Skiing is for everyone !

Situated in the middle of Austria’s Salzburger Land ski area is Obertauern ski resort [www.obertauern.com]. Located at 1630m high, and mountains soaring to 2313m around it, Obertauern is a perfect ski resort. Ski-pass prices are average for skiing in Europe, and a day pass will cost you €37 and a 6-day pass costs €183. Obertauern can get crowded during peak season, but when we were there it there was short queues at the lifts.

Getting to Obertauern

Obertauern is less than 60 miles from Salzburg, Austria, 140 miles from Munich, Germany and 160 miles from Innsbruck, Austria.

All of these cities offer (near) daily flights from Ireland (Dublin & Cork). To get to Obertauern you will probably need to rent a car or arrange a transfer. If you rent a car, make sure your rental car comes with snow chains, as the approach road can get impassable if you don’t have chains. When we went there they had a compulsory snow chain notice in effect, and there were police checking cars mid way to the resort to make sure people had the chains on their cars. To the right is the  Austrian sign for looks like this. The nearest village with a train station is Radstadt, which is easily reachable from Salzburg & Munich. And from Radstadt, Obertauern is about 25km.

Obertauern offers a great mix for snowboarders and skiers alike, with ski pistes to keep every level of skier happy. Unlike many resorts Obertauern really takes care of the beginner skier, offering a huge 61km  of blue slopes. For more advanced skiers there is 35km of red slopes and 4km of black slopes. With 100km of slopes there is plenty of routes to keep you occupied on your ski holiday. There is also an opportunity to off-piste (weather dependant). We were there at the start of February 2010, and there was fresh powder in abundance and some great fun.

Tips for Obertauern

For lunch we ate at the family friendly Treff 2000. Which can be a little difficult to get to unless you take the Grünwaldkopf lift. Treff 2000 has a non-smoking restaurant and a bar. For the aprés ski on the piste, Hochalm is the place to be, during the week they have live bands to keep the party lively. Or favourite routes during the morning was Grünwaldkopf which is lower down, and in the afternoon were Kringssalmbahn and Seekarspitzbahn.  They have a few drag lifts, but we tended to avoid them, as they don’t really suit snowboarders.

One final small fact about Obertauern : is was used to film the Beatles film HELP! in 1965 ! Check it out !

The following is a great post from one of the members of our skiing forum, osulljp. Thanks for such a detailed report !

Went to the small Austrian resort of Bichlbach over the New Year. Flew into Memmingen with Ryanair and it was a very easy 100km drive from there,(75% motorway). Train is also possible (2 changes).

Image by Ski Bum
Bichlbach is home to to Austrian skier Niki Hosp who won the overall world cup in 2007. They are rightly very proud of her. Her face is everywhere.

Bichblach is part of the Zugspitze Arena. The lift pass (Happy Ski Pass,185 for 6 days, adult, but very good family passes for those with kids) covers Bichlbach/Berwang, Ehrwald, Zugspitze glacier, Lermoos, Biberweir, and Seefeld in Austria and Garmisch and Mittenwald in Germany.

We skied Bichlbach, Ehrwald Almbahn, Lermoos and Garmisch.

The village is at 1075 m and is a sleepy little place. Six or seven places to eat but very quiet at night. Didn’t hear another word of English spoken the whole time. The local slopes are good. If you are an early intermediate you would be happy here for the week, otherwise they are good for two or three days. The area is split between the Bichlbach side (steeper, fast lifts) and Berwang, (easier, bigger but slower and a bit chaotic lift system).

Lermoos is a great place to ski with 1200m of vertical and fast lifts. The snow was a bit limited as we skied it first day, before it dumped down. Read the rest about Bichlbach Austria.

You can read the rest on the skiing forum, of if you would like to report on a resort, please post in our resort report forum.

For those of you who ski and have an iPhone, here is a great iPhone app for you. This app, the Pocket Heatapp, basically turns your phone into overdrive and makes it run at 100% of CPU power, which in turn generates some heat for your hands in your pocket. While it may seem incredible simple or stupid, we have had reports that it actually works (although it’s not a replacement for a good pair of gloves !).

Obviously the down side to this is that it will drain your battery before you have a chance to finish your mornings skiing lesson. But for those of you who need some quick heat for your hands it might just do the trick. This app also gets bonus points for having a rather retro feel to it, with the old style heating element graphic.
You can buy this app here on the iTunes store.
We are always on the look out for some skiing iPhone apps so if you have any please let us know !

