It was my first time in Mayrhofen and I was really looking forward to it after all the positive reviews read on here. The new Penken Cablecar/gondola seems very efficient and we did not encounter any queue at all at it despite hitting it at peak time on Friday am. We ended up only skiing in Mayrhofen for one day and 3 days on the Hintertux - given the high temperatures, we wanted to stay high - we had a car so it was not much trouble to get up there. Hintertux was very good with super snow.
Skied most of the Penken area on Friday and enjoyed it. Conditions were mixed with South facing slopes turning slushy very early due to the high temperatures.
Saturday, the forecast was for rain up to about 2000m :evil: so we decided to head up to Hintertux. We knew there was a real risk of terrible visibility but at least it would probably be snow rather than rain. The day was a bit frustrating as it was horrible at the top with a howling gale and little or no visibility :evil:. It was decent enough from mid-mountain to the Sommerberg area even though the snow did turn to rain every now and then. The conditions limited what we could do and we ended repeating runs 3 and 17 a good few times :roll:. We finished with the long valley run (twice). The top section of this was in good shape but the last section was extremely slushy :x .
Sunday started in a similar vein but not as bad. We again headed up to Hintertux and had a mixed morning with very brief flashes of sunshine but lots of fog as well. We adjourned for an early lunch hoping that it would improve and thankfully, our wishes came true and we had a super afternoon skiing 8).
Monday was to be fine but very warm so yet another trip up the valley and we had a fabulous day's skiing before it was time to head for the airport for a late flight home :mrgreen:. When we got back down to Mayrhofen, the temp in the town was 18c :shock:.
Didn't really hit the apres-ski too much. Tried to get into the Scotland Yard pub on Paddy's Night but literally could not get in as the place was jammed :shock:. Ended up in a more civilized Coup for a couple of quiet beers instead. Food was generally good but had a really superb meal in the restaurant in the Gasthof Neue Post - not cheap but excellent quality :mrgreen:.
Enjoyed my trip but not sure that I would be in a rush to head back - IMHO, there are better resorts :roll:.
