St Anton visit

Some12 wrote: »

I've booked a week at St Anton but not been there before.

One of the things I want to do is to complete the ski run of fame both ways.

Anyone done this? Is it easy to follow & find the right slopes? How do you complete the check-in points?

Any suggestions for off piste gems would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Can’t help with this BUT while your there get the bus to Lech and do a day there!

Some12 wrote: »

Guides booked for two days with the hope of dropping the back side of the Valluga. It looks like it's a skin-up & trek back but I've read uncut runs can be found there.

Tempted to book a helicopter day but think I'll play that by ear.

There is a run off the top of the Valluga which is supposed to be superb, you're not allowed into the lift with skis unless you have a guide, its pretty steep at top and if you fall in the first stretch it could in theory be fatal so guide would want to assess you before taking you up

its on my bucket list! But probably after heliskiing on that list

Enjoy either way sounds great, post up your experiences afterwards so other people searching forum can find them

The moose. You've got to be in it to win it!

Only tip I can remember is that the big cable car in zurs stays open later than other lifts, until half 5 in March I think, so if you're being scraped off the mountain you can get a few extra runs there. Not much of a tip.

Looking forward to an account of your two days guiding and hopefully your heliski too.

Some12 wrote: »

Moose & Krazy are on the list but want to watch the drink. It would be a disgrace to lose a part of a day to a sore head.

I'll look for the late lift one of the days - I hope. I think there's too much of a mountain to test it all. I do hope to hit all the villages around the area.

Heliski is off... It's bloody expensive there!


Thanks!

Yeah you're bang on re the booze, particularly if paying for guide

You'll actually ski the resort quicker than you think. You can substantially ski anton in a day, zurs also. Lech is very more of the same - a lot of the pistes are just different runs down the same slope

Sonnenkopf is supposed to be great and quieter but I've never made it. Or warth.

The other side of anton, I think its rendl, is also quite quiet relative to other side

If no one has suggested it yet the municipal wellness in anton is superb, great antidote to days skiing, indoor / outdoor heated pool, spa upstairs with sauna dude who comes in and cranks up the heat with a towel, one of the better ones I've been to. 20 Euro for full access. Naked upstairs, God bless the Austrians.

a148pro wrote: »

Sonnenkopf is supposed to be great and quieter but I've never made it. Or warth

Sonnenkopf is great. It's pretty small but if you get there early doors you will normally have the place to yourself more or less for 2 hours or so. It opens a bit later than the others (0900) due to the way it is facing as the peak of the mountain blocks the early morning sun, but it's definitely worth a visit.

Warth is also excellent, though it's a bit of a trek to get to from Anton. Excellent conditions usually, and it gets the most snow of any other place in the region. It can be bitterly cold and icy sometimes though, due to the fact that it faces north.

Nice report.

Nasty one about the ribs, and full marks for keeping going after that, I know how much that can hurt.

Sounds like you got a lot of stuff done. Did you check out the night rodeling (i.e. sledging) at all? Great craic. It's a long windy run through the forest which is lit up at night. Not for the faint hearted though! Seems that way more people get hurt doing this rather than skiing or snowboarding.

I would also recommend that you get over to Lech or Zurs one day next year, there are buses going from the bus station near the Rendl Bahn. You can also now ski over via a combination for new lifts etc. but it's generally less hassle to take the bus, as there can be long queues for the gondolas sometimes.

Bar wise seems you go a lot in, Murmell down the town is well worth checking out though, good Apres Ski. The Kanguruh, while still good, is now much toned down compared to say 15-20 years back, it used to be absolutely raucous, they seem to have tried to posh it up a bit for some reason. Heustadel is also excellent, you will pass it on the way down usually shortly before you reach the Kanguruh.

Some12 wrote: »

St Anton booked again for February 2020!

skallywag - Looking forward to the night rodleing and the hutts I missed!

The Rodeling is some craic, particularly if you have not tried it before, the fact it is at night under lights through the forest also really adds to it.

https://www.stantonamarlberg.com/en/winter/further-activities/tobogganing

Funnily enough the only time any of our group has really hurt themselves (broken ribs & limbs) has been at this lark, and not while skiing or boarding. Mind you those doing it at night tend to have few drinks on board :pac:

Some12 wrote: »

Really looking forward to the Rodeling Thursday night. I expect to do this well lubricated and understand there’s a refuelling pub on the route down! This, however, may defeat my goal of no broken bones...

Well, there is a pub at the end of the Rodel track (where you hand back the Rodel), but I do not recall one on the way down, in fact the only thing I recall is a first aid station for those who manage to fook themselves up :pac:

It really does happen a lot too, as I mentioned a lad in our group two years ago broke some ribs doing it, he put on a brave face for the days after but he must have been in agony.

Some tips ...

