International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) Booking a trip for March 2022 to the Arlberg

[Ulmerhutte]

In Europe in general, lodges aren’t really a thing, so there usually isn’t a place to stow a pair of shoes for the day. People tend to just walk to the lifts in their boots. Looking at the map, it looks like you’ll be a pretty short walk from the Rodelbahn. The Schlosskopf chair is closer as the crow flies, but it looks like you’d have to walk through a field to get there directly from your hotel.

The Rodelbahn is not a lift… it is a toboggan track!

i agree with the ”lodges” comment. There really is not the idea of a “base lodge” in Austria, as I understand them to be in USA. You might find lockers at a railway station, and certainly in ski shops, but the latter are reserved for customers hiring from that store.

I don’t know if you will be able to ski down from the Edelweiss. If there is decent snow, and the roads have not been gritted, then yes. You might be able to scoot down between buildings, but that I don’t know.

The walk is not that long, probably <10min.

 

[Ulmerhutte]

Places to eat:

Top of Ruffikop (Lech): awesome views, good food, friendly service, and fair prices. A very unusual combination!

BalmAlpe - top of ZugerbergBahn (Lech): striking building and great views. Good food. Service? Let’s say you get “attitude with altitude“.

Seekopfberg Restaurant (Zürs) - top of Zürserseebahn & Seekopfbahn: good food, service can be patchy (too few staff when busy, reasonable prices for Zürs. Does get very busy at lunchtime, especially if the weather is poor, ie no outside tables.

Kriegeralpe (Lech) - on piste, on return from Kriegerhornbahn - a traditional Austrian “Alpe”. Very atmospheric, but small, so it can get very crowded. Good food and fair prices. Service can be slow.

S1 (Warth-Schröcken). - bottom of Saloberjet. Has been our favourite for years. Great service and fair prices. Modern airy building. The food is fantastic - the käsespätzle is to die for.

There are many, many more options. If you want to know about particular place or another village, then just ask.

NB: for context, we are not big lunchers and we don’t drink at lunchtime! We will have just a main course or maybe just soup (usually gulaschsuppe) and be back out in 40 - 50 min. There are plenty of people who enjoy 2 or 3 course lunches, with beer and/or wine, but that’s not us.

 

[Uncle-A]

It has been a long time since I skied in Austria so you can take it for what it is worth.
1. The ski buses go all over the country and they have storage for skis and luggage. (Our bus driver was not very friendly)
2. The trails are poorly marked, my wife and I found ourselves on a Double Black Dimond trail without any marking on the trail. (found out after the fact what it was)
3. Innsbruck was our starting location and they had great skiing all around and it did include a day at St Anton and a day of Glacier Skiing.
4. When in Innsbruck they use to close down between noon and two or three depending on the shop. I don't know if they still do that. But when they reopen stop and have an espresso and pastry they had some excellent coffee shops.

 

[Ulmerhutte]

The trails are poorly marked, my wife and I found ourselves on a Double Black Dimond trail without any marking on the trail. (found out after the fact what it was)

I can only speak for the Arlberg…

The “Double Black Diamond” rating is not used on pistes. It may appear on some websites, when discussing off-piste routes. That is their own, unofficial nomenclature.

Pistes are generally very well marked with guide posts on both edges at appropriate distances apart. The piste markers are labelled with the piste number. At major, ie high traffic intersections, you will often find direction boards indicating where the pistes go.

There are also “routes”, or “itineraries” as the Brits like to call them. They are marked by guide posts in the middle of the suggested line. They vary enormously. Some are groomed, and as benign as a blue run. Others are pretty serious off piste routes, suitable only for appropriately skilled people, eg Tanneg and Wiesele. I think it would hard to find yourself on one of the latter by accident. They are marked with a red diamond, with black borders, along with a sign that reads either “Extrem” or “Schwer”.

 

[Uncle-A]

I can only speak for the Arlberg…

The “Double Black Diamond” rating is not used on pistes. It may appear on some websites, when discussing off-piste routes. That is their own, unofficial nomenclature.

