J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by iandi

I live in Canada-west is best! Whistlers great. Kicking horse and revelstoke are awesome as well, less people, but takes longer to get there. Le massif, St Anne and Tremblant are good but significantly smaller and much less likely to have powder.

We just returned yesterday and I wanted to follow up. We had a really great time. The kids were in a lesson at St Anton for the first day, and didn't really think much of that ski school - too many kids of variable levels that really slowed things down, so we skied with them the other days - they did great even on the blacks. Had really good weather, bit of clouds for a couple of days, but mostly sun. On the one slightly rainy day, we drove to Salzburg and had a great time (although a fair bit of driving time). Beautiful city!

We spent 2 days in St Anton and 2 in Ischgl. Snow conditions were just a little bit better in Ischgl overall, but not by much. The lower slopes were pretty much the same on both mountains, not that much fun at the end of the day. Good conditions in the upper slopes esp Valuga (St Anton) - our kids really loved Valuga, and the views were spectacular. Iscghl was a better in terms of not waiting at lift lines and the village was a bit better for families, the kids loved the novelty of skiing to Switzerland. Both resorts were slushy in the lower slopes, but we could ski all the way down in both resorts, which is quite impressive this late in the season. Overall both were great (but we think we'll go back to Whistler next year - maybe just because we have our tried and true routine there).

bandit wrote:As a hugely broad generalisation, I believe the slopes in Ischgl are less steep than in St Anton. Could this account for the snow holding better?

Dons flameproof jacket, helmet on :mrgreen:

Are the slopes in Ischgl not steep enough? We generally like steeps, but the wife doesn't have much off-piste experience, and probably won't want to have a guide. Would St Anton maybe be more appropriate? Are many of the steep runs groomed at St Anton?

That is a good point I guess. I was hoping to ski down to the village, but maybe not realistic in April?

It seems that Ischgl gets less snow, but it tends to stay around longer then St Anton:

http://ski-resorts.findthebest.com/compare/171-600/Ischgl-vs-St-Anton-am-Arlberg

Is this accurate?

Hi again. Was just about set to pull the trigger on a place in Ischgl, but I read a report of only 60cm of base on the lower pistes...although we will have a car, I would prefer to find an apartment/vacation rental near the lifts and may start looking at St Anton again. We'll have our kids with us so après ski doesn't matter to us (actually we don't want to stay in a noisy area and be awakened by the bars emptying at 3 am). Any thoughts/insight?

Thank you Den and Griz for your replies. Definitely leaning towards Ischgl now. If you have a restaurant recommendation or 2 that would be great.

We will have a car, so maybe will take a day at St Anton as well - great suggestion thank you!

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster here. I'm going to be in Austria 1st week of April, some business in Vienna then 5 days free then flying out of Munich back to Canada. I'll be with my wife (we usually ski black diamonds or some double blacks in North America - usually Tremblant and Whistler most years) and kids who are intermediate skiers.

We want to get the kids into ski school for at least part of the day so we can ski the harder stuff.

After having done a lot (and I mean a lot) of reading, I am more confused than ever - there are sooo many possibilities. I thought we had settled on Ischgl, but when I check the snow depths, St Anton has a fair bit more (200 cm, 100 cm lower in Ischgl compared to 390 cm, 155 cm in St Anton.

My basic question is - is this just a ridiculous amount of snow and we're quite likely to be just fine and have a good time in Ischgl (or should we start checking out St Anton or one of the gurgls)?