J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Innsbrucker

The past two or three years in Austria (not yet this year) I saw TV reports about a shocking increase in ski injury rates. Reasons are unclear (possibly: modern skis help unskilled skiers go fast, more artificial snow which is hard, busier pistes). Hence increased awareness and apparently increased risk. Some locals are fixed in their ways and will not wear helmets. Quite a lot have started wearing helmets. Compulsory helmets are not really on the immediate horizon in Austria IMO owing to the economic power of the ski industry, and the difficulty of enforcement.

Interesting.

I assume how-to-ski.org is your site? Nice site, I look forward the intermediate and advanced sections. (Though the site is slow to load, I would find a better host...). I have never skied in France and had the idea that they taught complete beginners parallel first, so glad to see you teach the snow plow for beginners, often it is useful.

Seefeld.

For maximum sunshine, Sierra Nevada, Spain.

This question comes up sometimes and we can all mention our favourites. My favourite is Seefeld, smart town, lovely scenery, good for beginners. Late March the bottom run gets slushy but it is not a difficult slope and you can avoid skiing it if you need to. If budget is tight I guess eastern Europe is cheaper.

Equipment costs? I would not know. I have been skiing 7 years. My first skis / boots/ poles / bag was £30 in Oxfam, and still usable. My current pair of skis was £25 on Gumtree. The last set of poles I bought were 1 Euro each in a fleamarket in a skiing town. My current boots were a reduced price, pulled out of the store-room as old stock, My touring skis and skins were Euro200 from a friend. Every set of skis has (though I am no expert) got me down black runs, long unpisted Alpine routes, deep powder, and skiing through woodland, none of which you will be doing in your first year. To be fair, if you can rent modern skis that will make life easier but don't waste money on the upscale models, which will not suit a beginner. Just make sure the boots are comfortable.

Probably, as Dogu suggests, a package is the answer, but a pension / b&b and an Easyjet or Ryanair flight can be a cheap option, provided the piste is reasonably accessible by foot or free bus. If you go that non-package route, you will be buying lift passes at the rates advertised on the resort website. I have not seen the UK-based websites selling passes really undercutting the standard prices. Check the resort's advertised prices, as some big big resorts are needlessly expensive (why pay for hundreds of kilometers of piste you will not get the chance to use?).

Some kind of initial instruction is a probably needed, either a course or a couple of private lessons. Best of luck!

The only clear information from my experience is that most places in Austria take credit cards but often not supermarkets. The card machines in supermarkets only seem to accept pre-paid cards. A minority of the smaller huts do have a 'no credit card' sign up (and often have lower prices than the bigger bars and huts).

Cash is also more convenient if you adopt the local custom in Austria (and in the south of Germany - less so in the more hard-nosed mentality of northern Germany) of rounding up the bill by about 10% for a tip.

Don't instructors flatter students to increase business? The teaching principle (heard from a friend who trains skate instructors): "always say something positive to the student, and if the you can't think of anything good about their skating, say 'I like your T-shirt'."

In Austria Obergurgl is very high. As is Stubai glacier. Not that I ever went up in late April, but I cannot imagine them being slushy, neither are they madly busy in my limited experience (I was up Stubai last week, it seemed OK though there were quite a few people struggling with pistes above their skill).

Like restaurants in Venice. Certainly illegal under EU law. In several years of skiing with locals in Austria, I have never seen anything like that: we all pay the same in the bars and huts. They do have official but rarely advertised discounts on ski passes for local residents. To stay legal they will give the ski pass discount to any foreigner who can show an official residency ID.