I had a quick glimp at the Sticky above - which seems to be an advertorial.

Thought a thread giving Arssers a chance to tell their own experiences on the slopes would be useful, so here goes. Feel free to adapt the format or stick to 9 liner style.

Where you going? Where you been ? Any good / Who with ? Nightlife? Talent ? Recommend or steer clear ?

To kick off I just got back from a week in Austria.

RESORT: Wildschoenau, Austria - ( Niederau,Oberau and Auffach)
TRAVELLED WITH: Neilson's
FLIGHT: London Gatwick to Innsbruck - Thomas Cook Air Arm
COST APPROX (ALL UP):£233 Flt + 6 nts Accom Ski pass £134 Ski pack +3 days Ski school £160
CONDITIONS Skiied everyday, first two days in sun on old snow then it snowed for 3 days out of 6. Good powder, visiability poor at height on occasion (max height Schatzberg in Auffach 5,000ft)
VERDICT A relaxed fun re-intro. Does what it says on the tin.Not ludicrously pricey. German beer - steer clear of Krautinger Schnapps....
COMMENT/LESSONS IDENTIFIED: I had a ball - BUT

1) beware Thomas Cook check-in policy - arrived with 40 minutes in hand and was told baggage loading closes an HOUR before flight....whoops. T-C perss in GTW could not have been more unhelpful.
Flew out EasyJet and had to beg a lift to the resort from EXTREMELY HELPFUL Inghams team in Insbruck.If I hadn't pre-booked Car Parking (Air Parks - which is a twenty minute bus ride away) then I would not have missed the flight.

2) This was last-second booking - so my accomm was Bed & breakfast "allocated on arrival" in Niederau. I was sole guest in tiny (4 rooms) but lovely GastHaus Sonnwend ..elderly owners v. friendly but had zero English.....cue some mangled German and a lot of sign language. Good room (the famous Austrian Twin with ensuite shower/wc) but on the edge of town and no other facilities.

3) Niederau is quiet....Irish Bar gets a bit raucous (but Guinness is 5 Euros a pint and tasted unlike elswhere)....main beer is Zipfer but other brews encountered were HofBrau and Krombacher in various locations. There is a Pizzeria where a magical 10 inch thin and crispy with a glass of wine came in at 7 Euros. Filled roll in Spar supermarkt for lunch was Euro 1.60... Food on the mountain surprisingly not too pricey......Niederau is also home to Parascending club - if you fancy freezing your arrse off on a tandem flight from the 2,800 ft top of the Markbachjoch gondola it'll set you back 80 Euros

4) Niederau has some gentle low down blue runs close to the two Ski Schools (red and Blue. Go with Blue (less stuffy) and ask Albert about his dress) with mostly reds from the Gondola station down plus two black runs.....neither of which is particularly long. Don't know about off-piste 'cos I'm old. For Boarders, some good long straights on the red runs but no half-pipe in Niederau that I saw. More reds in Auffach and a Board Arena - but it was closed last week so need to check.

LINKS:
WILDSCHÖNAU - Holiday in Tirol - Kitzbüheler Alpen

Last minute ski deals and cheap ski holidays from Neilson



if you ski like this then Niederau would be a tad dull....you should be on the Hannenkam up the road in Kitzbuhl with the Beckhams .....and that pearly Heidi Klum on your arm..




Viertig !

Dee BillyBock

Niederau & it's environs isn't too bad for a quick holiday as are lots of other good resorts in Austria.

But for a bit of Squaddie nostalgia, why not go back to good old Sonthofen?
You can have a couple of days at The Fellhorn, Nebelhorn, The Grünten, Oberjoch, Grasgehren, Steibis or The Mittagberg. & there's loads of other smaller slopes around.

You won't see that many groups of squaddies making prats of themselves because there's not that many Army huts there nowadays. But it's a good skiing holiday, with something for every ability.

The girls are still Very friendly!!!

Always fancied Garmisch-P but never managed to get there. Couple of REME friends said their Corps hut was still widely used.