1 : Take is easy on the Booze! There is a pub right beside the Nasserein bahn, called 'Fang House' as I recall, so perfect for getting a few in before collecting your Rodel outside and heading up on the lift. I reckon that 3 pints is the limit at which you are still Rodel safely. It is a subjective thing of course, but if you have too many you run the risk of seriously hurting yourself. It is a pretty narrow forest path for the most part with drops on the side into trees, so if you crash into one of those at speed you could seriously hurt yourself.

2 - Bring good waterproof boots with a decent heel, essential for braking.

3 - Bring your gloves, helmet and goggles, some people seem to think that they do need these for some reason, particularly the goggles. You are going to be getting snow thrown up into your face a lot from people in front of you.

4 - Go on your own, as opposed to two of you riding one. This is really only the case with couples though, as they tend to go together, as one of them may be nervous etc. This tends to be a big mistake though, it is *much* harder to control the Rodel with two of you on it, and the combined weight is going to mean that you will reach much higher speeds on a long steep section. Note : the lad in my group who broke with ribs was riding it with his girlfriend!

In general make sure you get over to Lech and Zurs for at least one day. They have now built lifts that will take you all the way over from Anton, but they take quite some time and can be very busy. I still think it is far easier to take the bus from outside the Rendelbahn. The bus stops first in Zurs, and then Lech shortly afterwards. Note that 80-90% of those on the bus will go to Lech, meaning if you get off at Zurs beforehand, then your skis/boards which you mount on the back of the bus could well be impossible to get at when you get off at Zurs, as they are buried in a sea of 100 skis. So try to put your stuff on the outside of the pile so to speak.

You can get off at Zurs and then actually ski down into lech, it's a real nice loop, though tiring, one part is quite a challenging skiroute (a famous one called the Madloch) take a look at the map you will see what I mean.

You are lucky with the snow, it really just snowed a week or so ago, before that it has been pretty woeful conditions everywhere, with no snow at all even still in the lower lying valleys. Very unusual, I have not seen that before. Greta will be angry :pac:

a148pro wrote: »

Think it's just finished snowing quite heavily with more to come next week

But pray tell what is the rodel, some kind of toboggan? Must have boozered myself so much previously that we never heard or got round to it

Yeah exactly rodeln is the German verb for sledding. Mayrhofen has a 5km rodeln track that's serious craic. Did it in Zell am See too, where you get a piste basher up to a bar, do some serious hooching and then sled back down. Do. Not. Forget. Goggles.

It is indeed very dangerous, and I think that people get lulled into a false sense of security that it is much safer than it really is (it's 'just sledding' type of attitude), and tend to act much more cavalier than one would on skis or a board. Throw dark conditions and drink into the mix and you have a real recipe for trouble.

That said, it can be great fun if you keep to your skill level and are in control. Lots of Austrian villages will close some steep back roads to traffic during the winter period, and these roads get turned into 'Rodelbahns' (i.e. sledging paths) during the winter, the locals will put bales of hay and tyres beside any hard obstacles on the way down such as lampposts, gates, etc.

Billy Mays wrote: »

Long term forecast isn't showing much fresh snow for next week, fingers crossed that'll change

1/4 metre or so due tomorrow, and another 10cm or so Friday, so could be worse.

By the way, you should get the 'Bergfex' app in case you do not have it already, by far the best and most reliable snow sport app in my opinion.

One of my life's ambitions is to see wolves, if I could combine that with skiing would be great!

Amazingly they're on a big come back in Europe and North America, there were reports of them being seen in another ski resort last season, hopefully I'll get to see them yet

Yeah, it has been a bad season this year all in all condition wise, and very much so at the lower altitudes. When it is so warm in the town itself it just feels 'all wrong' somehow, and when it then rains while you are out that is just cat altogether. I think rain has to be the worst of all conditions? You can take heavy snow, wind, etc. to a certain point, but rain is definitely the pits.

Anyway, as the injuries we have been noting on this thread go, they are pretty light compared to one that I heard of yesterday. A friend of mine was in a hospital in Austria for a routine op, when the chopper brought in a German lad who had just had a bad ski accident, he broke 6 ribs, with some of them possibly having fragmented. Even two days later he was literally screaming out in the pain from his bed, all the nurses could do was to jab him with morphine when it became unbearable, which thankfully knocked him out within a few minutes. The latest X-rays then showed that some small pieces of bone may be close to penetrating the lung so he had to be brought straight into the OR for a 4 hour op where they put a fibre optic camera into his thorax cavity looking for such pieces. And it seems he did not even do anything spectacular, just a routine fall so to speak.

Those wolves are indeed brilliant! It seems wolves are becoming more and more sighted over the last years. There have been incidents of lynx too, and even a bear a while back. Not all are happy about it though, they can and do play havoc with sheep and other livestock.

Yeah, real panic today in St. Anton.