Moving to the alps... but where exactly?

W

Willy_The_Kid

Member
I'm stoked on spending the next season in the Alps. I am tired of being the only park rat at my resort, although the park is surprisingly good, I spend every minute at the park entirely alone - the culture is dead...

The alps are fucking big however, and I have only ever been once (in Schladming, Austria of all places). Is anyone familiar with the various skiing towns? Where does the jib culture thrive?

Been eyeing Innsbruck. At the moment it seems like the place to be, but I dont know much about the place in general or how it is living there.

Enough rambling; Where should i move, and what should i expect?
 
Seems like OP is Norwegian so visa isn’t an issue

14521261:Non_State_Actor said:
Where can you get work or a visa? Please explain your plan? Is this like an extended vacation or are you living there?
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Innsbruck sounds perfect. There is a big Culture there and countless good and reachable Resorts. Also life in Innsbruck is great not only for skiing but in general!
 
Innsbruck - actual regular sized town, lots of pros and amateur freestylers live there in winter, night life, easier to find accommodation etc. With the season pass you can access a the park at Nordketten right next to the city, but also 10+ other ski areas in tyrol, with parks like Stubai (closed in high season) and Solden. IMHO all nice parks but more for advanced/pro riders.

Ski Amade - Salzburg area. Comprises of 20+ something resorts. Lower altitude and no big town like Innsbruck close to the ski areas (Salzburg is a bit away). However, there are plenty of parks like Absolut Park (one of the best in the alps), Planai, etc.

Laax in Switzerland. This will end up way more expensive than Austria, but also this IS the freestyle capital of the alps :) Amazing park and a place where most of the skiers on the mountain are freeskiers.

Livigno in Italy - a bit remote and hard to get to and out of. But it has several terrain parks and is a cheap place compared to most other resorts in the Alps.
 
14521261:Non_State_Actor said:
Where can you get work or a visa? Please explain your plan? Is this like an extended vacation or are you living there?
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Im not necessarily looking for information about the moving process and practical stuff like that. I guess it factors into the overall decision, but I'm mostly asking about the park culture and what to expect from various towns/resorts.
 
14521398:snowpig said:
Innsbruck - actual regular sized town, lots of pros and amateur freestylers live there in winter, night life, easier to find accommodation etc. With the season pass you can access a the park at Nordketten right next to the city, but also 10+ other ski areas in tyrol, with parks like Stubai (closed in high season) and Solden. IMHO all nice parks but more for advanced/pro riders.

Ski Amade - Salzburg area. Comprises of 20+ something resorts. Lower altitude and no big town like Innsbruck close to the ski areas (Salzburg is a bit away). However, there are plenty of parks like Absolut Park (one of the best in the alps), Planai, etc.

Laax in Switzerland. This will end up way more expensive than Austria, but also this IS the freestyle capital of the alps :) Amazing park and a place where most of the skiers on the mountain are freeskiers.

Livigno in Italy - a bit remote and hard to get to and out of. But it has several terrain parks and is a cheap place compared to most other resorts in the Alps.
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Thanks for the insight man, exactly this stuff i came here for!

Been considering the Salzburg area. Was lucky enough to spend a day at absolute park once - fucking incredible park.

I have sort of dismissed Laax. I don't wanna run the risk of bumping into Andri Spagetli. The cost of living also plays a minor role...

Italy is cool, been googling about for the past 30 mins. Livigno seems really cool. Worried that it is a bit secluded though.

Do you have any insight into life as an "international" in either one of these towns? My german is very limited. Would love to be able to make some friends in the process.
 
I have never spent a whole season in the alps, I have been going only for short trips. And I havent been to Livigno at all, but a lot of friends have visited and everyone loves it (except how hard it is to get there).

I think english should be enough in all those places, even in italy nowadays everyone speaks english.

I have never been to the french side, but there should be options there as well.
 
On the french side you could also look into Morzine/Avoriaz, plenty of brits and danes there so speaking only english won't be a problem and the atmosphere is great. There's a good little scene there and the parks are quite cool, but not that great IMO (like moving overseas worthy). Tignes/Val d'Isère has probably the best parks (and nightlife) in France right now, but there isn't that much of a park scene given how far it is from any city. There are some great options in Switzerland too around Leysin who could be worth it, but yeah, Switzerland's expensive. I think your best bet would be in Austria in Innsbruck or Altenmarkt/Schladming.
 
Yeah I also think Austria is the best choice.

OP has a few months to research the two areas, the different types of passes offered, accommodation, costs etc.

For example in Salzburg area you can get ski amade pass 700eur for the 27 ski amade resorts, but there is also the super ski card for 850 that includes saalbach, kaprun, zillertal, so with the glaciers added you have several months more of skiing. In Innsbruck you can get also get several different passes, starting from a cheaper one only for the closest resorts, all the way up to a the tyrol card that includes hintertux, kaunertal and many more. So the months you plan to ski might also influence the decision. If you want to start before december, than Hintertux, Stubai and Kaprun are the only parks operating. Same after mid-april.

Comps and events also add to the vibe. Stubai has the pro training sessions and then the world cup in early november and it's a great time to be there, the park is still open and you can ride the t-bar with Alex Hall or Matej Svancer :) Ski Amade have the cash4tricks tour in all their parks, I would guess it makes for some great park days.

Also depends on your skiing level. A lot of Austrian parks are more pro-level oriented and more jump oriented. Solden does a sick jump setup that is worthy of an Audi Nines comp, looks awesome if you can ski that, but otherwise not much jibbing there.
 
sorry for double post, but are you working already? because you can also get a job as a shaper https://www.shape-academy.com/

it doesn't pay that much but you will get a season pass for free, some accommodation and you only have to work a bit in the morning and a bit in the afternoon, with plenty of time to ski in between.
 
[tag=278417]@snowpig[/tag] [tag=242132]@SPK_[/tag] Thanks for the input. Guess i have narrowed it down to Austria - either Innsbruck or Salzburg area. Working as a shaper would be sick as fuck, thanks for the suggestion :))
 
topic:Willy_The_Kid said:
the park is surprisingly good, I spend every minute at the park entirely alone - the culture is dead.
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Same. It's 95% people side jumping and slaloming down the big air jump's landing. This is often me on the way back to the top after almost making some boomer the landing to a 50 footer.

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14522838:Willy_The_Kid said:
Really, would have thought that the park scene was quite developed in Aspen. Probably X Games that gave me that impression...
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Occasionally you meet some people visiting from out of town who can ski park and you take a couple laps with em. Ive met like 5 locals over the past 4 years who can ski (mostly snowboard) park well but they are mostly instructors so they spend most their time on mountain making money teaching people to carve.

Aspen locals (if they ski a lot don't) mostly alpine tour up the groomers and pizza down or only come out on powder days. There's a lot of bragging about how many times you've hiked the Highlands bowl, how many vertical feet you've got or ski days.

Even my buddy's who teach say that most of the instructors are garbage at skiing (a lot are overweight or older than oldstoke).

Our parks outside of the xgames features aren't designed very well for the amount of space they get. Alot of the kickers boot you weird af and differently everyday so it can be a bit sketchy sometimes too.

If you've got an icon pass it's worth it to take a day and check us out. But honestly if I could make as much money and live in as nice of place as I currently do, I would probably move to summit.
 
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