St. Anton off piste

Anyone have experience hiring a guide for off piste in the Lech/ St. Anton region. Is it necessary?

It's not necessary, but we hired one for a day and have never regretted it; one of the best days I've ever had. There's so much stuff you'd never find by yourself and there's a lot of places that you should only go with a guide - in fact there's some places you can only go with a guide. I'd definitely recommend it for a day early in the holiday to get to grips with where all the good stuff is.

I can recommend piste to powder, their guides are excellent.
If you're venturing well away from the pistes then a guide is essential as is full backcountry kit and knowing how to use it.

just on the train home from St. Anton as I write this. Spent a good part of yesterday off-piste with Tony H, Skidaddle, Ellistine and associated others. It was really great. There are a lot of unpisted ski-routes which are excellent, even on a board. These lead you into a huge area of off piste opportunity. Found myself on a stretch of about 50 meters which I swear was near vertical, well it was the steepest bit of hill I have ever been on. Also found a fantastic ravine which was narrow and moguled all the way down, my legs were like jelly at the end of that one.

There is so much of it too, some there is probably no need for a guide with conditions we had. However with less stable conditions I reckon it would be a good idea, and they would get you to some fantasic spots.

Here's a link to Piste to Powder's website.

http://www.pistetopowder.com/

tino_11 wrote:just on the train home from St. Anton as I write this. Spent a good part of yesterday off-piste with Tony H, Skidaddle, Ellistine and associated others. It was really great. There are a lot of unpisted ski-routes which are excellent, even on a board. These lead you into a huge area of off piste opportunity. Found myself on a stretch of about 50 meters which I swear was near vertical, well it was the steepest bit of hill I have ever been on. Also found a fantastic ravine which was narrow and moguled all the way down, my legs were like jelly at the end of that

So, that will be one split board on order for Tino ) , and some mid fat skis to buy, for Tony H, Skidaddle and Ellistine. Pistes will never feel the same again :D

tino_11 wrote:just on the train home from St. Anton as I write this. Spent a good part of yesterday off-piste with Tony H, Skidaddle, Ellistine and associated others. It was really great.

Nice to see that J2skiers are increasingly hooking up in resort - see also recent thread on Neidereau. The virtual friendships are translating into real friendships which is great :lol:

By the way, anybody in Alpe D'Heuz in the week commencing 31 January?

bandit wrote:

tino_11 wrote:just on the train home from St. Anton as I write this. Spent a good part of yesterday off-piste with Tony H, Skidaddle, Ellistine and associated others. It was really great. There are a lot of unpisted ski-routes which are excellent, even on a board. These lead you into a huge area of off piste opportunity. Found myself on a stretch of about 50 meters which I swear was near vertical, well it was the steepest bit of hill I have ever been on. Also found a fantastic ravine which was narrow and moguled all the way down, my legs were like jelly at the end of that

So, that will be one split board on order for Tino ) , and some mid fat skis to buy, for Tony H, Skidaddle and Ellistine. Pistes will never feel the same again :D

I did take some 'fatter' skis with me but oddly found I much more prefered carving on them than my carving skis. Still the off piste was great fun but deffinately not pretty. Still some work to be done there. I may have to go back and read some old moggul threads.

Good to meet Tino. Is four j2skiers a new record for a get together?