 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Prices for next week are probably the lowest untill the end of March. They will go up slightly the coming weeks, take a leap in February and are at their highest the 2nd week of March. After this prices will decrease quickly.
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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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Thanks Eyeopener.
It seems there are school holidays in some areas of Austria starting from 5th Feb so although that week seems cheap we will avoid that. All the other holidays are later so it doesn't explain the variation in the prices really 
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The cheapest week for Austria we found always seems to be the week the kids go back to school, so normally would be this week , but, this week the holidays offered are 5 days I think. This is because Christmas fell on a weekend day. The next full week with a Saturday swap day is the 8th Jan, so this Saturday. This would be the best priced week of the season. And also one of the quietest.
Next year the week would probably start on the 7th? The only thing you have to watch with Austria though is that a lot of the resorts are quite low altitude, and with this week following the start of the season and also two busy weeks, snow or lack of it may be a problem. Having said that we have stayed at 1300m lots of times, had a variety of conditions and only one year where we didn't ski at all because of lack of snow (about 4 years ago, but this was throughout Europe and not just Austria) and this was the 17th January!
One other point to make is that over the last few years we have found that the earlier you book for next year, the better the deal that is on offer.
hope this helps,
Suzysue
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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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Thanks SS 
To clarify - it's for this year and we can't go next week, we can go anytime otherwise until mid Feb but want to avoid half term week (sorry if I didn't make that clear) so that gives us those 3 weeks really to play with. I guess they will all be about the same in terms of how quiet they are then, prices must just reflect what the tour operators have left.
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Do you mean the tour operator prices? These tend to reflect the British market more than the overall "business" of ski resorts.
I've found in Austria that half term does not have a huge effect on crowds (well, I'm speaking about St Anton really, not much experience elsewhere in Austria), except in British run chalets. Austrians do have half term and some do go skiing as a family, but school kids often have a ski week in term time, so going skiing at half term is not such a big deal as it is in France.
Hotel prices in Austria tend to go up from now until mid/late Feb, then gradually come down again, but there isn't a massive spike in the rates like there is in the TO brochure prices.
I'd say any time form now until early Feb would be as quiet as you're going to get...
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one year where we didn't ski at all because of lack of snow (about 4 years ago, but this was throughout Europe and not just Austria) and this was the 17th January!
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 not ski at all? Wow. I have skied on every 17 January for the last 8 years in France in a generally fairly low altitude resort (top height only 2069m). Snow quality has varied a lot but the great majority of runs (barring some steep south facing ones which get horrible quite quickly) have been open during mid January every year since 2002 to my certain knowledge.
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Yeah we didn't ski at all, luckily we hadn't bought a lift pass, there was some snow but it was very rocky around and as we had another ski trip booked for 24th feb we decided to have a walking holiday instead and saw some of things we knew were there but hadn't visited before on previous ski trips.
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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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Walking in the Alps is great - sounds like you made good use of the holiday, anyway.
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suzysue2, where in Austria were you on Jan 17th?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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flangesax, ADW probably! I've been here for the past 30 years and not had that problem'! 
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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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Worth checking on when resorts have low season lift passes
Some don't drop till the second week of January ( been caught with this in the past but not a big deal in the cost of things overall)
Used to be a lot of Russians about early January but I don't know if this is still the case
Any time in Jan you are avoiding school holidays though
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flangesax, We were in Oberau at about 850m I think, there is a free bus up to 1800m ,Aufach, but the snow was really patchy with grass/mud showing through as well as huge rocks. Too risky with having the other holiday booked for end Feb.
We went to Switzerland then, a small place called Lauterbrunnen in the Jungfrau region. We stayed at a fab hotel called the Silberhorn, it is in Crystal ski this year. The hotel was great but the downside was that given the poor snow conditions that year it was very green, we watched rabbits playing on the mountain side and the short walk to the gondola, was on most days in the rain! Saying that though, we had a great week as Murren is 3,300 m ish? so lots of snow.
Garfield, went to Zel am Ziller first week feb last year, 2010, was packed with Russains. Not sure why? is it because Austria is cheap to them? We queued for an hour most days at the first gondola, and then again at most chairs throughout the day.
Never any queues in Switzerland, people not as friendly and apres ski not as good as Austria but skiing much better, higher altitude, linked better and no buses to catch!
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You know it makes sense.
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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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flangesax, ADW probably! I've been here for the past 30 years and not had that problem'!
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Samerberg Sue, ???
