J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Innsbrucker

I have also written a lot about Seefeld on this board, no need to repeat it, no doubt a search will bring up the comments by RoseR & by me. Generally very positive. Last year I did not enjoy it so much in March as it is relatively low, and snow in the bottom half or so was a bit slushy.

Seefeld is also good because a decent, charming little town in itself, and close to Innsbruck by train, bus or car, so if you are not so fit as to ski all day every day there is other stuff to do. Skiing, especially starting, is tiring, if I skied all day every day it would get dangerous.

Tried my first Kaiserschmarren at Obergurgl, a local speciality. Basically a chopped up pancake served in a pan, with cold apple sauce to dip it in, on the side. Good. 10 Euros (i.e. overpriced) at Nederhutte, but well cooked and enough for two.

I mention it in case anyone sees it on the menu and wonders what it is. I did. In Austrian / Bavarian German 'Schmarren' also means 'nonsense.'

I went up to Obergurgl on Saturday, for the first time.

Sölden is reputed as a party town, many bars and ski shops stretched out a long way along the one main road. Why is it unique, iimmm?

I skied in Obergugl, which is linked to Hochgurgl by a horizontal lift (but not by piste), so the two are almost a single resort. It is high so thin air, tendency to be very cold (though daytime under sun was ok) and quite a bare-looking (but very impressive) landscape, not many trees. Beautiful snow, and wonderful soft powder beside the piste, not that I am really up to skiing powder, but had a go in easier parts several times (GF gets very excited by soft powder, and 'forced' me to follow, and I fell, lost one ski, and got the other stuck deep under the snow...). There is a small amount of skiing between trees available.

Sölden is, as noted, 1 hour 15-20 minutes from Innsbruck by car if the drive goes well, maybe a bit less from the airport, and Obergurgl / Hochgurgl about 15 minutes further on by car. In summer you can keep going across the Alps across the mountain pass into Italy, and I think they attract walkers and bikers for summer tourism, but in Winter the road approach form Italy tends to be closed.

Because it is quite remote you do not get the masses of local and German day trippers which I am used to at Seefeld (my usual resort). Also far fewer small children. Also a much lower percentage of boarders, not sure why. Another difference is that Seefeld is a real town whereas here you get the impression there is not a lot going on aside from the tourist industry, although Sölden is not that small (however, there does not seem much for evenings at Obergurgl / Hochgurgl). Saturday seems to be the switchover day for a lot of packages (tourist information office closed!), so slopes are relatively quiet, and they actually offer a discount on passes to local residents for Saturdays only, to get some custom.

I have to say the pistes, and the powder at the side of the pistes, were both superb, and a good mix of steepness. I did not find the signage terribly good, and ended up on a black by mistake, which I do not particularly enjoy (built for comfort, not for speed), but a little bit of steep is probably good practice, and there was nothing you can really call icy. As brandyaitch said above, not much for the expert, except that there is so much attractive skiing for those who are up to deep powder.

On the point above about beer prices, the whole Euro zone is a problem at current exchange rates, but I did find bar prices a touch on the high side in Obergurgl.

As mentioned elsewhere, this week I had my first powder lesson from GF, who is not a ski teacher, but is able to take some responsibility for assessing what is safe for me to try. She said to stay back a bit, and take more weight on upper legs, so the tips do not dig in. It seemed to work, and felt natural, but whether more forward weight would have caused a problem, I have not yet tested.

There were layers of ice crust, so not great powder, and I imagine the weight should be fairly even, as you do not want tips digging through an ice crust and tails staying on top. But maybe someone will correct me about all this. As I mentioned in another thread, keeping the weight back a bit felt totally different than the feeling of the weight falling backwards on piste owing to bad technique. It felt perfectly secure, just a bit more demanding on upper legs.

Hi AllyG, The reason Deutsche Bahn website gave Worms not Wörgl is that you missed out the umlaut. They are fussy about that. Woergl or Wörgl works. It is ronounced something like Wurgl.

Munich East sounds a good idea, I never tried it. But the main station is is large and can be confusing (it confused me last time I was there...)

Incidentally there are no long distance buses but the ski area webiste probably tells you about local buses from Kufstein. Local buses are often free if you are carrying skis and / or a lift pass.

Taxi is dear, I did find a Turkish taxi firm in Munich who will undercut normal prices, but it was still expensive. It is worth calling those guys I mentioned with their airport taxi-minibus http://www.airport-transfer.com/ to see if they will stop at Worgl, but they do go to Kufstein, surely they are cheaper than that? I have used them, they are known to be reliable. Munich-Innsbruck they charge about Euro40, a bit less if you book a return.

I don't know best station. Looking at the map, Kufstein seems equally near, and it is a bigger town with more direct trains.

Yea, they planned a super-fast mono-rail or some kind of Japanese style train suspended in a magnetic field. Merkel announced it amidst fanfares. However, having bailed out the banks, as far as I know the German govt. decided that they could no longer spare the odd 2 billion or whatever it was going to cost.