we had a great time and i would thoroughly recommend it for 1st-3rd time skiers.

I hope this has been of some help