Sankt Johann's Alpendorf - first week of April

Its been a long time since I've boarded and this will be the latest in the ski season (first week of April) I've ever been. I'm assuming we won't need to bring too many skins/layers for the kids - but not sure what to expect (or even if there will be snow!)

any thoughts?

Don't know if there will be snow or not, I'm not familiar with St Johann but we ski in March every year and we definitely don't need as many layers. I'm usually ok in ski trousers a t-shirt and fleece with a jacket on top. But sometimes I don't bother with the jacket. Depends how high up we are and how windy it is. If you take a back-pack you can carry an extra layer for the kids just in case.

thanks for that - assuring to hear.

let's just hope there is snow!

I have skied in St Johann both last year and this year. It is a really pleasant place to be.

I just returned from Tirol, having skied this morning, chucked my skis into a mates car, I will collect them next season, and then driven to the airport. The night temperatures have remained cold, particularly for the top two thirds of the mountains.

That reflects in the way the snow has been, ~ just fabulous skiing at the top and middle, but granular hard pack turning to afternoon slush for the lower slopes.

The temperatures are rising, but not by much, and there will be some small snowfalls. I was in Scheffau on Tuesday, and that was certainly not good conditions, plenty of lumpy stuff to batter your way through! One key issue is how well differing locations manage the snow. both in terms of timely and productive early season machine snow, and also the skill and management of piste machine operations.

St Johann seems to manage their snow operations well, not as good as my home resort, but few places are.

My guess is that in just two weeks time, there will be sufficient snow to make for an enjoyable week, but that you may have to be prepared to do some sun bathing by mid afternoon!

A beautiful old town, though. Oh, and if you do get knee and hip issues, thats what St Johann hospital specialises in ~ 600 hips and 800 knees a year!

I can only echo Dave's comments about snow in Austria at the moment. High up and mid mountain i.e. above 1800m all is good. Freexing levels hovered around 1500m last week where I was, and it was always well below 0c at night down at valley level (1300m). You will find scratchy icy pistes in the mornings, turning to slush and then gravelly sugar later in the day - thats spring skiing for you unless you really luck in with the weather!
And while the piste management in resort definitely can be an advantage, I can only repeat what I always say (despite what Dave might say) that come March time you really need to find somewhere with decent altitude or get very lucky with a cold snap and fresh snow to have the best conditions. Some people might be happy skiing on granular ice all day - personally I'm not keen on losing a couple of hours skiing because the sun is out, so to ski all day every day go somewhere with high slopes you can reach, even if the resort is lower down.
Pick somewhere with a glacier linked in if possible, then you really cannot go wrong if you want to have a weeks skiing and not a weeks holiday in the mountains sitting around sunbathing all afternoon or losing money on your ski pass in some other way.