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Skiing in Austria (merged threads)

I did Obergurgl, Hochgurgl, and Sölden.

The first two open at 9am and Sölden opens at 8am. This is crucial because of the crowds; after an hour it is almost unskiable, with only gorilla-sized skiers on 1.8m skis ploughing their way through the 15cm of churned up stuff on the steeper bits of the blue runs, and with everyone else labouriously scraping their way down.

That said, if you hit the place right when it opens, you get some great runs, especially the long and hugely scenic blues at Sölden which are plenty steep enough to break something if you carve them all the way and lose it Much of the blue classification is certainly a lot of “tourism development”.

In the forum context, it may be relevant if you can fly and park at Innsbruck which as I see it remains a bit of a mystery whether it can be arranged.

Some pics from Sölden:




Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Obergurgl is actually not too bad, provided you hit the slope when it opens. And only small numbers of snowboarders.

There is a considerable amount of “tourism development” in some of the “blue” slope classifications But the worst thing is the appalling signage (slope markings). The place is full of people who got lost and are walking up some bit of a black run which they ended up on by following the completely useless signs for a blue.

The wide open slopes mentioned above are indeed there but some are nearly flat. #22 is good, though very crowded. Nothing gets close to Madonna

Transport is difficult, with no shuttle buses. There is only public transport or a €300 taxi service from Innsbruck. Most people go for the latter.

However Innsbruck is not usable to GA, apparently. It was discussed around here. However I have just taken some photos at LOWI

This one shows GA planes parked there, and since some are covered they clearly are staying overnight

The aeroclub is on the opposite side of the airport:

An old bit on LOWI parking is here and there are others e.g. this post. Clearly it is possible. It would be useful if anyone knew the costs and for how long it can be arranged.

A few other pics:



Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Obergurgl (mentioned earlier) is another option, but in the winter is not accessible from Bolzano – see here. It has some amazing wide open slopes for non-advanced skiers.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Not firsthand info:
For blue slopes take a look at Silvretta Montafon (1 hour from ACH Altenrhein) and Alta Badia (BZO Bolzano).

always learning
LO__, Austria

Thanks for the feedback

The original fly to ski thread is here. Unfortunately there was almost zero interest in a meet-up. The few people I came across who do it were advanced skiers and mostly they did it as day trips, from southern Germany, mostly to Zell or St Johann. There was a lot of “talk the talk” too

This winter, my plan is to do 3-4 trips, perhaps 2 by airline with Justine and 1 or 2 by TB20 for which the current best location is Bolzano (to Madonna) but that could change depending on whether the other two turn out nice; they are currently Hinterglemm (doable from Zell, or Salzburg but that has various parking issues discussed further back) and Cervinia. I am currently checking out whether these two are any good for her; Madonna was the best skiing for me but pretty dead otherwise.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I was skiing in Hinterglemm in January. It is one of the best skiing areas and a nice little town. Everything within walking distance (or use 12er Express, a sole “transfer” gondola). Our hotel was next to 12erKogelbahn and we walked easily to/from “Goaßstall” for “evening activities” aka aprés ski ;)
Best bet is probably to fly to SZG and get a bus/rental car there.
Alternates: Schladming (VFR LOGO) IFR LOWG.

We could plan a euroga Ski-in someday?
Happy skiing!

always learning
LO__, Austria

Is the description of Saalbach here still accurate? I am looking at this, or more accurately the one next door, Hinterglemm, because it has a nice run (#11) you can walk to from the town.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Here is a video of the flight to Zell am See and back, with a bit from the mountain in the middle


Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Silvaire

I was with my current wife… I’m still looking for my next one :)

EGHO Thruxton

Peter, have you been having lessons for your skiing?

Yes, 3 lots. 1xUK, 2xAustria.

there are some bad feelings from Peter towards myself

Not at all! I totally forgot you mentioned Schmittenhöhe, Blueline. Actually the recommendations for the Zell area came from others (not posting here) some time earlier. Two very specifically said there are beginner slopes there. Well, there are the little kids’ areas, everywhere, where you get a 1 min run downhill and then a 20 minute wait while the instructors push a load of kids past the lift queue I did 2 days of that at Filzmoos, with an instructor too, and that was good but it’s not much fun. The best to date by far was Grand Bornard (I posted my funny handheld camera video) and I will probably go back there – unless I can get specific feedback on some other place.

I actually now doubt the Swiss or Austrian Alps have any long + easy runs, because I asked several instructors and other long-term skiers and they all said one goes to France for that.

I was keen to check out Zell because it’s a 10/10 scenic flight (I will upload a video tomorrow; I have exceeded my Vimeo upload allowance for this week) and a really nice airport to fly into; very friendly manager too. The other really nice one is Lausanne and that, together with various French places like Annecy and Annemasse, is say 1hr from a whole load of places.

Sure most people want to go fast downhill but then most people either have been doing it since they were tiny or they swell the number of the empty seats on the return flights because they are in hospital At Filzmoos – a small place – there was at least one serious one every day. I learnt at 58 so have to set different limits.

I don’t want to get this too off-topic but I mentioned the issue myself, so let me give this example:

The piste map here shows this

Run 7 is a blue run. It was actually really easy, 5-10 mins in the woods, but here is the last bit of it:

That is a good 30-40 degrees. A blue run? Obviously some here will ski that with their eyes shut but if you end up too fast down that, you will end up in the building which the ski lift runs from. There is no room to slow down. I took off the skis and walked down. It’s like in another place I went to (Axamer Lisum) where a kids’ slope had a 2m deep ditch at the bottom, filled with rocks. I am not doing that…

In fact the whole snow area in the photo is a blue run. Clearly, as so rightly pointed out earlier, “blue” covers a lot of stuff, for business reasons.

is also the preferred resort for swingers

We could do a EuroGA fly-in

However I would have thought that the internet would have taken over the “special interest activities” such as that

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
173 Posts
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