The Army Winter Sports meeting 2011 is at Serre Chevalier in France
LINKY

18 Jan - 28 Jan 11 Army Champs (Ex LIONS CHALLENGE) Serre Chevalier FRA
29 Jan - 05 Feb 11 Inter Service Champs Meribel FRA
Cancelled Reserve Forces Champs (Ex SNOW LION) Aviemore SCO [ one Army my Arrse...]
27 Mar - 03 Apr 11 British Champs Meribel FRA

A Good Thread!

RESORT: Obertauern, Austria (The Austrians like to keep this little gem a secret from the rest of the human race and if you ever get the chance to go there you will understand why! fantastic runs, surrounded by Mountains and a great Apres Ski Atmosphere and you can dance like your dad and sing like your cat and fit in very nicely with the yokels).

Jahorina, Mountain above Pale in Bosnia which hosted the Womens downhill event in 84, (attached boarding pics, myself and a mucker boarding over the ruins of the destroyed Radar Station on Jahorina) again this is a hidden gem, the majority of ski-ers and boarders from Sarajevo go to Bjelasnica - mens downhill platz during the 84 Winter olympics. Jahorina has some great little Gluvine Huts dotted all over the Mountain and the local food under the Sac is brilliant!

TRAVELLED WITH: Ourselves - plane to Ljublijana in Slovenija and then hired a car and drove up to Austria. For Jahorina it is only 45 minutes from the Centre of Sarajevo.

COST APPROX - All in I would say Obertauern is quite expensive, Jahorina on the other hand is cheap as chips.

CONDITIONS Obertauern has it all, superb long runs and a cross country safari trail. Jahorina has a few good runs, problems can be if the lifts stop for the day due to bad weather on the Mountain which can be quite often!

VERDICT Obertauern if you can afford it would probably be right up there on your top 3 ever visited ski resorts, the Beatles thought so too as they skiied there several times and one of the hotels is dedicated to their trips there with beatles on wooden ski's and other Beatles pics all over the walls.
The Apres Skiing is fantastic and the atmosphere in all the beverage huts is great, plenty of Kuhano Vino (Gluvine) drunk during the skiing/boarding and at night be prepared to down several Family sized Steins of Austrian Maß or in 2lt Doppelmaß Beer Steins to wash down the massive piles of food like Brettljause, Würstelstand and Schnitzelsemmeln, bloody mouth is watering thinking about it!

COMMENT: Don't miss Obertauern if you can afford it. Jahorina is different but worth a visit if you are in the region, most of it has been reconstructed and there are no problems with mines in the Winter up there, although it is not a top tip to go trekking around there when the snows thaw as the radar Station and other places were very heavily mined during the war and deminers have been injured clearing them due to the terrain. You can hire all the gear in both places and Instructors are available for hire in both also (if anyone needs to be put in touch with an Instructor for their kids for Jahorina drop me a PM).

I am officially shit at that ski thing*, but willing to watch men in lycra.

*Troodos 1992.

Dale, if you went " ski-ing " under the professional care and kindly instruction of a British Army BASI back in the day...it don't mean sh1t about your innate ability.

As I found out, a lot has changed since Gulf 1 - even on the slopes.


Shorter wider skis for one thing are now the norm.....the kit is better, even the damn boots aren't quite as clunky as they were.


And of course, if standing on two planks on a 1 in 3 covered in ice is not your thing - you can always try boarding (rad, babe) ....you don't have to be the Rad Zeppelin to have fun.....and of course, the German beer afterwards helps enormously.....mine's a Warsteiner cheers.


Corporal Sarah Marriott during her winning run in the Ladies' Parallel Giant Slalom final [Picture: LA(Phot) Owen King]



I feel an Arrse battlefield tour of the Italian Front coming on......

Having been on a fair few ski trips after a 20 year suspension ( due to the sprogs bleeding us dry ), my money is on Niederau in Austria, the last time being shortly before Goatman went there.
We went to the Hotel Sonnschein on half board, which was without fault. More high quality scoff than joe average could put away, and at genuine 4 star, only slightly more expensive ( £50 pp pw ) than our last effort, to Pension Diane, a supposed 3 star. Ok food, but cold, very shabby rooms, which only served to keep us out on the apres in Gunthers bar.
Went to Hannes the year before. Way better than the 3 star suggests, and same price as Diane. Bargain.
Had a sniff around the Almdorf cabins during the last visit when the rain pissed down all day, and they look really good.
Probably the cheapest way to go if you can meet the occupancy ( 4, 6 and 8 pax huts ) and don't mind self catering.
Tripadvisor is worth a look on the rest.

