J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Innsbrucker

My understanding, though I am not certain, is that there is a contribution to the local tourist office and may help cover various services they offer, e.g. discounts for guests on lift passes, tourist info office, free / cheap local bus travel etc., and that this is done by the local council. It is normally nightly. I do not know whether any towns make it weekly on an apartment. In my limited experience normally it is included in the headline price, but maybe where they are competing on price, especially on the net, some owners may be tempted to make it an add-on.

If you are paying on the books and they present you with a bill and fill in the usual report of your stay, especially if the owners are local people, chances are they are only charging what they are entitled to charge. Being the German-speaking world these things are pretty well checked up on by the authorities. If they let you stay paying cash, and with no paperwork, they are probably evading that local tourist department tax.

You don't lose the skills, but may lose the relevant fitness / strength without suitable exercises. Maybe the first outing of next season you will have taken a step backwards, but after a few hours at most you will be fine.

Further to the use of inline skating to improve skiing skills, I have been blogging a lot about the connections with skiing on the site of one of the top skate instructor (a friend of mine whose website I maintain). In my last post I linked to the following suggestions from Harald Harb for targeting skate skills towards helping skiing http://www.harbskisystems.com/web-lessons/inline-skate-series.html?m_id=1&cd=32&menu_id=74

As discussed elsewhere on this forum recently, steepness is not really the main issue in difficulty (though steeper slopes do I find impose greater load on leg muscles). I was recently on an blue at St Anton which was a struggle also for an Austrian friend with 40+ years experience, starting as small child skiing fresh powder in the woods (they still start in kindergarten, BTW, but in this day and age it's on piste, with instructors). Snow quality, piste maintenance, and piste traffic are bigger issues. However, other things being equal, steep slopes are not so great for beginners IMO partly because when you fall on a steep slope, there is a risk you slide and slide and slide...

But nothing wrong with skiing easy slopes! Leisure skiing is a fun way to spend time in the mountains and get some sun, and should look elegant and effortless IMO. Given the number of accidents, I find pushing yourself beyond your abilities on piste is irresponsible. If you need your skiing to be difficult and dangerous (which I don't), go ski Corbets Couloir (see youtube) or something.

Although this point is not new, I remind myself because in my seventh year skiing I still have a safety-blanket mentality towards blue and a frisson of fear at black (whereas my Austrian friend chooses pistes and off-piste routes by look and feel of the gradient and snow condition, and even forgets which level each colour is). The fact the nice black short cuts on the horrible and overcrowded blue piste in question were deserted, suggests I am not alone in this irrational reaction.

As for how good you have to be for a real tour in the wild, best ask the guide who is leading it. You need to buy various equipment, and probably be able to handle any piste, and have progressed to a at least dipping a toe in the water with powder skiing.

For touring near a piste, you have to be good enough to get back down on touring skis. If you choose to ski down the piste, there are no special skills, beyond a certain knack about the way you climb (sliding more than stepping).

Touring skis can be any skis with touring bindings (which do work OK for everyday skiing, but are a tad expensive), and slots to take the hooks at each of the skins; and you need a set of skins which you strip off before going downhill. Having said that, it is nice touring with very light purpose-made skis. My touring skis are super light but a bit of handful downhill, but good modern ones are fine.

If you are touring in the wild, some people will opt for wide skis for powder. There again, some mountain guides say 'wide skis are all very well when it is soft but you really want long straight skis to handle ice, in case you encounter it". All that only applies to off-piste touring.

A lot of those tourers will, like me, ski back down the piste, either during the afternoon, (or by full moon for an evening tour). As long as you are near a piste, there is no necessary connection between having gone up through the woods, and choosing to go down on- or off-piste.

Also it is nicer touring with light boots. And the boots need a bit of give, though they usually have a switch to firm them up for the descent. Again some of the touring boots make the downhill a bit tricker than normal boots, but not too much, so if you are good enough get down the red at Rosshütte on normal skis, getting down the blue with touring gear should not be a problem. The main thing is they are comfortable, a blister will cut your tour short!

Ideally you also have bigger plates on the bottom of the poles, and adjustable poles. But I go up on normal poles. I would be happy to go up Roshütte with you if I happen to be around. Another resort in the area much used for this type of piste-side tour is Muttereralm. One hour up to Hochegg and two hours to Roshütte is about right for me, though many tourers seem super-fit and will do it a lot quicker.

If you are not comfortable with the skis or boots after the ascent, there is no shame in buying a lift ticket at the top and going down in the lift, provided there is one to hand.

Both high and low, now, the powder is getting 'breakable' hard from melting and refreezing, which makes powder skiing difficult and dangerous. However, from what I understand of Langlauf (not much, though I do own a set of gear) you are going to be on prepared tracks, either in the grooves (for classic style) or on the hard packed snow (for the more energetic skating style), so as long as there is snow which is not slushy, I would think the lack of soft powder not relevant.

Seefeld is really my favourite resort, but being lower I was thinking a higher resort would be a better bet. as there may be no snow at all on the Loipe at Seefeld.

By the way, I highly recommend going up to Rosshütte, or half way, to Hochegg, at Seefeld, on touring skis through the woods. And if the snow is soft, earlier in the year (and you do not have insurance worries about a little gentle off-piste skiing) head into the woods 100m beyond Hochegg on the left, and do little skiing back down through the woods). You can also ski down through woods was at Gschwandkopf, Seefeld. You can rent touring skis. At first sight ski touring may look a stupid idea, but once you try it, it is just a fantastic feeling. I have not yet done a full-blown tour in the wild, as I am not sure if my modest powder-skiing skills are good enough, but have done quite a lot of walking up woodland around pistes, which is a gentle introduction to touring (but a great work-out!). Take a rucksack, with a change of T-shirt (touring makes you hot) a flask of tea, and a snack. Have a beer or soup at the top, and the ski down is such a pleasure because you feel you have earned it!

It was Seefeld where I was caught, one day when the staff had little to do, mis-using the car park for touring. There is a free touring car park slightly further out.

I can only comment on Austria. Depends what the family needs in terms of pistes (if you mean quiet and with stuff for kids, or a big resort to keep late teens amused). In Austria two of my favourite small to medium sized family-friendly resorts do a lot of Langlauf (though I have only found time to try it briefly - and it does take some re-learning of co-ordination, you will need a couple of lessons). Those resorts are Seefeld (which I know well - advertises 170km of Langlauf tracks I seem to remember) and Galtür (which I just discovered). You could also look at the recently extended Alpbach for a larger number of lifts, combined with plenty of Langlauf tracks.

Yesterday I was at Galtür, a small village with a small, well-run piste resort combined with fairly heavy emphasis on both uphill ski touring (for which it really is getting too late, unless you stick to touring in the piste area, as the powder is no longer soft) and an emphasis on Langlauf (which is what I understand by "cross-country"). The base station there is high, so it might work, though I can tell you spring is really in the air and snow is melting in Austria just now. You could chat to the ski school there and get their opinion about whether Langlauf in April is realistic.

I watched your video (without claiming to be among the contributors here who are really qualified to comment). You need a friend really to video to show the body posture. Also the piste is in places so shallow that much of the time you appear to be using a double pole plant to push yourself along, which does not show the normal downhill technique.

My comment for what it is worth from the little one can see is that the skiing looks OK. You seem to be using the poles to create small zig-zag turns. What happens if you go out and do the same run (except for the flat bits) without poles, or holding up your poles horizontal (as in Alignment Step 1 of http://www.livestrong.com/article/192772-ski-pole-techniques/)? I think doing a few runs without poles might be a good exercise for you, to put more focus on edge control and weight transfer on the skis themselves.