Pistes are generally very well marked with guide posts on both edges at appropriate distances apart. The piste markers are labelled with the piste number. At major, ie high traffic intersections, you will often find direction boards indicating where the pistes go.

There are also “routes”, or “itineraries” as the Brits like to call them. They are marked by guide posts in the middle of the suggested line. They vary enormously. Some are groomed, and as benign as a blue run. Others are pretty serious off piste routes, suitable only for appropriately skilled people, eg Tanneg and Wiesele. I think it would hard to find yourself on one of the latter by accident. They are marked with a red diamond, with black borders, along with a sign that reads either “Extrem” or “Schwer”.

It sounds like they have improved over the years, like I said in my original post that you didn't include, it has been MANY years since I was in Austria.

 

[James]

Is there a convention for left and right piste marking poles in Austria? Switzerland has different lengths of orange or something, I can’t remember. Knowing left and right in a whiteout can be important.

 

[Ulmerhutte]

Is there a convention for left and right piste marking poles in Austria? Switzerland has different lengths of orange or something, I can’t remember. Knowing left and right in a whiteout can be important.

Yes. Sort of. The poles are the same colour as the piste rating, hence the same colour on both sides of the piste. It is however easy to tell which side you are on because:

I

 

[Jacob]

The Rodelbahn is not a lift… it is a toboggan track!

Yeah, I realised that last night. It shows how much my brain has been fried over the last year.

On the paper piste map, at first glance it looks like the Oberlech cable car is called Rodelbahn because of the layout of the map.

 

[Cheizz]

Garni Edelweiss is at the red arrow I believe. If you just cross the road, You'll be on the field that also accommodates the black Tannegg run (the last bit of the Langer Zug). That leads directly to the Schlosskopfbahn, getting you into the main Lech ski area.

 

[Nobody]

Could be. I can’t really get a good 3D look at that area on my maps app. If it’s flat(ish), then you could skate/pole across the field.

That said, it looks like it would take less than 5 minutes to walk to the Rodelbahn along the road.

Since @Sibhusky is 97% set by now, allow me a bit of a banter here...if it is a private field...it could be fenced in, and/or the farmer/owner might find something to complain about people crossing his/her field; still it generally doesn't happen, once the snow sets in, but one might check and, do like the romans do, if you see ppl regularly crossing that field, no worries...Or one could find oneself "skating" above a light crust of snow with underneath horse/cow manure (as it happended to me once in Alta Badia, skiing down what we though was a little "hill" and too late - only when the crust gave in - we discovered it was a pile of cow dung stored there for the winter)

 

[Ulmerhutte]

That ”field” is not fenced in. There is a drop from the street above, so it can be skied. How easy will depend, as always, on the nature of the snow, but my recollection is that it is rarely heavily tracked - which may be good or it may be bad.

 

[Lauren]

Yes. Sort of. The poles are the same colour as the piste rating, hence the same colour on both sides of the piste. It is however easy to tell which side you are on because:

View attachment 135390 I

It’s easy, unless…



(Kidding…it still was pretty easy)

 

[Jacob]

It’s easy, unless…

View attachment 135399

(Kidding…it still was pretty easy)

That brings me to another point: in any resort in the Alps, you always want to come up with a plan for low visibility days.

I know that @Sibhusky is familiar with low visibility, and Lech has some terrain with trees or other features that offer some contrast, so she’ll probably be ok. But, it’s worth thinking about how to get to other parts of the ski area in case there are multiple days of low visibility for whatever reason.

 

[Lauren]

I'll throw in another good review for the Seekopfberg Restaurant in Zürs, plus a funny story...

First off, coming from the US and used to either cafeteria style lodges, or full sit-down restaurant style, we weren't really sure what to expect walking in. There was no host/hostess, so we figured we seat ourselves (which turned out to be an accurate assumption). There were only three of us, but not a spare table in the place. As we were moving towards the door to find a different place to eat, a waitress came up to us and asked if we were looking for a table. She promptly brought us over to an 8 person table that was occupied by a family of four, Mom, Dad, young daughter, and teenage son. We sat.

