Skiing — St Anton, Austria

Five days of skiing St Anton, Austria

March 2014

Finally, I arrived at St Anton after more hours of travelling (from Singapore via Zurich) than I cared to think about. I had awful jet lag, and I was exhausted.

And so, down to business — a week of skiing in one of my favourite ski areas in Europe. But first, I had to get my skis and lift pass.

Getting Skis and a Lift Pass

I had an interesting start to skiing in St Anton; the ski shops had no skis in my size. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible!

I ski on a 165 cm ski, and I went into three different ski shops; all they could offer me were a couple of pairs to choose from. In one case, it wasn’t even a pair of skis! When I asked why they had so few skis, they pointed to a pile of skis that needed servicing. It was change-over day, and a lot of skis had been returned that evening. That is, ‘change over day’ in St Anton is Sunday, and most skiers return their skis on Saturday evening before leaving on Sunday. And I was trying to get skis on a Saturday evening.

The line for the ski pass wasn’t too bad, but having an extra person serving (there was only one window open) would have helped.

Second attempt at getting skis

The following day, Sunday, I went back to the ski shops, and the choice was much better but still not great. I ended up with a pair of Head skis.

I have never been a fan of Head skis (I have a pair of Head boots which are great) after I skied on some a few years ago and found them unresponsive and heavy. Since that trip, I have always avoided them.

However, in St Anton, I was persuaded to try a pair again.

Bottom line — I didn’t like them. I found them heavy and unresponsive! What a surprise?

The Head skis were OK through in the slush at the end of the day as I could ‘ride’ them through the mess. But, I struggled to get a good edge on the early morning hard-packed powder and also found them difficult to turn in the bumps.

The skis I get on with the best are Elans. I owned a pair about 20 years ago and thought they were great. I skied on them for five seasons, and I have managed to hire Elans on a few ski trips and have always found them a lot of fun.

Day 1: On the Mountain — 2nd March 2014

The first day on the mountain was not a good experience.

The mountain was packed. I don’t think I had ever seen St Anton so busy. It was odd it was so busy as Sunday is change-over day. There should have been fewer skiers on the mountain. I was worried about what it would be like on the Monday when all the new skiers hit the slopes.

The conditions were not that great. The air temperature was around -7 ºC, which wasn’t a problem, but the visibility was shocking. The light was very flat and made skiing a challenge. The snow conditions also weren’t great. There was a lot of hard-packed powder (and some ice), and the 5 cm of snow they had received overnight soon piled up into some rather tricky lumps and bumps that were almost invisible in the light. They hadn’t had a decent snowfall in a few weeks. There were a lot of bear off-piste spots.

A pint at Alibi and dinner at Bobo’s

I finished the first day with several pints at Alibi, a small bar near the hotel, and then dinner at Bobo’s.

Bobo’s is a typical St Anton basement bar. In the early part of the evening, they serve drinks and food, and then later (around 10 pm or so) they turn it into a ‘nightclub’.

The food in Bobo’s was OK. I had a burger and fries, and a pint, for around 18 Euros, which was not cheap, but much better than many places in town.

Day 2: Skiing St Anton, Zurs and Lech — 3rd March 2014

One of the great things about skiing in St Anton is that you can get to other nearby ski areas such as Zurs and Lech.

The weather was much better on the second day. I got to the main lift at 9:30 am and queued for 30-minutes. As I feared, St Anton was busier than the day before.

I skied down to Stubben and caught the bus to Lech. Lech was wonderful. There was lots of sun, great runs, and fewer people than in St Anton.

Stunning weather.

Lech is a fun place to ski.

Many great bars.

And ‘cruiser trails’ all over the mountain.

Getting back to St Anton from Lech

From Lech, you can get back to St Anton by catching the cable car out of town towards the Zurs ski area. You then ski down to Zurs and catch a bus to Stubben.

By the time I got to Zurs, the weather had changed from sun to low clouds and snow. As usual, the queue for the bus was chaotic and disorganised, and the busses were overcrowded. It took three attempts to get on a bus coming up from Lech. I saw adult skiers pushing young kids out of the way as they scrambled to get on. If a bus were to go off the road or even brake hard, dozens of people could be hurt or killed.

The bus from Zurs dropped me at Stubben, where you can catch the yellow ‘post’ bus back to St Anton or ski back. I decided to ski.

