reports from Niederau

hi m0nk3y
glad you enjoyed your hol look forward to seeing photos, mine hol starts next wk and i am a reasonable new skier ie only been 3 times before, last year to niederau. and as everyone says you either love it or hate it and once i had tried it i was hooked
jan

Mark, I have 3g on my laptop, do you have to do anything, such as register prior to going to Austria? Or does everything work just the same as in the UK?

Dont think you have to do anything Dave, I upgraded for one month from 1GB which costs something silly like £4.83 (used to be £5 til vat changes) to the 5GB which costs £7.30 odd to make sure I did not go over my limit which can cost quite a bit more than paying up front. I think at one time it was a pound per MB so £1000 per GB but I think it 10 pence now which is still £100 per MB so better to pay a couple of quid up front.
I did tell them I was going to use it in Austria so they may have set up some international roaming thing but they did not confrim this. May be worth asking them or checking the web site.

Mark

amanda n

Went to Oberau last year and had a day in Niederau, both the friendliest places you could imagine. I'll be in the Schneeberger for a week on the 17th January so I could let you know what to expect if you want. I went solo last year and will be this year but don't worry, you will absolutely love it! Col.

Hi all,

As promised - some pics from the last week (3rd-10th Jan). We stayed in the Schneeberger Gasthof which is a clean, friendly hotel with a ski room for equipment. The rooms are quite large and comfortable. We were there on a half board basis from the package and the food was nothing special, but good and appropriate for the activity.

The walk from the hotel to the ski school meeting point was 3-5mins away (max) carrying equipment. There is a back door from the hotel which goes up to the road see the first pic below. Then turn left, 50 yards and cross the road up to the meeting point.



Note the church in the following two to get a sense of the locale. Also I was with "Die Blaue" ski school rather than the Reds - The best of course :D (They're all excellent from what I heard ;) )





When I arrived I could link Snowplough turns (badly) and was keen :) so I was started on the nursery slopes. This one clearly shows the queues that occur at 10am when lessons start (but they open the lifts earlier and the lifts were almost empty until then...) The normal size of the queue was nothing like this however.



This one is from the same slope and shows the markbachjoch gondola which takes you up the mountain.



As other have said the nursery slopes are in the shadow of the mountain (at least at the moment) and don't get the sun til late. This did make them cold, and in the **exceptional** weather of last week the temp was -15 at the worst. HOWEVER with good thermals and layers (hat was essential) I didn't have a problem. My 8 year old had a balaclava which he used when he was down the mountain (which wasn't for long I might add)

After a couple of days I had the basics of stem turns and so we went up the mountain - I'ts getting a bit late now but I'll post these photos after sorting out my next load of washing :)

Lovely pics m0nk3y !! Im sooooooooo looking forward to going even if I do still have 8 weeks to go !! Grroaannnnnn...

Thanks for posting them ! Love Ava xx

Ok, part (and final part :) )

When you get up the mountain you get off the Gondola to this view



To the left is a bar, and to the right there is a short descent to Red 19 and the panorama resturant (leave yr skis and walk - its quite a way back with them)

looking left up to the top of blue 21 (the run is over the hill, past the cross, not back to where this was taken)



I don't have too many photo's of the runs because I was working hard on skiing down them at the time! But I did Blue 21, and Red 23 mainly. Lots of fun (and slightly scary for a nube like me)!

Top of 21 down to gondola



Top of 21 off into the distance (T bar lift)


Damn, I wish I'd taken more now I've been through them....

Last words then, My son came downmost of the reds - His instructor was great and they did intend to come down a black as well but he decided not to. My wife was better than me as well and she came down Red 23/24.

I intend to come back at some point - loved the village and all the people I met - brilliant holiday :) Have fun if you're going at some point (Ava and all)

Lovely photos m0nk3y. It's making me quite jealous! I want to go back. You're right about the village - everyone is really friendly, and really want you to have a good time.

I'm glad you enjoyed your first skiing experience - next time you go,you should try red 19 under the gondola. It's a lovely run, especially once you turn right to go through the trees.

m0nk3y, I can't even begin to explain to you what those photos have done for me. I'm brimming with confidence now, thanks so much for posting them :thumbup:

can I see the auhof in the top right hand corner of the photo of the beginner slopes?