Latest posts for the topic "Adv/Int skiing in Austria"

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:10:20 GMT

I hav'nt been skiing in Europe before, but after reading posts on the forum Austria sounds like a great place to go over France & Italy.

I'm really hoping someone could give me some advice as there are so many more resorts in Europe than I could imagine and I'd hate to spend all the GBPGBP and end up somewhere I regret...

I'm been skiing since I could walk-in Australia though-and my girlfriend is a good intermediate skier, so we're up for somewhere exciting....but we're both <25 so we've also got a tight budget...

If anyone could steer us in the right direction, even if that means that we should look outside Austria I'd appreciate your opinions.

Cheers
Alex

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:18:00 GMT

Jonesy wrote:I hav'nt been skiing in Europe before, but after reading posts on the forum Austria sounds like a great place to go over France & Italy.

It's rumoured that we have skiing here in Switzerland as well :D

There's plenty of good skiing in Austria as well though. St Anton is the inevitable suggestion although, equally inevitably, it struggles to live up to the reputation.

When we lived in southern Germany my favourite places were Lech, Stuben, the Stubai and Obergurgl.

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:24:47 GMT

Jonesy,

A lot of ski resorts in Austria are on the low side. These days it is best to aim high to be on the safe side. I have enjoyed Solden, Obergurgl, St Anton and Obertauen all of which have high, good and reasonably extensive skiing.

Best,

Geoff

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:49:40 GMT

Geoff Smith wrote:Jonesy,

A lot of ski resorts in Austria are on the low side. These days it is best to aim high to be on the safe side. I have enjoyed Solden, Obergurgl, St Anton and Obertauen all of which have high, good and reasonably extensive skiing.

I'm sure there's no mileage in kicking off that whole one country versus another thing but it must be said that this old chestnut that Austrian ski stations are low and don't get snow should really be consigned to the trash bin of urban (mountain) myths.

The Arctic is 0m above sea level and they get plenty of snow :D

For that matter high altitude ski stations often have problems with snow as well so the safe rule about going high turns out not to be too safe sometimes.

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:05:50 GMT

Ise,

I don't know about "urban myths" but I did choose my words with some care. I did not say" Austrian ski stations are low and don't get snow". I simply made the rather cautious observation that it is best to aim high to be on the safe side. This comment was based on looking at comparative snow statistics for low and high resorts over the last few years. From these data it is clear that there is a higher probability of getting more snow at higher levels. This does not preclude the possibility, of course, of the reverse happening from time to time.

Happy days

Geoff Smith

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:56:56 GMT

Geoff Smith wrote: From these data it is clear that there is a higher probability of getting more snow at higher levels. This does not preclude the possibility, of course, of the reverse happening from time to time.

I'd be especially careful of that comparison, you need to take account of how much snow is required to open a slope particularly for early season. Some high level stations are pretty good at PR and exploiting that confusion. Slopes round here take a few cm to be skiable as it's alpine meadow, up at Zinal it take a lot of snow to make a slope skiable at least one metre more in fact. We've had a couple of winters this century where that's played out.

A lot of Austrian ski resorts are on the low side, but it's their location and not altitude that's responsible for snow.

Re:Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:43:48 GMT

Hi there. You sound like you know your snow! Question for you. Thinking about going to Saalbach early Feb or early March. Which week is probably going to be best for good snow conditions?

Re:Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:12:20 GMT

clareybearey wrote:Hi there. You sound like you know your snow! Question for you. Thinking about going to Saalbach early Feb or early March. Which week is probably going to be best for good snow conditions?

Yes, there's some good collective knowledge on snow round here.

For me, it's pretty hard to make that finer judgment. It's late enough that the base should be good so it's down to how much snow's falling right then which is hard to predict.

As for speculation, this is a La Nina year and apparently some of the models for that have a follow-on of substantial snow falls the following Jan' and Feb'. Who knows? But it's fun to imagine :D

Re:Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:12:25 GMT

clareybearey wrote:Hi there. You sound like you know your snow! Question for you. Thinking about going to Saalbach early Feb or early March. Which week is probably going to be best for good snow conditions?

I was there in Feb '06 and March '07. 2006 the conditions were said to be their best in 40 years and we all know what happned in 2007 so it's difficult to say which would be the best month.

One thing I would say, which ever month you chose, try skiing across to Leogang early on in the week. A lot of the pistes to Leogang are high up and many are north facing. We overheard a lot of people this year who were gutted that they only found the runs on their last days of their holiday - we were actually staying in Leogang and felt very smug 8)

Re:Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:58:58 GMT

Its good to see someone supporting 'low level' skiing for a change. We live in Radstadt in the heart of the Ski Amade region 45 mins from Salzburg. Our local slope starts at 850m. I have a constant battle with the Brits, who are very heightest! Height isnt everything!

Take last season as an excellent example. We all know Europe had a poorest snow record for 100 years, yet, at our height of 850m, we were open at the beginning of December unlike many places in France and we stayed open all season.

Some of the higher places such as Obertauren which is up the road from us, had excellent snow, yet the visability was often very poor as you were in a cloud.

We also have tree lined slopes. It is all very beautiful and shouldnt be dismissed on account of not being very high. Lets face it - if it didnt snow here then we wouldnt have a massive ski network - or put in bids to host the winter Olympics (allbeit we lost).

Adv/Int skiing in Austria

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:13:25 GMT

i would reccomend kaprun/zell am zee as you have the glacier at kaprun and nice tree lined skiing at zell,i have skied switzerland,italy,france and canada,and austria probably best value but all good,try a different place every year ,book late and wait for the snow.