The ski back was less than ideal. It was challenging as I was skiing in and out of low clouds and light snow flurries.

I finished the day with a beer at the Rodel-Alm Restaurant. The restaurant was running a ‘bierfest’, with accordion music and an Austrian sing-song. The bar/restaurant is on a black run, which means it is an exciting ski back into town after a few beers.

Day 3: Another tough day of skiing — 4th March 2014

The weather gods on this trip were not kind, and it was another day of low clouds and snow. Another tough one on the slopes.

I started the day over at Rendl, which has some excellent skiing.

To access Rendl, you take a cable car at one end of St Anton. Rendl is not connected to the main ski area of the town and is worth exploring as it has some great runs and often has its own weather. The light was much better in Rendl than in the main St Anton ski area.

Mid-morning, I stopped at Bifangalm, a restaurant/bar on the long ski from the Rendl ski area back down to St Anton. I had an excellent Apple Struddle with custard and a hot chocolate. It is worth going to Rendl just for the Struddle and hot chocolate!

I finished off the day with a beer at the Rodel-Alm restaurant again.

Dinner at Scotty’s

For dinner, I decided to go to Scotty’s, a bar/pizzeria in the main Mark Warner (UK ski firm) hotel in St Anton — The Rosanna. The hotel is off the main street, close to the railway station. The bar offers a range of pizzas and pasta.

Interestingly, for a UK run establishment, they were unable to offer Guinness. But the pizza was good, and I washed it down with a couple of beers.

Day 4: Another day of poor visibility — 5th March 2014

Yet another day of low clouds and snow.

I started the day over at Rendl and did a ‘loop’ by using the Gampberg, Riffel II, and Maass lifts before stopping for a coffee at the Rendl Panorama Restaurant.

My plan was to ski out of Rendl back over to the main ski area. From there, I was to move on to Stuben. But, the weather was so bad that I spent the rest of the day skiing around the Gampen/St Jakob area.

Lunch at the Kapall restaurant

One plus for the day was finding the Kapall restaurant. It was a little gem of a place, and it had free Wi-Fi.

The restaurant is tiny and is at the top of the Kapall lift over in St Jakob.

Drinks at Pub 37 and back to Bobo’s for dinner

In the evening, I went to Pub 37, an interesting little place off the main street in St Anton. It must be the smallest bar in the town and can hold around 20 people.

Dinner at Bobo’s was disappointing.

Day 5: Back over to Lech and exploring the new Schroken area

On day 5, I decided to head back to Lech to explore the new Schroken ski area. Was this a good idea?

First, there was the dreaded ski down to Stuben via run 17. I don’t like the run. I don’t know if the length of the run or the crowds (on this occasion) put me off; I find it challenging. Some lift lines were horrendous.

The bus to Lech was packed. I couldn’t get on the first one that arrived and had to wait 15 minutes for the next. I do wonder if these busses are safe because if they had to do an emergency stop, all the skiers and skis would end up as a massive pile at the front of the bus.

But it was a glorious day out on the slopes….

One problem was that everyone seemed to be going where I was going, and when I got there, I faced even longer lift queues. Once you are committed to heading to Schroken, there is no turning back; there are no ‘bailout routes’. You have to go there and then turn around to come back.

But having said that, there were some excellent runs, but it was too crowded at the lifts.

Lunch over at Salober, Schroken

As the crowds were so bad, I decided to take an early lunch (around 11:30 am) at Salober and then ski-out. This turned out to be a good idea, as most people took lunch at the usual time.

When I entered the S1 Bar, it was almost empty, but it was packed when I left at around 12:15 pm.

The good news was this meant the lift lines were short, and I could get back to Lech.

Getting back from Lech to St Anton, via Zurs

The best way to get back from Lech to St Anton is to catch the cable car out of Lech and then ski down to Zurs. The cable car is across the road from the main ski area in Lech.

It is worth the effort as Zurs is a fantastic little ski area with some great runs down to the road. But, you cannot ski straight from the top of the cable car down to the road for the bus to Stuben. You have to zigzag around the Zurs ski area using one lift and a drag to finally get a run that takes you down to the village.

Finally, once down in the village of Zurs, the bus will take you back to Stuben. From Stuben, you can catch the ‘post bus’ back to St Anton or take a ski lift and ski back. The ski lift is a 6-person chair that you can access via a drag from the bus stop.