The skiing is limited in Niederau, and the competent could do the lot by lunchtime. The two black runs would be classed as ' cheeky reds' in most other resorts.
Auffach, ten mins on the free bus would keep most skiers amused, but is not a patch on a resort like Mayrhofen.

Mrs X has gone from second season beginner to a good intermediate fairly quickly, due to the skiing in Niederau. Most of the time the red runs are completely empty, leaving her to concentrate on what she's doing without worrying about getting in people's way.

My only general gripe is that the snow reports over the last month have been wildly innacurate. Everbody we spoke to was amazed that the promised " neck deep powder after non stop snowing since xmas " was in fact a green valley, barely covered in slush in places.
Further confirmed by the locals who said it hadn't snowed since xmas.
Glad to hear it improved for you Goatman.

I was taught to ski by two former Sappers in the car park at Jahorina, one was a ski instructor in the Corps, after half an hour they agreed (or rather they made it up) that I was 'okay' so off we went to the top of the Mountain to the Black slope and my Ski career began! I was quite possibly the most dangerous person ever to set foot on a pair of ski's and my illustrious skiing career came to an end a couple of years later when we all discovered the Snowboard, I haven't looked back since, for me it is a lot easier, safer and bags more fun than Skiing but each to their own. What I have found though is that you are never too old to learn to ski even if you think you are past it.

Originally Posted by Goatman

Always fancied Garmisch-P but never managed to get there. Couple of REME friends said their Corps hut was still widely used.

The Army Winter Sports meeting 2011 is at Serre Chevalier in France
LINKY

18 Jan - 28 Jan 11 Army Champs (Ex LIONS CHALLENGE) Serre Chevalier FRA
29 Jan - 05 Feb 11 Inter Service Champs Meribel FRA
Cancelled Reserve Forces Champs (Ex SNOW LION) Aviemore SCO [ one Army my Arrse...]
27 Mar - 03 Apr 11 British Champs Meribel FRA

Serre Chevalier is apparently shite. Dumped snow at the beginning of the month and that is about it. Icy as hell due to high temps during the day and freezing at night. With La Grotte being the best bar in town, well, it aint great.

This from a bod just back from Spartan Hike (4 Div?).

Originally Posted by X59

Mrs X has gone from second season beginner to a good intermediate fairly quickly, due to the skiing in Niederau. Most of the time the red runs are completely empty, leaving her to concentrate on what she's doing without worrying about getting in people's way.

My only general gripe is that the snow reports over the last month have been wildly innacurate. Everbody we spoke to was amazed that the promised " neck deep powder after non stop snowing since xmas " was in fact a green valley, barely covered in slush in places.
Further confirmed by the locals who said it hadn't snowed since xmas.
Glad to hear it improved for you Goatman.

Yeah the sunny side was all green when I arrived too but it has snowed about 15cms in the valley floor since you were there...will post a couple of pics for you.

Gunter's/Simon's bar is where the HofBrau was.....and the presence of lil blonde Claudia behind the bar was not too offputting either.

Funny that it was a return to skiing for you - me too. And, notwithstanding that Niederau is quiet and undemanding I'll probably go back.

Good to hear the Hannes get your thumbs up - I was thinking about that one for next time !

[edit] PS.....there were an awfy lot of Polish skiers in town for some reason....couple I spoke to were from Katowice and had driven across 16 hours....they seemed to have colonised the Simmelwirt - which they are welcome to. Was it knee deep in RAV4's and Porsche Cayennes with Polish plates when you were there ?

For the record, before sprogs arrived and we were care-free happy DINKYs I skiied :
FRANCE - Montdore/Bareges/Montgenevre
ITALY - Oga/Macugnaga
AUSTRIA - Zell/Kaprun
CZECH Rep - Pecs
ANDORRA - Soldeu/Arinsal

...and like you, prior to this trip, it's been 20 years - and I can't wait to go again


Le Chevre