J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by stevesmoothie

Soll's great. Yes its lively and it can be a bit of a hike to get up and down but its great fun. I recommend going abound to the other side of the Hohe Salve mountain and exploring the rest of the Skiwelt. The pistes are much less crowded and there are some great little mountain restaraunts.

I'm hoping to get to Scheffau (the next village along) in Jan. Holding my nerve for some last minute bargains.

You should still go through the school. They have all the insurance and make sure the instructors are vetted and qualified. Its easier for everyone. Many of the schools in Austria offer discounted 1-1 tuition if you don't mind getting up the mountain for 8am.

tino_11 wrote:Was a wee bit touch and go, nearly lost my front edge at what I guess was close to 50kph. It is for this reason I will never wear a helmet.

Please forgive my ignorance but why does this mean you will never wear a helment? My wife and I are shopping for our first buckets before we go to Austria in Jan.

Thanks

Steve

Sounds like you're all set! I was in Les Menuires over Christmas and the snow was fantastic. It can get darn cold on the lifts in the wind so if you have something to cover your face you might like it. Also on the last day it was freakin cold and i wished I had some long johns (are they on your list).

I'd be jealous if I wasn't going to Scheffau on Saturday.

There's a wonderful blue run down to St Martin, ask your instructor to take you.

Ok so here's a weird question.

I'm going skiing in a week with my brother in law. Being blokes of the same age the banter has started as to who's the best. We both have the same number of weeks under our belts but I have been more recently.

I want to make sure I'm slightly better than him before I go. I know that you can't learn to ski from a video but are there any out there I could watch to at least get some tips from, just to give me the edge ;-)

I need to just perfect the ole parallel turn. At the moment I'm still doing the mini snow plough when it gets a bit steep on the reds.

Any tips bearing in mind I won't be able to practice other than in my head.

Cheers!

I almost booked to Bulgaria this year on a last minute deal but changed my my mind and went to France for Christmas. The reviews seem to swing between loving it and hating it. One reveiwer said if you've been to the Alpes DO NOT go to Bulgaria as you'll be gutted.

If you want to try eastern Europe, my wife and I went to Poiana Brasov in Romania a couple of years ago. The skiing is limited but the hotels are excellent. The food is good in a stodgy kind of way (some restaraunts served bear!). The ski instructor was the best I have ever been taught by. Funny, patient, warm and friendly.

Cheers

Steve Smoothie

I'm in kind of the same dilemma. I've done 2 weeks of ski school and it was great for learning the basics and getting to parallel turns but now I'm sick of hanging around waiting for other people and spending most of the holiday standing about.

So over Christmas my wife and I went to Les Menuires and did our first holiday without ski school or lessons.

Trouble was all the other super cool French skiers made us look like a right pair of chancers. We now want lessons to improve technique.

One problem has been though that I'm by nature a bit more wreckless than my wife so my confidence has improved even if my technique hasn't. If your partner is your main ski buddy be careful about widening the gap between your relative abilities or you might end up with rows about going too fast, going off piste, doing black runs etc. We did.

We just came back from 3 Valleys. It was 3.5 euros for a hot choclate so we bought a bottle of rum and a hip flask to keep out the cold and made sarnies at breakfast.

Yes it hurts but the main reason for going is to ski right? So who cares if we can't have as many Vin Chauds and chips as we like just so long as the snow is good.