A spring week in the Alpbachtal

Just back from a most enjoyable week in the Alpbachtal/Ski Juwel area and thought I'd share some random thoughts (although this report is unlikely to match the epic length and forensic detail of Tony H's magnum opus on Champoluc!).

Travelled from Gatwick to Innsbruck on Wednesday morning without incident or delay; this was an enormous relief after last year's diversion to Munich and subsequent travel adventures to Austria.

For those of you who have endured the Sunday scrum at Turin or the weekend chaos at Lyon or Geneva, let me tell you of the pure pleasure of Innsbruck airport in midweek. Off the aircraft pretty quickly and the bags and skis were already on the carousel as we cleared immigration. The shuttle bus to the main railway station was waiting 25 yards from the carousel and we were on a train to Brixleg within 30 minutes of landing!

At Brixlegg we waited for a further 10 minutes before the free ski bus took us to Reith im Alpbachtal - a 10 minute bus ride down the valley from Alpbach itself.

We found the guest house with ease as it was 100 metres from the bus stop and town centre. We had a choice of well-equipped, sizeable and immaculately clean rooms, and opted for the room with a balcony and lovely mountain view. The breakfast was standard mountain fare: choice of bread, eggs, cheese, ham, jam, honey etc. All for 396 Euro in total.

The weather was mild and mainly fine throughout the week and this was having a damaging effect on snow. At the start of the week, runs to the valley were ok, better in the morning, but heavy later. But as the week wore on, they became more and more like soggy porridge - not much fun. Anything south facing was soon stripped of snow and there were an increasing number of bare patches low down - despite the valiant efforts of the pisteurs. Apparently, due to environmental restrictions, they can't make snow beyond the end of February (not that it was cold enough last week, anyway).

I was really pleased we opted for Reith, despite having to rely on the ski bus to get to the main areas (no hardship). Alpbach itself is quaint but there's no lift access, apart from one small, isolated drag lift. Inner Alpbach has few facilities. Reith, on the other hand, had a splendid choice of bars, hotels and restaurants which must rank among the very best value in the alps.

Pizza and pasta dishes ranged from 6 to 8 Euros, veal and pork were around the 10 Euros mark and excellent steaks were 12 to 16 Euros on average.

Drinks, in the valley and up the mountain, were cheap too. In one posh bar, half a litre of beer and a good white wine cost the princely sum of 5.50 Euros! I told the barmaid I was likely to take up residence imminently!

Ski hire was of equal good value: boots and skis for six days form my partner came to £55. The lift pass for the entire Ski Juwel area came to 197 Euros.

The first day was spent mainly in the Gmahkopf and Hornbahn 2000 areas of the Wiedersberger area. Mainly flattering reds but an interesting black or two off the Hornbahn chair and down to the mid-station of the extremely efficient Wiedersberger gondola. The remote and scenic Baumgarten itinerary(route 66)was testing due, in no small part, to marginal snow quality.

The best skiing of each day was from 9 to 10 each morning when the snow was at its very best - and then from 3pm when the slopes just cleared. It was almost like having a private mountain - no-one about - lovely!

I'm not sure I would have bothered with Alpbach but for the new link to Auffach and the new gondola added a huge amount to Alpbach's attractions. The wide bowl under the Schatzberg is tremendous fun with reds of varying difficulty spreading out in all directions. Again the main valley run would have been superb in better snow. The Gipfu Hit (not hut) at the top of the Schatzberg was a magnificent (and again good value) spot for lunch or a drinks break.

The run back to the mid-station of the linking gondola (13) was tougher and more interesting than most of the runs down into Auffach - and there are plans to extend it to Alpbach through the trees and away from the damaging effects of the sun.

On two mornings, we had the pure pleasure of skiing on new snow on a firm base after overnight snow (falling as rain in the valley) and these were the best conditions of the week.

The worst conditions were probably on the Saturday when low cloud meant poor visibility higher up. We opted for Reith's low-lying ski area - five minutes from our front door - which consists of a modern gondola, two pomas, a gnarly old, steep, t-bar and one of those plastic handle lifts.

The area was deserted and we had an awful lot of fun skiing our own, exclusive slope, the Nissel, and Hochlift. There was club racing lower down but they could have been water skiing by the end.

The Reitherkogel Abfahrt is a classic red and the Nord Abfahrt is a steep little bugger that would be graded black in most resorts. I would have like to have skied both in better conditions.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the experience. Although Alpbach is very much a British favourite, UK visitors are a novelty in Reith. Everywhere the service was friendly, welcoming and extremely polite. Would I go back? Definitely, particularly when the snow is better.

(Didn't bother to trek out to Niederau, which is on the lift pass - too much on and off buses to risk it really, as its slopes are at even lower altitude than Auffach and Alpbach!)

Your last sentence answered the question I had been preparing to ask all the way through reading your excellent report. Reith sounds fabulous; yet another place to add to the ever-growing list of places one "must ski" !

Thanks for taking the time to write all this up.

Totally agree with this, we skied the area in 2012 but stayed in Alpbach itself at Haus Andreas - had a great time!! We did use the local bus and the Alpensee pass (which also allowed us to go a few stops on the train to Rattenberg when we could not ski one morning - the area has a lot to offer and a lovely atmosphere. I spent a very happy sunny morning tootling up and down an easy blue run on my own and thought that life does not get much better than this. Lovely to read your report!

Sounds like you had a great time and some seriously good prices :thumbup:

Nice report. This area interests me for a possible future family trip. I'll bear in mind the facilities that Reith has to offer.

Lofer is also worth a look for a family trip!

Thanks for the 'heads up'. Only ever heard good stuff about Lofer for families.

Lofer is a great family resort - the kids will love it, a litle train takes them to and from lessons and everything is great fun!!