J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Scarlet Fez

Knobby1, they have really been struggling this winter like everywhere else, but in the last 10 days things have changed quite considerably in most places including Soll. I believe they are due more this week as well. The town itself has had a covering in the last week. Think you'll be fine and it's a great place.
Travelling the same day to St Anton this year!

Admittedly I have only done it on line going through a search which will cluster variety of shops under the same control and suprise suprise they all come out with exacctly the same price. The grade of ski varies from company but going for the middle standard of 3, they are all showing 146 Euros for a week skis only. More than Saalbach and Kitzbuhel so would this be noraml as I believe its an exier resort?

Wesley, you make some very valid points about your subject in on other forums disappearing in the 'traffic'.
Scotty's Bar has been mentioned before as potential venue, we will look into that.
We are in a Chalet for a change as we normally do hotels, so our evening meal is taken care of. So always nice to have a decent bar etc for the proper après and then for those that have the stamina or energy somewhere for the second sitting after dinner.
Anywhere you would recommend or avoid for ski hire, I am aware they have had a shake up in town recently with their equivalent of a monopoly commission for collective fixing of the hire prices. So in theory it should be at least a bit more competitively priced. Come the end of the day we do not mind paying money to hire decent equipment but St Anton had a bad reputation for ripping the punters off with their collectively fixed rates.

Not long now, Austria like everywhere else could with a lot of the white stuff to fall. This forum gets quieter each season to the point it's hardly worth viewing . There are others about which are very useful indeed. PM me if you need to be pointed in the right direction.

A friend of mine took a chance and had an early week in Andorra, travelling back today. The Pyrenees were fortunate as they had early snow. Good skiing for the first 4/5 days but last I heard the snow was fast disappearing as it was 20c, yep 20c at times. All the weather in Western Europe is so mild this winter so far, look at the the UK.
Going to St Anton 23/01 so hopeful there will be a change in weather.

Been to Soll 4 times in January in the last 6 years. Never been a problem with snow, even at the bottom by the nursery slopes. Even last year when they hardly any with Xmas approaching it then tipped down. Ok it's not a resort you will swamped with powder but you will be fine.

Ski with a mature group of a dozen, ages 42-58 all competent skiers, some very very competent. Just as importantly we do like our apres, and occasionally some of us should act our ages and not our UK shoe sizes.
For the last 10 years or so we have skied various resorts in Austria which we love, including Schladming, Soll, Saalbach and Kitzbuhel. This year, because of recommendations for the skiing and apres we have decided to give St Anton a try. We have usually stayed at 4* star hotels but due to trying to keep the price realistic and some of us were not even hardly using the hotel facilities to give an Austrian Chalet a try, hence we are staying at the Alpenheim on the 23/01/2016 for a week.
I have done an Austrian chalet before in Mayrhofen and loved it. Always found you get what you put into a ski holiday and by trying to help the chalet staff help you have a good time you are half way there. I appreciate they are normally staffed by youngsters but by the end of January they should be into the swing of it and 'cooking' on gas'.

I have a few questions you may be able to help us with.
Ski Equipment – We normally arrange our own ski hire for those who need it. Is there anywhere relatively conveniently placed and priced that you would recommend or suggest we avoid.

Skiing – There are not to many black runs we won't try but some ski them properly and others just survive them. Some of us (moi) have have fallen foul of a few bad ones which we still ache from years later if you get my drift. Steep steep and very narrow is not a high priority. Although a lot of us have skied for a while and mostly in Austria our opportunities to ski on unpisted safe runs in powder has been limited so any advise on this will be greatly received.

Apres- We know St Anton has a great reputation for apres, we always try and find a lively place with decent live music but appreciate that it is a younger resort. We can party with the best of them but don't want to be in a youth club. Any suggested watering holes.

Thanks for taking the time to read and thanks in advance should you reply.

I have to say that having shopped around independently the last 4/5 years in Saalbach, Kitzbuhel and Soll we did get better discount and even cheaper prices. This times was obviously sometimes due to the location of the shops to the lifts etc. I am in a group of 12 going to St Anton in January looking for the balance of a good price to the quality of the equipment and service provided so will be watching this space.
That been said the prices I am seeing for hire are not much different to what we were paying in Saalbach 2/3 years ago and that was when the Euro was stronger so it was a bit ouch!! then.