 Poster: A snowHead
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can anyone recommend a good centrally located ski school in ski welt? 8 year old beginner is the student.
this area looks great actually. big area. lots of reds and blues. I was hoping I could put the kido in a ski school and get a lot of skiing in too! by centrally located, I want a school that's easy to get to and from the lifts from. I read that this area is well connected.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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welcome to Snowheads, @hempster,  To get a sensible answer to your question you might need to say where you are staying as you won't want to drag an 8 year old from one part of the area to another in time to start ski school in the morning.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I don't know! I know that it is a big area. I guess I would decide where to stay based on recommendation.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I don't know the quality of the school, but I would say the best area for putting a beginner in school while you go off and ski is probably Scheffau. There are several good beginner slopes pretty well straight off the gondola (and the ski school is located there), while you have immediate access to the whole of the main area from where you would drop the kid off.
And there is a blue back down to the base which I would expect the child to be able to ski well before the end of the holiday.
At Ellmau the initial nursery slopes are down at village level, so you would be leaving your child there before taking the funicular (or whatever replaces it next year), and the nursery slopes aren't even right next to the base of the funicular at present.
I don't think Hopfgarten really has easily accessible nursery slopes at all - you have a moderately tricky blue form the top of the gondola to get to the ones above Brixen (which would be good but not many British Tour ops go there).
I'm not too sure of the situation around Soll, having never been below the mid-station there.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Done Soll, loved it and the rest of the Ski Welt - but I wasn't a beginner so didn't do ski school. It looked OK for learners, but was quite rowdy and a bit of a walk to the village lifts.
From my observations the best options for yourself if a raucous nightlife is not required (Soll) would be Ellmau and Westendorf.
Westendorf is frequently recommended on here for its Ski School, village and it is well connected to Ski Welt and proximity to Kitzbuhel/Kirchberg.
Ellmau has good beginner facilities and I believe UK tour operators go to both.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@AthersT, depends when you go. We were in Soll earlier in the season and the nightlife was relatively quiet (compared to what we were expecting - not that we went for the nightlife).
@alex_heney, @hempster, the beginner situation in Soll is pretty good. Very gentle nursery slope next to the base station. Then pretty gentle next step up around the mid station. I agree that Scheffau is a good set up for beginners too, although I also found the bowl coming off the Brandstadl was very busy a lot of the time as it seems to be a pretty key junction for the lot of the area. Jnr had his second week skiing in Ellmau, they started the week on the village nursery runs/Astberg (we met them for lunch). After two days his instructor organised to meet us at the bottom of the Hartkaiser and would keep the group for the whole day including lunch (€9 set menu job).
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Thanks all.
I was planning on going in about a month, but the snow right now looks pretty bad at only 100cm on the upper pistes in the ski welt. Anyone been there this year?
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@hempster, 100cms is OK - you only ski on the top bit.  But of course it could be quite different (up or down) in a month.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@hempster, The pistes in the Ski Welt are primarily alpine meadows in summer, you can ski on them when there is 5cms of compacted snow without damaging your skis! 100cms is compacted and there is still more to come, stop worrying.
@alex_heney, I disagree about the suitability of the progression in Scheffau for beginners. The jump from the village learning area to the upper learning area and then on to the blues even down to the Eibergbahn chairlifts scared the living daylights out of a nervous beginner I worked with there! I think Söll and Ellmau have a softer and better slopes for the progression of beginners.
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@hempster, I was out there for Christmas. It was pretty dire with only 45km of the whole area open while we were there. Snow was only a few cm thick in a lot of places, but perfectly skiable. One dump of only about 15cm saw the rest of the area open pretty much the day we went home! 100cm is quite a bit.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Very useful info on where to take beginners skiing in Söll. Any suggestions on best place to rent equipment including helmets if you are driving some beginners to Söll for thy day? I can see it being an "interesting" day so any tips to smooth the process very gratefully received.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@TTT, hiring for the day? May as well go to Erdinger at the lift station as you'll be parked up there too. Or Stoll which is just down the road from the lift station and next to the nursery slope/magic carpet thing. Both are pretty convenient.
We used Stoll mainly because we had to bus to Scheffau (not enough snow in Soll at the time) and the bus stop was right outside. The TOs tend to use Stoll so it can be busy at key times.
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You know it makes sense.
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@hammerite, that is absolutely brilliant thanks! I just have to get them skiing now but that is my problem for making promises while not 100% functional.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@hammerite, Stoll was ideal for what we needed and the links meant they could book in advance so they saved time and money. Many thanks once again.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@hempster,
It was snowing nicely when I left Sunday morning
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ok. I have read over and over and over that the austrian ski resorts need far less snow than the french to be skiable. currently, snow report has the upper pistes listed at 70cm, which sounds like so little. They are, however, due for around 20cm over the next week.
I also gave Ischgl a look. Looks like a great place. It seems that there is plenty of skiing there too. I wanted to go for 4 days - I assume Ischgl can entertain me for that long (I am intermediate - mostly a red man).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@hempster, yup the lower Austrian resorts tend to be nice smooth grassy meadows in the summer - imagine Sound of Music and all that, so 5-10cm of compacted snow can be good enough for skiing in such places. Thats not saying the French are not similar for their lower resorts however, with Austria being further east and closer to the colder arctic/siberian weather systems, lower amounts of snow tend to stick around more especially with low valley temps. (generalising a bit)
Ischgl is more than an enough for 1 week on its own. It has SO many reds upwards of 150km worth of reds. It's an absolutely brilliant resort.
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@TTT, glad the info was of use.
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