ADW Assault with a Deadly Weapon
ADW Animal Diversity Web
ADW Advanced Deposit Wagering (horse racing/betting)
ADW Active Data Warehouse
ADW Application Development Workbench
ADW Advanced Digital Wireless
ADW Accidental Damage Warranty
ADW Air Defense Warning
ADW Advances in Accessing Deep Web (Workshop)
ADW Agent Defeat Weapon
ADW Air Defense Wing
ADW Automatic Dishwasher
ADW Assistant Deputy Warden
ADW Asymptotic Distorted Wave
ADW Area Defense Weapon (antitank weapon)
ADW Advanced Datarate Waveform (US Navy)
ADW Automated Data Warehouse
ADW Alert Data Warehouse (Alert Life Sciences Computing, S.A.)
ADW Advanced Design Workshop
Not so sure which one of these fits in??....
Those piccies are quite shocking! We still had snow down to 800m that winter although the runs into valley were only a pistybeatie in width - but much more fun to ski - keepng you to the fall-line!
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Poster: A snowHead
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NSB1977, Neilson have a deal on catered Chalets Belvedere & Karin, Arabba in the Italian Dolomites for 15th Jan at £299-309pp. Nice small resort with great uplift and about 500km skiing around the Sella Ronda linked areas. The area belonged to Austria until WW1 so has a mix of Italian/Austrian feel.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| cathy wrote: |
Mid-Jan 2007 Kitzbuehel. There were 4 runs 'open' to ski on and the depths on the upper slopes were 9cm. That was an exceptional year though, they'd just had the rainstorm that had washed away all the snow and they had to helicopter it in for the race weekend. Snow did fall half-way through the week though - I think it was only the first day we just went hill-walking
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I had a lucky escape in 2007, I had arranged a trip for 15 to the Ski Welt area starting 27th Jan and the reports looked dire right up to departure, I was really worried and felt responsible. Thankfully it snowed all night after we arrived and kept snowing all day, about a foot of fresh, too late for the Hahnenkamm race, but kept us going all week in Scheffau/Ellmau!
We did a day in Kitz during the week and the conditions were still thin and icy, there was a lot of wind that accompanied the snow so it didn't really stick on the exposed upper slopes.
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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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flangesax, @rsch der Welt (ADP is a similar one - auf der Pampas) means back of beyond or out in the sticks.
2007 was a really bad year for everyone, but the skiing was still there to be had. I visited friends in resorts who, while not exactly screaming with joy, still managed to get skiing. I think most people think of it being so catastrophic because it followed on one of the best winters in decades, so the close comparison made it seem much worse than it actually was. As I was on crutches that year, I was not too fussed personally, but was concerned for friends whose income for the winter depends on the winter sports industry. Here in my village we were particularly badly hit, but we still managed to maintain our cross-country pistes and I was able to use the training piste later in the winter to build up my fitness again (it's as flat as a pancake so there were no real hazards other than myself!).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Yes, January 2007 was very bad in patches - this was the view from our apartment at one point. We've not seen it as brown as that even in April! The piste beyond the snow cannon was open, but grotty. This is a south facing slope at 1550m - the main areas with a better aspect were white, and most pistes were open, but when it came, shortly after this photo was taken, the snow was very welcome.
We went to Les Contamines one of the bad days and found good conditions on the high, east-facing pistes - but we stayed high and went nowhere near village level, which was no doubt horrible.
I am content to take my chances with the weather - but long lift queues are another matter. An hour's scrum to get to the snow in the morning is possibly acceptable (if you're desperate and have no better option....) but continued long waits for every run? I'd rather watch the rabbits.
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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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0
0cathy, we actually had a day out to Kitzbuhel, there were people playing golf on the golf course! We were there as the helicpters were airlifting the snow in for the big race, only for it to be cancelled!
There was an Austrian minister giving an interview to the tv stations, he was married to the heiress of the swarovski dynasty I think, looed abit like posh & Becks with all the media attention so all was not lost lol
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| suzysue2 wrote: |
flangesax, We were in Oberau at about 850m I think, there is a free bus up to 1800m ,Aufach, but the snow was really patchy with grass/mud showing through as well as huge rocks. Too risky with having the other holiday booked for end Feb.
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I was in Neiderau that week (as were a couple of other snowheads)
This was the view of the main piste on the first morning:
But we did get skiing each day by going (TO organised coach) to Kaltenbach in the Zillertal.
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FAQ
Happy new year.
Picture taken from our B&B balcony. I seem to remember I did a grass report at the time, rather than snow report 