We just read a news story from the AustrianTimes.at, that tells the story of a 10-year old Irish girl, Emily O’Rourke from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath , who fell 30 feet from a chair lift this week. It is believed that Emily fell from the chair lift, under the safety bar. Generally this is quite a difficult thing to happen as the safety bar on lifts will rest on your lap.

This all took place at the Bergbahnen Westendorf, in Tyrol, Austria. The story seems to be a little dodgy because the people who were on the lift, not her parents, fled the scene. They were cited as saying that the had a 1/2 day ski pass and they wanted to use it ! The Tyrolean Police are now looking for this couple.

Hansjörg Kogler, the boss of the lift company Bergbahnen Westendorf, said: “I really cannot understand their behaviour. We wanted to question the couple about the events, but they were not cooperative, they had nothing to say, they said they only had half day passes and therefore wanted to go skiing.

Emily is in hospital recovering from three vertebrae have been broken due to the fall, but is expected to make a full recovery.

When talking to families who are either non-skiers or basic level skiers we hear that when they think of skiing holidays a stressful picture comes to mind. They think that a ski holiday is just too much hassle and it won’t be as relaxing as a ‘normal’ holiday. But it doesn’t need to be this way, a skiing holiday, when planned right can be every bit as relaxing as a holiday on the beach.

Generally people tend to organise their holiday in a haphazard way, and the result is a holiday that will only induce stress. Here are our 6 tips on how you can eliminate that stress from your ski holiday, and enjoy it for what it really is.

1) Proper Ski Equipment

Before you go, make sure you have adequate dry and water proof ski equipment with you. Things like waterproof gloves, warm / comfortable socks, and ski goggles will make your day much more comfortable. And don’t forget to get a child ski helmet, many resorts require that child wear them !

2) Winter holiday location

To ensure you arrive at the resort stress free, you should try your best to pick a resort that has a short airport transfer time. Your first day of travel will be hectic enough and you should try to  minimise the time your young ones will have travelling.

3) Plan with younger children

If some of your children are still too young to ski, then plan your childcare in advance. This might involve bringing along a grandmother or a family friend who will look after the child while you and the other children are on the slopes. If this is not possible, make sure you pick a resort with proper childcare facilities. Also you should factor this into your costs when you are going skiing

4) Plan your ski lessons

Where possible try to get your kids into as small a class as possible.  Typically what happens is that ski school runs from 9:30am until lunch time around 12:30pm , and then in the afternoon the children have time to practise what they have learned with their parents. Also consider the possibility of getting a private class or two together so you all can learn together.

5) Introduce your kids to skiing early

This point has two sides. If you are planning on going skiing regularly we recommend that you aim to start your kids off skiing as soon as they can walk. Children from the age of 4 or 5 are certainly ready to learn how to ski. It also a good idea to bring your kids to either Kilternan Ski Club or the Sandyford Ski Centre. Show your kids what a day skiing involves, and give them an extra advantage of some practise when they do start their skiing lessons.

6) Finally relax

And don’t forget to relax and enjoy yourself. If your kids are not taking to the snow straight away, don’t push them. Give them their time, and let them build snowmen, and maybe next year they will be whizzing down the slopes past you.

When planning a family ski holiday think of the holiday first, and worry about the skiing secondly. If you follow these tips you will have a great family holiday.

Aprés ski and hangovers go hand in hand during a week of skiing. Partying after the slopes is an important party of many people’s week in the snow, but sometimes you need to have a strategy for how you are going to deal with the effects of your night partying.

The science bit : Hangovers are caused by toxic chemicals, known as congeners. Congeners are produced in process of fermentation of alcoholic drinks. A general tip is that the less cloudy the drink is the less congeners it will contain.

Avoiding the aprés ski hangover

Here are our top 10 tips for avoiding being a mess every morning of your winter holiday:

1. Make sure you are pre-hydrated : during the day you should aim to drink around 3 litres of water. The headache part of a hangover is attributed mostly to your brain being dehydrated.
2. Have a good base :  before you start to party, have a bite to eat. Having your stomach lined will make sure you will be able to drink more without feeling the effect
3. Stick to one drink : Mixing drinks is a big no-no. Cocktails or changing between drinks  during the night should be avoided.
4. Chose your drink wisely : Vodka is one of the purest of alcohols with little or no chemicals in it. This generally leads to less problems. Alternatively German beers tend to be brewed with the purity laws, which state that they use only natural ingredients.
5. Take extra vitamins : to insure you are healthy, and avoid nasty colds you should take Vitamin C & B or multi-vitamin supplements. Vitamins also help to remove the alcohol from your system.
6. Avoid caffeine : Drinks like vodka and Redbull contain lots of sugars and sweatners as well as caffeine. These won’t help your headache in the morning, and they may delay you getting to sleep later on.
7. Avoid drinks with high levels of congeners : Drinks like rum, brandy, port and whiskey contain higher levels of congeners than others alcoholic drinks. These drinks are more likely to induce hangovers.
8. Make sure you are post-hydrated : before you go to bed, after your aprés ski, try to remember to have a glass ot two of water before you go to sleep.
9. Get rested : Do remember to get some sleep !
10. Finally : actually there is no point number 10, just go out and have a great time.

