Picture for Sean

Thank you for that Tony. Most of the present J2skiers will not have seen the five years of interaction, that at one time, was good fun. That changed five years ago, for what reason, I do not know. I do know that I ski with many J2skiers, many of them now ex-J2ers - just sickened by the tone of what was written, both personal attacks, which thankfully were stamped on, and then persistent attacks on my resort. This included three serious comments from you.

Nothing to do with Niederau, but I am really sad that J2ski has recently, through the same behaviour, lost one of the great contributors.

It is true that it is a whole five weeks since you passed comment on Niederau.

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That is my last word on what has gone before. I take what you have written in good faith. I thank you for writing it.

Other J2skiers however, may not be so grateful. For it means that I will return to writing about Niederau, as and when asked about, and sometimes when it isn't asked about! It will certainly lighten the load on my pm box.

Ski well.

I am new to j2ski but love the ski banter and obviously don't know what has been said in the past but I love Niederau. It was our first time skiing in 1998 and I was with my hubby and two kids who were 4 and 6 at the time. I thought it was the most gorgeous place I'd seen and having skied twice a year since I still think it is the most beautiful. Two years later the whole extended family learnt to ski there brothers, sisters and their kids.

I have not been there since those early days but both kids now excellent skiers and hubby and I still plodding on - lots of skiers say you can tell skiers who learnt in Austria and those in France or elsewhere.

Went to soll for a week in January and would love to have had the opportunity to go back to Niederau I am sure we will soon. We went from a couple of trips to NIederau to a long weekend in Chamonix which was obviously quite a shock.

I think the place you learn to ski is always kinda special and now that I've skied most of Austria some of France (gimme Austria any day) and Vail there is still no place like Niederau.

Back to chamonix this week hope it is not so daunting!!

Looks like a decent area to me, provided you don't mind hopping on and off the odd bus (which I don't). I would take the family there without hesitation. The new link (Auffach/Alpbach) looks good. I reckon prices are about to go up as that area begins to appeal to a lot more people.

Am always surprised at how many km people are looking for in a weeks skiing. I would consider myself ski fit (8+ weeks a year), train throughout year and ski faster than most. Never got bored, never out skied any resort in a week. Spent many a weekend at a Myrkdalen in Norway (300 vertical), 1 lift, 2 T bar and never managed to get bored of the place. Small resorts mean you can amuse yourself with ski drills, or just go skinning. Some of my best days skiing have been a single descent, having worked hard to earn it. Just doing laps on flat blues and over graded reds has no real interest for me. Like driving down a motorway in cruise control.

Boredom is a state of mind. I blame apps for the obsession with number of km in resort.

Ranchero_. I blame apps for the obsession with number of km in resort.[/quote wrote:

I'm not getting into a discussion about niederau.

But I have to say that statement you just made is utterly ridiculous.
Maybe we should start a new thread and leave this one for the pleasure of daves picture, and ask why people want to have a weeks skiing with a good amount of km to go at or not?

www  New and improved me

Ranchero_1979 wrote:Am always surprised at how many km people are looking for in a weeks skiing. I would consider myself ski fit (8+ weeks a year), train throughout year and ski faster than most. Never got bored, never out skied any resort in a week. Spent many a weekend at a Myrkdalen in Norway (300 vertical), 1 lift, 2 T bar and never managed to get bored of the place. Small resorts mean you can amuse yourself with ski drills, or just go skinning. Some of my best days skiing have been a single descent, having worked hard to earn it. Just doing laps on flat blues and over graded reds has no real interest for me. Like driving down a motorway in cruise control.

Boredom is a state of mind. I blame apps for the obsession with number of km in resort.

I see your point. The only thing I would say is that many people, who get to ski for just one week per year, simply want to 'clock up the miles' and if that means skiing with poor form, doing no drills and taking no lessons, then so be it.

In a recent thread I was a little critical of Livigno and Courmayeur. Thinking back, my attitude to these resorts was dictated by my attitude to skiing in general at that time. Basically, I was a fit, testosterone-fuelled, 30-odd year-old 'adolescent' whose modus operandi was to ski as fast as I could, for as far as I could, for as long as I could. I shudder to think... :oops: :lol:. I reckon I could quite happily go back to either of those resorts 'wearing my more mature head' and enjoy them more than I did the first time around. I think the phase I went through is typical of many young-ish, British, male skiers. I like to think that when, sooner or later we all arrive at the point that you aptly compared to motorway driving, many of us wake up to the fact that that's what's really boring and then we start to move on as skiers. 'Motorway driving' keeps the rest happy.

It's not a case of wanting to clock up miles for the sake of it, more a case of having a choice in where to ski and try to vary days on the slopes.
Monterosa doesn't have a huge recorded mileage, varies according to who you believe, but there was plenty of places off the piste map to play on. But doing 75 miles a day end to end gave a real sensation of travel.