J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by dgou

Arrived home yesterday after a wonderful week in Alpbach, the prettiest ski village I have ever stayed in and a lovely little guest house - by the end of the week you felt like you wanted to stay, everything was so homely and cosy - we wondered why we had never stayed there before and would definitely go back!

The skiing was great, although we had a couple of days of fog and thick snow, so the visibility up the top was not good, but the ski school kept going - but we did not want to risk injury to ourselves or others. Plenty to do off the slopes, including an excellent bus service along the valley linking the villages and connecting with the train at Brixlegg, so spent a nice day in Rattenberg - which we would not have done otherwise. The Tourist Board have a good programme of events, including a film show about the history and traditions of the village, a walk through the woods with large candles, which apparently looked lovely - although we were part of it so only saw it from our persepctive - a ski show which is the best I have seen from one of the ski schools and lots of other activities like snow shoe hiking. It is clear that many people are returners and also I have never seen so many European nationalities all skiing and socialising together, from Monaco to Sweden, Ireland to Czech Republic - it was lovely not to be dominated by the Brits or the Dutch.

The ski area was in 3 parts, the slopes were well looked after and well groomed, plenty of places to stop and eat/drink and the lift attendants were very nice, and the few times people did have problems, they were quick to help.

Only downside was the TO we used, who will be hearing from me shortly for breaking health and safety rules, and not doing what a TO should, so they will get a letter of complaint shortly!

Other than that, a lovely holiday in stunning suroundings!

Hurrah, glad you had a good time, we heard about the problems at Gatwick whilst we were waiting to come home from Innsbruck! Seems we both picked a good week to ski in Austria!

Old Andy I have just watched your Snow Dance video on Youtube hahaha!!

This is my residence for next week www.alpbach.at!
Lovely webcam!

Niederau - Austria.
Westendorf - Austria
Arinsal - Andorra
Ski Welt area of Austria is good for beginners.

The first two have hotels in the village near the ski slopes and gondolas up to higher slopes for building ocnfidene or just to see the views.

Arinsal is a gondola up from the village to an easy ski area, and you can rent a locker at the top to keep all your stuff in so you can leave it there safe at the end of the day and then amble around the village and the shops at the end of the day.

Again depends what you want to do!

I was sat gazing out of my office window at lunchtime at a lovely warm spring day, and quicly checked the Alpbach webcam - how happy I was! Blue sky, beautiful views and not many skiers - so next week this will be me with the Feel Good Factor every day.. and boots sorted! :D :D Alpbach here I come!

You will be pleased to know I am now sorted - hurrah! - I went to Lockwoods in Leamington in my lunch hour and back after work, my boots have been checked, tweaked, heated up, remoulded and new footbeds! Thank you to Robin of Lockwoods for sorting both me and my boots out! :D :D :D Job done!

At my zumba class tonight, I was advised to take them to the local, and very well known in this area, ski shop, and get one of the technicians to look at them, so all is not lost. I will do that tomorrow lunchtime, and then make a decision as to whether I take them, as they do take up a good chunk of you 20kg luggage allowance, or just hire in resort. I am just cross with myself for not checking this earlier.

They were very tight around the calves, and part of my problem is that after my ankle op, I got Deep Vein Thrombosis so clamped in a tight boot all day might not be good for them!

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions, as usual I knew it was worth posting on here and I got some very useful responses (and not jokey ones from Tony H and Mr Wicked! sorry Wickham! :wink:

They have been in the back bedroom for the last week since I got all the stuff from the loft, I will try again with some different socks. A sign of my age once I hit the big five-zero!

Just such a shame as I spent 2 whole afternoons at the Snowdome getting fitted up, and they were great, so have only played about in them for 1 week.

I must think positive, both my consultant and osteopath said I can go skiing, so all is not lost.. but there were a few expletives muttered... and I think it is safe for the cat to come out from under the bed now... :wink:

You may well see them advertised in a week or two! :)