J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

Played tennis today, first time for 2 months. After my 450km of skiing in Niederau, and being 12 lbs lighter, I was really flying about the court.

Shame about the shots though. - (

AllyG wrote:Dave Mac,
My daughter has very expensive tastes, and she would like to ski St Anton one ski holiday. Does it have any cheap self-catering accommodation?

Thanks,
Ally

Sorry, Ally, cannot help. Although in Niederau I do normally take an apartment, elsewhere, it tends to be b&b, or an hotel. In this case we stayed b&b in an hotel, and ate out. I prefer to eat out, usually where locals go, if possible. I avoid chalets.

The Nasserein end of St A tends to be lower cost.

brooksy wrote:
Was on yahoo news as well,it seems Switzerland has its fair share of avalanches.

The conditions this year, mean that across almost all of the alps, vulnerable slopes are avalanche prone. Check Ise's recent post.

If you look at the article underneath that which we were reading, you see a picture of an avalanche warning sign. Then look on page 7 of my "St Anton and Niederau" post, the top picture shows the same sign. Look at the bottom of the picture, towards the left hand side, you will see two dots. These are two of four guys who have skied past the avalanche sign.

Tony_H wrote:
So how come it was always flat light then, according to your post?

My post reads: "St Anton. On most days, the light was flat, and the viz was poor."

I'm not sure where you are going with this Tony. We had a great time in the Arlberg. I am not making a judgement of St Anton because of flat light, that is part of skiing.

I wrote how things were, and of some of the interesting things we found.

To use your own words, or words which you approved of: "Any skiing is good skiing" My version would be "All skiing is good skiing"
Well, assuming I,m not falling at the time! - )

Tony_H wrote:Thanks for your St Anton coverage.
I am struggling to understand why you said the light was so flat yet all your pictures show blue skies and sunshine?

I didn't take any pictures in flat light.

Some of our group:

Dave Mac

Frau

No 1 son

friend

I escaped for one afternoon, and ripped over to Stuben, and had a great time just fast skiing down empty pistes. The group returned there the next day, and they loved it. Lunch is taken in a great old stuble near the top of the Albonagrat, unfortunately, very smoky. From the window, we could watch dozens of parties with guides walking up the Marokoepfle, for some backbowl activity. The run back to Rauz, to get back into the St Anton area, finishes with a blue run, that I would have classified as a red/black.

Socially, I asked the rep, and our hotelier where the locals ate& drank, and we ended up in some cosy old stubles. By the end of the second day, we had gathered a small group of locals who were bent on teaching deutsch to my skibuddy, while he was giving them a lot of Scottish heuchterteuchter! I learned a lot about St Anton, it's characters and it's history, from these lovely friendly folk.

St Christoph was easily reached from Galzig. At one time, the village consisted of just three buildings, one a health hospice, the kind of place where the rich went to recover from TB. Even now it is a small village, mostly higher cost hotels, high fur coat count. Lunched at the café Schneider, a tribute to Hannes Schneider, the father of modern skiing. There were photos of him doing all kinds of trick skiing, and ski jumps ~ all on wooden skis, dead straight, at least 220 long! I'm not sure that cable bindings had been invented then!



Lech was our most enjoyable day, partly because the light was really good at last! There is a lot of skiing in this area, reaching from the area under the Mohnenfluh, above Zug, the Kriegerhorn, the runs above Lech, through to Oberlech. Lunch was at the Kriegeralpe, olde Austrian. Our group spent a happy couple of hours on some easy deep snow fields, real confidence builders. I went first and then took photos of the falls!!

Study for a painting: