Österreich Spring 2010

[Gorilla.Steeze]

I'm going abroad next semester to Austria (Vienna) and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise/pointers as to where to ski, best way to get there, how to save money, best place for pow, etc. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[DrStrangelove]

there are a lot of places that are really cool, but by-and-large the Alps don't have the same quality snow as the US
but it's fucking gorgeous. my dad learned to ski at kitzbuhel in the 70's, we went back this summer to hang out, it's a lot of fun and a really cool town. Innsbruck is pretty legit too.
honestly though, the summers in the Alps are the best...the scenery/experience is going to change your life no matter whether the skiing is any good.
oh, and if you can get to Switzerland, go to Zermatt...that place is soooooo fucking cool

 

[Austeeze]

agree on Zermatt, glacier there too

 

[michael_bc]

Zermatt is gorgeous indeed.

Disagree on the snow. True, Utah/Colorado are more consistent because the storms always come from the same direction. However, if you know and understand the weather in the alps, you can find the same quality snow pretty much always, with the added benefit of much larger terrain and no out-of-bounds. For example, the snow in St. Moritz is very similar to Colorado, and the snow in Chamonix, Engelberg or Andermatt is very similar to Utah/Wasatch. Those are sweet spots though, the alps have approx. 1000 resorts and 95% of them aren't nearly as consistent. Not saying one is better than the other, just saying the "by-and-large" statement doesn't hold if you know what you're doing. Just look at the Austria webisode from En Route and you know what I mean.

To answer the thread question. The most famous spot is St. Anton. Right next to it is Ischgl, which is equally sick, probably my favorite in Austria. Other powder-magnets are Kitzsteinhorn/Kaprun and Dachstein. During springtime you really need to keep an eye on the forecast if you want to find pow. Nevertheless it's the best time to go big mountain riding, you need to chase the pow a bit, but I've had epic powder days in May pretty much every year that I can remember.

Which town will you be staying in?

 

[mozzy]

Vienna is pretty far east, it's a 5-6 hour train ride to the resorts in the Tirol and Vorarlberg. That stuff is some of the best skiing in the world, and the post above described things pretty well.
So I'd vouch for the Arlberg region, it's where I tend to go most often in Europe. I also like Innsbruck for the snow, and also for the town. It's a real city, with a university, historic and modern buildings, and you're only a short funicular ride from the Nordkette.

If you want to go to Switzerland or France, you might as well fly there- Vienna's an air hub for Austrian Airlines and there are probably flight deals to be found if you look.

 

[Thenowhereman42]

My dad used to ski there in the 70's. He said you could literally ski from on town's mountain to the next town, get drunk in the bar there and take the bus home at night. Anyone know if that is still true? That would be amazing.

 

[michael_bc]

It's still true!!

check out these trail maps:

http://www.snowbunnys.co.uk/img/panorama/kitzbueheler_alpen.jpg

http://www.mein-edelweiss.at/media/images/contentbilder/skiamade/ski-Amade_gross.jpg

 

[Austeeze]

definately! Grosse Fohrenburger danke!

 

[powder_submarine]

to all the aforementioned amazing places i would add the whole Zillertal (valley of Hintertux glacier) and Kaunertal, two good resorts for spring skiing

 

[johnnypsunami]

my favorite places, in order, were:

-mayerhofen

-hintertux

-nordpark

-kaunertal

-lech

-st anton

I like to ski park mostly, but had some epic pow days in Nordpark when I lived in Innsbruck.

 

[s.g.]

well,since youre in vienna,probably the best closest resort would be dachstein and krippenstein regions.dachstein is a glacier where you can ski year long and has a pretty decent park(in sommer too)

krippenstein is one of better places to ski powder in austria and its basicly the same place dachstein .the episode of nimbus in austria was filmed there

 

[Gorilla.Steeze]

thanks for the advise. how far away is the dachstein area from vienna? also do these places have cheap lodging or hostels of some sort? sorry for all of the questions I still haven't popped by alps cherry.

 

[nealpgards]

i am hopefully going to be studying abroad in Austria this spring as well. however, the program that I applied to is in Salzburg. anyone know of any good ski areas near Salzburg?

 

[feihlination]

well, dachstein should be something like 4 hours from vienna, i am not too sure how much it is, cuz i live on the other side of austria, but something like that.
i would say that you have at least 3-4 hours to some serious skiing. vienna seems cool, i havent been there like forever, but i am hearing good stuff about it.
as far as lodges or such stuff is concerned, i dunno. in my area, there are some chances that you can hook up with shapers and when you help them one hour in the park, you could sleep on their couch or something like that. just make sure you get some connections to the local scene of whatever resort you wanna go to (it should be easy, cuz most people wanna be friends with foreign skiers so they can claim it ) .
i bet its not a problem to survive one night if you know a person or two (and if you come to innsbruck or even further, i might be able to help you out, just pm me).