Niederau Report '11

Aww, thanks for all your lovely comments everyone.

Next holiday I will work on the pole planting. I've tried it a little before but as you can see it's not habit yet. Generally I've got a long way to go, but love the little achievements along the way. At the moment my goals are to become more comfortable with speed so I can commit to the fall line better on steeper slopes. Slowly slowly catchee monkey on that one. Also, to be able to get down a blue on one ski, and to be able to do short sharp turns holding on to someone else in front of me with ropes. I haven't even attempted the second and third and won't be for some time. If they sound bizarre, it's because I've seen people doing it in lessons and admire the skill it takes. One day...

Yes MrEvs is the one in the red Ally. He is relaxing his style a little more each time. He's far braver than me though. If I want to know what a piste is like I just send him on first to give me a report 8) Nothing bothers him at all. I'm far more cautious which isn't always a good thing.

Em, from what you posted on here previously, you gave the impression that you were quite timid and you also gave the impression you weren't very good. The video dispells both of those, very confident.

As for pole planting, this is not something that comes naturally and took me a long while to do, but all of a sudden I found myself doing it without thinking, and it helps initiate turns on steeps. Friends of mine have been 4 or 5 weeks and are still in the very early intermediate stage, and I said exactly the same things to them about they should try to plant the poles, and was told to stop rushing them!!!

Work at it, it will come, but do what you're comfortable with.

But seriously - looking good on the vid. Very comfortable, good style, and no sign of any fear there.

Thanks Tony, I was very timid and incredibly self-critical. The timidness is not something I experience very often so struggled with that a lot. The fear seems to have gone now, although I was pretty anxious before starting on the Lanerkopfl for the first time. One of the reasons I was so happy at the end was because with each section I felt more and more relaxed as opposed to more tense as I would have before. It's been a big enemy up until this year so such a relief to be chilling out more. Need to work on my tolerance for speed now. I think lots of people find this - you feel like you're going really fast but see a video and it looks like you're crawling along :lol: It's just experience I think, little bit at a time.

I know what you mean with the pole planting. On the occasions I've got it right my upper body position/weight felt far more 'right'. Something to work on. :D

Thats because if you're pole planting, you're leaning forward more and in a more dynamic position.
You need to really lean down the hill more all the time, and oyu're right - it does feel mare natural.

One red off the top of Corvatsch in St Moritz made me feel, whilst hurtling down it at too fast a speed for the first run of the day, as if I was actually going to fall forwards off the edge of the mountain! Of course (sadly for many on here) I didn't but it was fantastic and got the heart racing!!!!

Interesting; so it's nigh impossible to be leaning tooooo far forward ?

Great video and lovely skiing. Am now uber excited about my trip to N, departing on Saturday 26th, the snow looks snowey, the runs look nice and wide and with any luck my cosmic order for snow will be delivered on time in the next week :)

Nelly you'll have a ball :thumbup: God knows how (considering how warm it's been), but the pistes are in cracking condition. Wish I was going back again in the next few weeks :( I'll do a snow dance for you :D

Loved your video Emma. Nice skiing. I now feel like I've had my fix of Niederau this season as unable to get there this year. Looks like they've been doing a grand job in keeping the pistes in nice shape. In around 5 weeks I'll be practising the pole planting in Cervinia.