J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

On Tuesday, 1st April, I could see (from Niederau), that the Westendorf and Hopfgarten lifts were closed, so it is a fair bet that the Ski-Welt closed on Sunday, along with most other similar resorts. Auffach closes this Sunday.

I checked on the Kitzbuehle berglift web site, and this also closes on the 6th.

Mid-April is too late for the skiing in Tirol. It isn't a case of the lift operator running the lifts if there is snow on the ground. There is a big infrastructure that slots into place, and has to be organised well in advance.

The nearest place to Soell that I can think of might be Kaprun, (booring), or the Stubai Gletcher. Oh and maybe high up in the Zillertal, Kaltenbach, or maybe Obergurgl/Hochgurgl

You should be able to cancel your accomodation. There are clear government-lead Ts&Cs in Tirol, where costs that have been incurred can be charged to you. Definitely worth trying.

Depending on your incoming airport, and if you have car hire, you can just check up where snow conditions are good and the lift system open.

Just checked, Obergurgl/Hochgurgl lift site, this is listed as open til the end of April.

You could also try St Anton. Whereever you look at, check that both beginner & intermediate slope lifts are open.

Good Luck

Just returned from Niederau today, a terrific season end week. Snowed several days at start of week. Completed 45 runs over a couple of days, around 180km.
Snow was totally trustworthy, runs were pretty empty.

Moved onto three days of spring snow, where the best skiing is in the morning with the odd beer, and sat looking over the Kitsbuhler Alpen in the afternoon.

Met up with Jan on the season's last day, and admired his prolific capabilities with the schnapps bottle!

Back in July for a weeks walking.

Awfully sorry Tony and Souldrive, just completed my 6th week. It is the one minor advantage of age. Oh, and reduced price lift passes, Niederau 207 Euros, for the season.....

I'm definitely all skiied out though.

And my carbon footprint is shot to pieces

Would far prefer Sion airport to Geneva, I have had some terrible experiences there over the years.

The whole of Saas Fee closed due to high winds and avalanch risk from lunchtime onwards, one mid-march day this year.

Saas Grund was an attractive ski area, you ski right up next to the glacier.

I agree the percentage of tee bars is too high, but that is not going to answer this lady's problem. Jan is right, "Stand up", and "Strong legs" The sitting down is a reaction to the T bar pull. Don't react.

And this leads me to another story....

We are at the bottom of the beginners slope in Niederau, (back in the early mists of time) I am skis off, helping the lift man to load my class onto their first T bar. Three times this rather over-buxom lady, (we are talking over 14stone, 90kgm) fell off, before I signalled to the lift man. A big grin went round the other instructors, they knew what was coming.

I jumped onto my skis, positioned on the left, and when the bar went between us, grabbed her round the waist, and hoisted her up off the snow. We arrived at the top, sweat pouring from everywhere, before I gently deposited her off to one side, and tried to pretend that this was quite a normal part of teaching.

To be fair, every one of the instructors at the bottom bought me a beer.

Another contributary factor to the dodgy knee...

Thanks for the info Pavel and Trencher. I should really have opened a thread about Utah, for a wider response. It's the age you see.

Talking of which ~ Pav, I wasn't querying the 50 year ski potential of the new knees, rather your potential, given the start point! I certainly would be extremely grateful for another 30 years, but I suspect 15 to 20 may be my lot.

Did ski past an old Austrian guy in Niederau, waited for him at the bottom, and asked him about himself. He told me he had been the local police chief in Worgl, and had been retired nearly 30 years. When I asked him how old he was, he said, ~~ 94!!!

Pav, Have you really got 50 potential years???

Utah is under consideration for next season. Met some USA skiers in Saas Fee, They recommended basing in Park City, and ski bussing to different slopes. High praise for Alta.

In the States, I have only skiied Colorado, based in Breckenridge, then Vail, Keystone, Beaver Creek and Arrapaho basin.

Hi OldNev,

Pavel's technique description is spot on, assuming that you are upward unweighting, which I am pretty sure you are.

However, you mentioned using Jetstix, which I date as 1971! And you would have used them for an extreme form of downward unweighting, simply called "Jetting"

How do I know this?, Well mine were bolted onto the back of my Kastingers with 8mm bolts. The tops came to about 2 " below the knee crease. (Same season as the under the bed carpet inner soles)

So, with either old style skis or carvers, and on your normal boots, technique for downward unweighting ~ sink down (unweigh)& pole plant, swivel knees across, push the skis away and inside hip forward. Best performed on bumps.

Its still a good turn technique to have in the armory.

As for jetting, I should never have done that, I still attribute a proportion of the dodgy knee to Jetstix use. Plus 20,000 miles of road and track running, several 50 mile fell races, and about 140ish weeks of none-jetstix skiing.