The family was polite and kind, but mostly kept to themselves. After a bit of small talk, they asked us where we were from. We answer "just north of Boston" (while studying abroad in the early 2000's I quickly learned that most people don't know where "New Hampshire" is, and it's easier to just answer Boston). We saw the son's ears perk up. He asked with great interest..."Are....are you Patriots fans?!?". Turns out we just sat down next to a massive American football fan. Three weeks before, him and a few friends stayed up all night to watch the Patriots win the Super Bowl...literally one of the best comebacks of all time (2017). We did not lack conversation from that point forward.

Also...food was amazing, and very reasonably priced. I had a full restaurant-style meal with a beer, and paid less than a fountain soda and some French fries at a US resort. Plus the views are impeccable!

 

[PowHog]

Happened to have skied the Arlberg since I was a kid so here's my 2 cts.

The resorts: all Arlberg resorts have plenty of challenging runs to keep you entertained so in this regard it doesn't matter where you stay. St. Anton is the only place with decent après ski Austria is so famed for so that might be a factor for your daughter. It also provides the most reasonable lodging options cost wise along with the neighboring townships of St. Jakob, Pettneu etc. if you are on a budget. That said we stayed in Lech for most of the time. Zürs and St. Christoph are the ski-in-ski-out resorts but else pretty boring if you ask me. Stuben as the first resort when entering from the west is quaint but with good access to the circuit.
Lech often has the advantage over St. Anton when it comes down to snow quality due to higher resort elevation and less southern exposure, coverage is usually better. The resort has become pretty posh though but then that keeps the hordes of ski bums away.

Skiing: extensive amount of either groomed or skied out runs to keep you entertained for quite some time, especially by NA standards. All resorts are now interlinked due to the relatively new gondola from Rauz to Trittkopf. Also the resort of Warth north of Lech had been added in recent years as a nice addition. Some nice and challenging runs around Lech/Zürs: Kriegerhorn north face to Zug, Rüfikopf (Langer Zug), Trittkopf (Ochsenboden, Flexenmulde), Stierloch variants. On the Stuben/St. Christoph/St. Anton side Galzig east face, Valluga (all Schindler variants, Paziel), Rendl backside, Albona (a personal favorite of mine).
What the Arlberg is famous for are it's off piste and backcountry runs (which far exceeds the groomed ones) and it's world class ski school. Sign up to a group your level and explore the terrain with like-minded buddies. This also is the best way to be guided to the best stashes you would not find when being by yourselves. Describe your capability and intention, they will help you find the level suited for you and will move you up when exceeding their initial estimate. The four groups above level 3 (2b-1a) solely venture off-piste and into the side and backcountry, involving occasional hikes and the guides know where it is safest to ski. Be aware that for the two top level groups (1a, b) you need to be a really strong skier physically and ability wise, better be cautious with overselling but bring your A game instead.

So have fun and oh yeah, count me jealous!

 

[Sibhusky]

View attachment 135397

Garni Edelweiss is at the red arrow I believe. If you just cross the road, You'll be on the field that also accommodates the black Tannegg run (the last bit of the Langer Zug). That leads directly to the Schlosskopfbahn, getting you into the main Lech ski area.

Well, according to the hotel and at least one review, you can ski to that lift. The other lifts are 5 minutes or so.

 

[James]

What percentage of Brits and Aussies are we talking in the St Anton area? There’s no shortage of drunken videos.

 

[Cheizz]

What percentage of Brits and Aussies are we talking in the St Anton area? There’s no shortage of drunken videos.

It's also the Germans and my fellow countrymen that can be quite embarrassing in that respect. And Swedes too.

 

[PowHog]

What percentage of Brits and Aussies are we talking in the St Anton area? There’s no shortage of drunken videos.

Dunno about Aussies but tons of Brits there, also Scandies.

 

[Cheizz]

One reason for me not to stay in St. Anton anymore.