Skiing in Austria
Discussion
Sorry, you'll find quite a lot of Europe ARE on their school holidays the last week of February ...
Large parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of Germany & Holland too.
My outlaws go to Mayrhofen and love it there. It also has the benefits of a short airport transfer, unlike most places in France & Switzerland.
Large parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of Germany & Holland too.
My outlaws go to Mayrhofen and love it there. It also has the benefits of a short airport transfer, unlike most places in France & Switzerland.
Thanks for those suggestions, i'll take a look.
I was going by this website for the holidays:
http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/features/sch...
The end of Feb looked ok, particularly for Austria?
I was going by this website for the holidays:
http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/features/sch...
The end of Feb looked ok, particularly for Austria?
Kaprun is beautiful, good for beginners and has a handy Glacier as backup if the snow's not good. But not as pretty as the other places mentioned. Austria is a romantic location, IMO.
Value for money, the French Alps tend to be better, ski to/from your chalet, La Plagne 1800 is nice. But the French love their concrete!
Never tried Andorra, Bulgaria etc are great for beginners, I'd be interested to know if I should take my very young family there in a year or two?
Value for money, the French Alps tend to be better, ski to/from your chalet, La Plagne 1800 is nice. But the French love their concrete!
Never tried Andorra, Bulgaria etc are great for beginners, I'd be interested to know if I should take my very young family there in a year or two?
JungleJim said:
5potTurbo said:
My outlaws go to Mayrhofen and love it there.
complete carnage at the Apres ski and the dutch drinkers make the english look civilised
I didn't know that to be honest, but then the outlaws tend to stay in family owned 'quaint' hotels now they're in their 70s.
Great apres ski may appeal to the OP?
To be fair matey there are literally hundreds of ski resorts in Austria and the vast majority might appeal to you. Austria is a great place to ski as an overall package I much prefer it to France. At the end of February you should be safe in any resort i.e. if there are any issues with the lower altitude resorts then the majortiy of europe will be struggling.
Where to ski and snowboard is decent at giving an overall view of resorts but if you really want good info and lots of it head over to Snowheads.com.
As with most things it comes down allot to budget-so what's yours? make a short list of what you want, ski in ski out, proper town rather than a purpose built resort up the mountain (TBH Austria has many) flights from your local airport, transfer time etc etc.
Soll and Mayrhofen tend to be the budget options in terms of getting there, Mayrhofen tends to get mentioned allot on here and elsewhere. It has allot going for it, major issue for allot of people have is the fact that you need to ride a gondola to get from the town to the main ski area and also need to get this BACK as well. The runs are also pretty short generally. Soll/SkiWelt is very good huge area particulary good for intermediates and part of massive ski area. You can also get the All Star pass which gives you access to the Kitzbhuel and Saalbach/Hinterglemm areas-literally hundreds of miles of pistes to go at.
TBH 'intermediate' covers the widest range of skier by far. Intermediates want plenty of mileage usually so maybe a larger area is for you. Piste marking varies from resort to resort i.e. Blues may be reds elswhere, reds may be greens in other resorts!
I will be in Austria twice this coming season, Kitzbhuel in February then St Anton at the end of March. Kitzbhuel I'll be with my OH so wanted something with plenty of intermediate mileage and a proper town for her to explore if/wehn she takes a day off. There also seems to be enough to keep me entertained.
St Anton, hard core off piste week with another experienced skier and masses of beer.
Where to ski and snowboard is decent at giving an overall view of resorts but if you really want good info and lots of it head over to Snowheads.com.
As with most things it comes down allot to budget-so what's yours? make a short list of what you want, ski in ski out, proper town rather than a purpose built resort up the mountain (TBH Austria has many) flights from your local airport, transfer time etc etc.
Soll and Mayrhofen tend to be the budget options in terms of getting there, Mayrhofen tends to get mentioned allot on here and elsewhere. It has allot going for it, major issue for allot of people have is the fact that you need to ride a gondola to get from the town to the main ski area and also need to get this BACK as well. The runs are also pretty short generally. Soll/SkiWelt is very good huge area particulary good for intermediates and part of massive ski area. You can also get the All Star pass which gives you access to the Kitzbhuel and Saalbach/Hinterglemm areas-literally hundreds of miles of pistes to go at.
TBH 'intermediate' covers the widest range of skier by far. Intermediates want plenty of mileage usually so maybe a larger area is for you. Piste marking varies from resort to resort i.e. Blues may be reds elswhere, reds may be greens in other resorts!
I will be in Austria twice this coming season, Kitzbhuel in February then St Anton at the end of March. Kitzbhuel I'll be with my OH so wanted something with plenty of intermediate mileage and a proper town for her to explore if/wehn she takes a day off. There also seems to be enough to keep me entertained.
St Anton, hard core off piste week with another experienced skier and masses of beer.
Edited by andrew311 on Thursday 27th October 16:12
Cheers Andrew311, very good info.
I've been to Schladming a few times but with relatives who had an apartment there, so they knew where to go. We fancy a change and Soll sounds ideal. It's also the snow depth i was wondering about and i was looking to go to the higher resorts just in case.
It's actually the end of January i'm looking to go so the slopes should be fairly empty. I recall a couple of years ago skiing virtually all of the way down the Fageralm with no-one else in sight, ski heaven!
I've been to Schladming a few times but with relatives who had an apartment there, so they knew where to go. We fancy a change and Soll sounds ideal. It's also the snow depth i was wondering about and i was looking to go to the higher resorts just in case.
It's actually the end of January i'm looking to go so the slopes should be fairly empty. I recall a couple of years ago skiing virtually all of the way down the Fageralm with no-one else in sight, ski heaven!