We hoped you liked our tips on how to avoid hangovers, if you have any yourself please leave a comment and let us know !

Last week we had the pleasure of going to Galtür in Austria to see the Europe’s largest snowman. The snowman named Emil is located at the bottom of their childrens slope, and is a big hit with the kids. Overall Galtur is very kid friendly, and in fact for 2009 they have laid out their pistes to be more appealing to the younger skiers, called Silvapark. 
Overall it took 5 days to build this monster, which stands at over 16m tall (53 feet), looks across the Paznaun valley in Tirol Austria. Galtur is right beside Ischgl, perhaps a better know skiing resort.

The world record for snowmen was created in Bethal Maine in 2008, which reached 122 feet, and weighed an estimated 13 million pounds ! [source]

With a big smile on our face we are able to tell you about a new and fantastic way to learn how to ski in Ireland. Previoulsy the option was the outdoor dry artificial slope in Kilternan but now there is an indoor option. It works on a slighly different principle, this time the floor / carpet moves from underneath you, and you use gravity to move or fall down the slope.This “endless ski slope” covers an area of 50sqm and is constantly moving backwards. At the front is a mirror where you can look at yourself and concentrate on your technique.   While in Kilternan it is an artifical slope, that has very little resistance. 

The Ski Centre is located in Sandyford, Dublin and they offer lessons and rental of the slope for skiers and snowboarders. As far as we can see, you will be supervised by a qualified instructor at all times. 

One of the benefits of such a system is that the is now downtime waiting for a drag lift to bring you back to the top of the  piste. Classes which last an hour, have up to 6 pupils in them. The pupils, in two groups of 3 alternate on the slope, so to give people a rest during the hour long session. 

Ski Centre Prices

Ski Centre Opening Hours

• Monday to Friday 9am – 10pm
• Saturday 8am – 6pm
• Sunday & Bank Holidays 9am – 6pm

The ski centre can be contacted via phone on (01) 29 30 588 or via email  info@skicentre.ie

More videos can be seen here.

Read our discussion on indoor skiing for more on this topic.

There has been a new law introducded to Austria this week, stating that all kids under the age of 14 are required to wear a skiing helmet when on the ski slopes. There are obvious dangers while skiing, and head injuries are one of the most common. It is predicted that in Austria alone there will be over 5,000 reported serious head injuries this year alone from skiing.  So far this year 17 people have died on the slopes in Austria, and one of the reasons cited is in the increased speed of skiers. Over the years ski equipment has improved, for example the migration from straight skis to carving skis, and now the average speed of skiers has increased.  

One high profile case this year invloved a German politican Dieter Althaus who was involved in a  collision on the slopes resulted which in the death of Beata Christandl. Althaus remains in coma, and it is thought that his helmet saved his life. He suffered a fractured skull.  Mrs Christandl who was not wearing a helmet suffered major head trauma when the two skiers collided. 

In Switzerland alone there is an estimated 150 cases per day of head injuries and concussions.

At most resorts you will be able to rent a helmet for €20 – €30 a week, and some rental companies give free rental for childrends helmets.  You can also purchase skiing helmets for between €70 – €120. 

Read our discussion on skiing helmets for more on this topic.

It’s that time of year again, the time to start planning and booking your snow holiday. In case you are not a seasoned veteran of the slopes we are reminding you of some of the cool features here at skiing.ie. These tips will help to make sure that you and your friends will have the best skiing holiday ever.

Skiing Forum

Try out our skiing forum which is free to join, and is a great place to ask for and to impart tips about your skiing/snowboarding. We have some interesting discussions, like skiing injuries , videos and much more. Here you have an opportunity to meet the Irish Ski community, to organise trips and to get tips on the sport. The skiing forum feature is new for the 2008 season.

We even have added a snowboarding forum, so you “one ski people” don’t feel left out. There is a section on cool videos from youtube, and other great information.

Read the rest