 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
We are off to Zell am See with 4 year old daughter at end of February. By then she will have finished a block of ten lessons on dry slope and (if she keeps up the progress) should be snowplough turning by then.
We are not planning on putting her in to the mini club (even though it looks great) as she is a bit stubborn about going off with other people. My plan is to take her out on slope myself in the mornings while my wife goes to ski school.
I would be grateful for any tips on where to take her.
Are the nursey slopes open to all, or just the ski school?
Is the ski playground part also open to everyone?
Which parts of the mountain would be accessible to her (given that I wouldn't want to send her up a tow by herself at that stage)?
Any tips on the technique for getting her onto a chair, or is that expecting too much at that stage?
Has anyone tried the ski harness/reins and is it any good?
Many thanks for any replies. Nice site.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Lorenzo,
Welcome to  !
The nursery areas are generally open to all, although the ski schools will be making extensive use of the areas for much of the time, so you'll have to share, and expect the ski schools to maybe get preferential treatment on the lifts. In some places, there's a separate lane for the main lifts for ski schools.
The play areas are generally also open to all, with the obvious exception of those within the kindergartens.
The whole mountain is likely to be accessible to her, as almost all of the lifts are high speed detachable chairs.
Getting on an off is generally well handled in Austria - the lift operators are very quick to spot kids who will need help, and they will offer to lift them onto the chair. When ski schools are going through with 4-5 year olds, they have one instructor for a group of 4-8 pupils, so they have a problem with supervision, which leads to the "free kid with every chair" approach, i.e. they ask anyone who looks like a responsible aduilt if they would mind helping a kid on and off the lift. This works well, but for the adults, it can be a bit daunting being asked to do this when you have no experience of kids and don't speak the same language as them - especially when you realise that their head is at the same height as the chair seat. Having said that, it works, and saves queues and slowing down the lift too much (they drop the speed, but not to a crawl).
No idea on the reins - but I'd have thought that if you choose your area carefully and your daughter is comfortable on a dry slope, there would be no need. Kids aren't generally shy about throwing themselves sideways to stop, unlike some adults who will freeze and lose control.
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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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Lorenzo, I've not taken a kid of that age, but have been to Zell with plenty of beginners.
IMO, the best place for new skiers is the Arietbahn, which goes up from Schuttdorf. This is a gondola, so no issues regarding lifts. (If you are staying in Zell, then you may need to get a skibus along to the lift). If you get the gondola up the 1st stage, then there is an area there that the ski school often use that is gentle slopes. There is also a quad chair that takes you up a fairly nice blue run. If you don't fancy the chair, then you can get the gondola all the way up to the top, and there is blue run back down, which joins the run just below the top of the quad chair. I would suggest that you get the gondola back down at the end of the day, as it is quite a long steep red.
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