Edited by M001 on Friday 28th October 08:30
M001 said:
Cheers Andrew311, very good info.
I've been to Schladming a few times but with relatives who had an apartment there, so they knew where to go. We fancy a change and Soll sounds ideal. It's also the snow depth i was wondering about and i was looking to go to the higher resorts just in case.
It's actually the end of January i'm looking to go so the slopes should be fairly empty. I recall a couple of years ago skiing virtually all of the way down the Fageralm with no-one else in sight, ski heaven!
For the SkiWelt area also consider Ellmau, Scheffau, and Westendorf if you want to avoid any rowdy apres but to be honest there are bars to cater to most tastes. As for altitude don't worry, Soll has some of the best snowmaking coverage anywhere on the ski map, as said previously at that time of year if there's no snow you'll be screwed pretty much anywhere. Resorts like Soll wouldn't exist if they weren't viable. For Austria laying further east it gets more snow and is colder than say France plus under the snow it's grass/pastures most of the time so less coverage is required than over craggy rock fields. Actually as a general rule of thumb you can add 300-500m in altitude vs France due to things mentioned above. Lots of North facing slopes too so once they have snow it stays put.I've been to Schladming a few times but with relatives who had an apartment there, so they knew where to go. We fancy a change and Soll sounds ideal. It's also the snow depth i was wondering about and i was looking to go to the higher resorts just in case.
It's actually the end of January i'm looking to go so the slopes should be fairly empty. I recall a couple of years ago skiing virtually all of the way down the Fageralm with no-one else in sight, ski heaven!
Edited by M001 on Friday 28th October 08:30
If you've been to Schladming the SkiWlet area is a bit similar but bigger in that it's good for intermediates but with little to challenge advanced/expert skiier, and you'll get a real sense of travel. If you want quiet slopes Soll can get busy, but at the end of January you should be fine, Ski Amade might be worth a look too.
In saying all this if you're really that concerned over the altitude take a look at Ischgl, but it's expensive. Also Solden and Obergurgl. St Anton is too hardcore given your ability Schladming has a rep for over grading it's pistes SA for undergrading. Lech and Zurs part of the Alberg area are more suited to you but they are eye wateringly expensive.
ETA Any more info give me a shout I'll quite happily talk about skiing all day long and have been to quite a few resorts.
Edited by andrew311 on Friday 28th October 13:07
Kaprun is wonderfull, great resort and terific skiing with a Glacier as mentioned earlier. The beginner slopes arent bad as long as there is enough snow. And a quick bus ride away is Zell am Zee. That has great slopes and one of the most enjoyable black runs I have ever done (I wouldn't class it as black though to be honest), it's a long swooping and very fast thigh muscle tester.
I would love to go again next year.
I would love to go again next year.
If you could potentially be in SkiWelt or better still Kitzbühel you could go to DaleBoots, they're meant to be the dogs for fully custom boots. Boots are important, good skiers should be able to out ski a mediocre skier on any skis by some margin but give that good skier poor boots and they'll struggle to beat anyone.
If you have average shape feet off the shelf with some adjustment will do you fine. I've had a couple of pairs of boots from Ellis Brigham and have found them more than decent at the job. I got some custom foot beds and my latest boots last year and they've been fine.
The more custom you go the more expensive things tend to get. Unless you're minted or skis lots every season not really worth it IMO.
If you have average shape feet off the shelf with some adjustment will do you fine. I've had a couple of pairs of boots from Ellis Brigham and have found them more than decent at the job. I got some custom foot beds and my latest boots last year and they've been fine.
The more custom you go the more expensive things tend to get. Unless you're minted or skis lots every season not really worth it IMO.
I skied Kitzbuhel a few years ago. It a lovely place (real picture postcard town), but IIRC, it's only 700m or so, so the snow can be a little patchy. The ski area is large enough, but nowhere near the size of PDS / 3V's. I think we covered pretty much all the runs in 3 days. The hahnenkahm (sp?) is a fantastic run. I think I was nudging the world record with a run time of around 20 minutes (and very brown shorts in the extreme drop off's)!!
schmalex said:
I skied Kitzbuhel a few years ago. It a lovely place (real picture postcard town), but IIRC, it's only 700m or so, so the snow can be a little patchy. The ski area is large enough, but nowhere near the size of PDS / 3V's. I think we covered pretty much all the runs in 3 days. The hahnenkahm (sp?) is a fantastic run. I think I was nudging the world record with a run time of around 20 minutes (and very brown shorts in the extreme drop off's)!!
There's 106 miles of pisted runs on the Kitz pass or on the All Star pass 625 miles, if you can cover all that in 3 days I'm impressed! It's been allot better linked up since about 2004 I think? So perhaps you were there previous to that?Assuming by PDS you mean Portes Du Soleil? In which case quantity doesn't make up for quality IMO. I like the skiing in some French resorts but little else! The argument for and against the altitude of Austrian resorts has been discussed in the thread and various other ones around the tinterweb.
andrew311 said:
The argument for and against the altitude of Austrian resorts has been discussed in the thread and various other ones around the tinterweb.
The argument for high altitude Austrian resorts wins today, this was Soelden this afternoon but I'm sure there are better lower altitude Austrian resorts in Feb.
marine boy said:
andrew311 said:
The argument for and against the altitude of Austrian resorts has been discussed in the thread and various other ones around the tinterweb.
The argument for Austrian resorts with a glacier wins today, this was Soelden this afternoon but I'm sure there are better lower altitude Austrian resorts in Feb.
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