Mooserwirt — St Anton

That afternoon, I decided to go to one of my favourite and most crazy bars in St Anton — Mooserwirt.

Mooserwirt is a classic après-ski bar in St Anton. A mad place. The bar is located about 800 m up the hill from the Galzig cable car. So, when the bar closes, you have to ski back to the town in the dark — always entertaining after a few beers.

Mooserwirt opens around 11 am, and the après-ski starts at 3:30 pm, with music provided by DJ Gerhard. It is a wild place, with loud music and lots of beer.

Note the tray of beers near the centre of the photo above. The waiters in Mooserwirt walk around carrying impossibly heavy trays loaded with beers and shots. It is beyond me how they carry them and not drop them in the crush.

And at the end of the evening (around 8 pm), you are faced with this — the ski back to town in the dark.

The ski back down the slopes, in the dark, whilst drunk, to St Anton is a challenge. There is no light, and you stand at the top of the hill trying to work out if the lumps in the snow below are just lumps, people (which the lumps often are), or something else.

Day 6: Last day on the slopes at St Anton

The last day on the slopes is always sad. But after the beers at Mooserwirt and five days of hard skiing in some challenging conditions, I felt the need for a day off. I was secretly looking forward to the train ride back to Zurich and the chance for an extended sit-down. But, I knew that I would want to be back on the slopes once I was on the train. Always the way.

The last day was a sunny one, and again the slopes and lifts were very crowded early on. But it was a good day.

I decided to ski around the Stuben area and stop there for lunch.

In the afternoon, I headed up to the highest point in St Anton, which is up the Valluga cable car (long queue). I did not go to the very top as the run down was closed.

It was a fun run off the top, and it was great to get to the highest ski point in St Anton on such a sunny day.

Dinner at Maximilian — St Anton

Last night in town, so I thought I would try somewhere new — Maximilian.

Maximilian is a restaurant I have walked past in St Anton many times. It is on the main street, just down from the Spar Supermarket and before the church.

The place was recommended to me by the barmaid at the Alibi, which is across the road from the restaurant.

The place was heaving, and they managed to squeeze us in at the bar (reservations are recommended). I had a local speciality.

Although it doesn’t look very appetising (it is a fried egg on top of fried onions, potatoes, beef, and bacon), it was delicious.

The restaurant had a range of dishes, from local specialities to battered squid and risotto.

Accommodation for the week — Hotel Kirchplatz — Dorfstraße 73, St. Anton

I didn’t go for the usual chalet option on this trip but tried a hotel instead. The one I picked, after much searching, was Hotel Kirchplatz — Dorfstrasse Nr. 73, St. Anton am Arlberg 6580, Austria — it was an excellent little find.

The hotel is located near the church in the centre of town. The hotel has free Wi-Fi (only available in the lobby and lounge area) and a ski and boot drying room accessed from the main street. The hosts were warm and welcoming, and the breakfast buffet was fantastic. The hotel is about a 10-minute walk from the Nasserein lift and about 8 minutes from the town centre.

The hotel only did bed and breakfast, which was ideal as it meant I had the freedom in the evening to eat when and what I wanted.

Oldest (and most original?) house in St Anton

While I was killing time in St Anton waiting for my train, I spotted the house in the photo below on the main street (just opposite the Spar supermarket).

Skiing St Anton — a summary

St Anton is a challenging ski area due to some very steep and narrow runs.

Skiing wasn’t easy on this trip due to the large crowds and poor snow conditions.

First thing in the morning, there were always large lift queues to get out of the town and into the ski areas. In my opinion, there is a shortage of lifts out of the resort.

Another issue is skiers are funnelled down two or three main runs back to the town when they close down the mountain. These runs become crowded and in bad weather can be very dangerous.

I had two days of thick cloud/fog on this trip with no visibility. And three sunny days. Snow conditions were tough. Rock-hard and frozen in the morning, then slushy by early afternoon. This meant the slopes cut up and became very bumpy. The conditions were typical for spring skiing in April, but I was skiing in March.

When I left Start Anton, there was not much snow left. The ski area still had a month to go before the end of the season, and I couldn’t see how they would make it. It was not even cold enough to blow snow.

A great holiday. I had some great skiing and fun nights out and stayed in a nice hotel.

All I had to do now was to get back to Malaysia!