 Poster: A snowHead
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We called our trip a "family holiday" rather than a ski holiday, in the expectation that we would be spending a lot of time with our 4 year old daughter doing things other than skiing. As it happens we skied for most of it.
My wife went to ski school for half days and I skied with my daughter all morning, we met up for lunch, skied together a bit, then they got the bubble down and I skied the mountain myself til home time. My wife went to Skischool Zell am See and was happy with it.
We stayed at Grand Hotel on the lake side. This was a really good hotel, although we were in room 223 right above the bar where we could hear the live "piano" (translation - singer with bontempi organ) til midnight, which was irritating. They pretty much ignored our complaints. Other than that, the hotel and service was excellent.
Although there is a "courtesy" bus to Schmittenhohe twice in the morning and twice in evening, this is actually a service bus which happens to stop opposite the hotel rather than a dedicated bus. We missed the return trip on the first day because we were looking for a hotel bus instead and had to pay for taxi instead (10 Euros).
The lake had de-frosted by the time we arrived - a pity as it would have been fun to have gone skating or walking to other side. It was still pretty scenic though from the hotel windows. We did not see many activities in the town itself. There are plenty shops, bars etc. On the last day we went to the sports centre which has a decent swimming pool (the locals seem to treat it more like a day at the beach - sitting with deckchairs and picnics etc). There is also a skating rink there, with ice hockey, and a pretty nice restaurant (completely non-smoking, and probably the nicest food we had all trip).
As for the skiing, we did the nursery slope at Schmittenhohe the first day and that was fun for a play around, learning to use a T-bar, building a snowman etc. The small bar at the top of the stairs in was pretty dire - tomato soup which we couldn't eat and pizza. The other restaurant on the left hand side of the slope on the way down was much better, with a round bar and tables outside. Even then, nothing special though, but that is Austria!
Our daughter got a free lift pass which let her use all the lifts. This was provided by the TO (Thomson) although children of this age can travel free with adults anyway. Not sure what there is to stop you getting a kids lift pass and using it yourself (if you were dishonest enough to do that - don't blame me if you get locked up!)
After the first day we tried the easy run half way up the mountain - Blue 1 - Glocknerbahn chairlift. This was pretty much perfect for a beginner. We went in from the top of Hirchkogel Express chair, although an easier way would be from top of Areitbahn 1. My daughter loved the gentle road in to the run - the first time she had ever managed to let her skis run - and kept shouting "again, again" whenever we reached the bottom. She found ski legs I never knew she had and followed my tracks down the whole run, even when we had to cut through the crowds of beginners and cross the red section under the Hirchkogel chair.
After taking advice from this group, I decided that taking my daughter skiing could do as much for her confidence as ski school at that age. This has proved to be absolutely right. She had already done some dry slope lessons, so had the basic skills to practice. She absolutely took off and was skiing behind me from top of mountain (blue 1) to more than half way down (bottom of Glocknerbahn) at a steady ski pace.
Getting her on and off a chairlift was no problem - I had worried too much about that before we tried it. I left my poles at bottom of slope the first day but, once she managed to ski without falling over, I found poles useful for giving her a tow etc. When she did need a hand up, I held a pole over her head and she pulled herself up with two hands. They did not get in the way on the chair as I could just put them under my arm when lifting her up.
Once we found our bearings, we got a ski locker at Intersport at bottom of City Express bubble in Zell. We left our skis there and carried our boots up in the morning, leaving our shoes in the locker during the day. The City Express followed by Hirchkogel Epress chair gets you close to top of mountain. You can get the chair back down again at night - take skis off and the lift attendant will help you get on. He took our skis for us and put them on the empty chair behind us, for collection at the bottom.
We hired skies using snowbrainer.com again. They use a company called Europ-Sport which we found to be excellent. I managed to break the tail of my ski by pushing it in to snow too hard, and thought I would have a nightmare, but they just shrugged and said they had seen this problem before with this particular ski. Beware that google maps shows this shop in the wrong place, so check according to the street name instead. We got very lost.
At start of week there was plenty snow but it was mild and pretty slushy by afternoon. It rained when we were there and the lower slopes lost a lot of snow. It was snowing again when we left, and more is forecast this week.
Happy to help with any more info - just let me know.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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i rented from surop-sport in Kaprun. great people to deal with. bindings broke on my board twice and they were very apologetic and sortd me with new ones
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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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Europsport are the Best !!! in Kaprun speak to Mikey, and they have a bar so you can get a free schnapps. Best prices and excellent service.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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mikeys a great lad
was in the shop loads and every visit we had to take a schnapps
good times
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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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I've also spent too much time in that particular bar/ski shop!!
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Sounds like you had a great time Lorenzo! We are off to Zell on saturday, taking our 4yr old daughter, we have booked her into ski school but will play this by ear and see how she gets on in the 1st day, great info on good runs for the little uns, have printed this off to take!! Will probably be spending a bit of time at the skating rink and sports centre, unless little un decides she likes the mountain more!
Many thanks
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Babs 2004, yeah I remembered that you were going on a similar trip. Have fun. We didn't expect too much from our daughter, but were pleasantly surprised with how much we could do. She had been for some lessons/practice with dad before the trip though, which did make a lot of difference.
Even if she had not skied on the hill, we could still get to the Panorama restaurant at the top, as all the different bubbles seem to meet there, and we could have gone to the one at top of Areitbahn 1 too without having to ski. Sadly our views from these places were a bit disappointing as it was overcast/snowing. My wife had hoped to sit outside with her book, but alas it was not to be!
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