St Anton and Niederau

One of my favourites, because you can really let rip.
There was a hold up in the planning permit over the summer, but I had a couple of runs with the head of the tourist board ~ he was saying the permit is now released and the piping will laid in the summer.

This is what skiing used to be like, prior to the introduction of snow making machines, and before piste machines. No groomed pistes!

Champagne powder, chopped snow, moguls, ice, stones, mud. - In descending order, and progressing through the season!

The Hochberg used to be used for international downhill training, but this ceased when a member of the Polish team sadly was killed, going off into the trees.

All the training is now focussed in the Tennladen Race Arena. This year, there has been a switch from provision of downhill traing, so the speed gun has gone, and there is no longer a watered iced course. But the slalom area has been enhanced. So the British Junior team and the Japanese team were both back, and this year, with the Canadian team, just before Kitsbuhle weekend. Chatted to many of them on my frea morgan run.

I am a little disappointed but not at all surprised that there has been no mention at all of the skiing in St Anton, bearing in mind the thread title.

He told me that he would write up about it when he got home. I can only conclude that he is still on his world tour. And let's be honest, no one is going to rush to get back to Scotland, are they?

I have just read this thread and I think adders should put one of his famous locks on it :wink:

Ian Wickham wrote:I have just read this thread and I think adders should put one of his famous locks on it :wink:

You're not suggesting that hearing about harp playing in Niederau has been done a few times before are you?

Tony_H wrote:I am a little disappointed but not at all surprised that there has been no mention at all of the skiing in St Anton, bearing in mind the thread title.

Apologies, Tony, I know that S/A is overdue. I have the notes and the photos, but have not been able to put in the required time, (poor excuse)
I have only been back a week, and we have had a family thing, visit to see our previous guide dog working, and I have spent two days organising tennis club membership, coaching and web site for the coming season. At least another week of that stuff before my next trip.

Must do better. Try and make allowances. -)

Dave Mac wrote:

Tony_H wrote:I am a little disappointed but not at all surprised that there has been no mention at all of the skiing in St Anton, bearing in mind the thread title.

Apologies, Tony, I know that S/A is overdue. I have the notes and the photos, but have not been able to put in the required time, (poor excuse)
I have only been back a week, and we have had a family thing, visit to see our previous guide dog working, and I have spent two days organising tennis club membership, coaching and web site for the coming season. At least another week of that stuff before my next trip.

Must do better. Try and make allowances. -)

Prioroties Dave, come on. Pull your finger out. I have a review and photos up within 24 hours of a trip :wink:

St Anton. On most days, the light was flat, and the viz was poor. The pistes were very busy. A number of the main runs were not pisted overnight, and so those that remained unpisted, retained the hardpack from the previous day, and those that were pisted were so busy that they were wiped down to hard pack by mid-morning. So the traffic was slow, with a number of bottlenecks.

Compounding this was a high number of bombers, who arrowed through the busy areas. The safest run was the WM downhill.

I did notice that the snow machines were running non-stop, taking advantage of the consistent sub-zero temps. Interestingly, during the day, the canons were aimed at roped off areas, and so there were huge whales built up every day.

There is just loads of skiing in St Anton, but in the circumstances we all felt that we were not seeing the best side of it. Most enjoyable run was off the back of Schindler Spitze.