Niederau

Skiing — Day 1: Skiing Niederau, Austria — first impressions

Nick Morris

Jan 6, 2015 — 3 min read

Skiing Niederau, taking in the Snow Show and going to The Cave

January 2015

It appears I may have skied the smallest mountain in Austria.

I skied all of the mountain in 2 hours.

Only two lifts. One gondola and one four-person high-speed quad. But, there is (reportedly) a good bus service down the valley to a nearby, larger ski area.

The weather was not great. Windy and cold. Snow conditions were not good. Very hard packed powder with loose material on top. The mountain was in serious need of some snow.

On the plus side, there were no lift queues. The place was quiet. Another plus was I found a restaurant — Gasthaus Markbachjoch-Alm — that offered free Wi-Fi.

Lunch stop

Stopped at Gasthaus Markbachjoch-Alm for lunch. The restaurant is located to the right of the main (only) gondola in Niederau.

The restaurant is small inside, seating around 30. The food looked OK but was being sold at mountain prices.

Photo by Author — Gasthaus Markbachjoch-Alm for lunch

The restaurant had free Wi-Fi — something I had never found up a mountain before.

Tonight’s entertainment in Niederau

For entertainment on my first night in Niederau, I had the Snow Show at 8 pm, followed by the “best Irish band in Austria” down at The Cave.

The Snow Show, Niederau, Austria

The Snow Show was cold. Very cold. The air temp was -7 ºC with a wind chill.

It was good fun to watch, and it was great to see the kids taking part. However, I did wonder how the penguin mascots managed to ski in their costumes.

(Sorry about the bad photos, it was very dark.)

Photo by Author — The ‘ski kids’ and their penguin mascots

Photo by Author — Jumping through the ring of fire

Photo by Author — The arrival of the Snow Queen

Photo by Author — The close of The Snow Show

I was pretty impressed by the Snow Queen. She was still on her skis and held aloft by four fellow instructors — how were they able to ski like that?

(Sorry about the poor photos, it was cold and very dark.)

The Cave Bar — Cuckoo — the best Irish band in Austria

After the Snow Show, I went to the Cave Bar to listen to Austria’s “best Irish band”. The band were billed to play every Sunday night for the season, and they were not too bad — a typical ski resort band. They did a very interesting REM cover. A sort of REM with an Irish music backing. Quite weird. Not particularly Irish.

The band did a 30-minute set and then took a 30-minute break before coming back for their second set, around 30 minutes.

There was distinct segregation of customers in the bar. The “younger” crowd hung out around the corner, away from the live music.

The Cave Bar was OK. The beer was €3.50 for 500 ml (a pint), so not too bad.

The bar is odd as it is done out like a cave (hence the name).

The place wasn’t packed. So I guess the best Irish band in Austria isn’t exactly much of a pull in “best late bar and nightclub” (in fact, the only “nightclub”) in Niederau?

The barman, Ray, despite his green bobble hat and liking for blondes, was a likeable chap and gave good service. Ray also seemed to be the DJ running the post-Cuckoo music. The post-band music was somewhat random with requests from the customers.