Archive for the 'Austria' Category
August 21st, 2009 by mat
What a year that was, it started with the chaotic and far from salubrious winter 08/09 opening party and reported on one of the very best winters in many years. The rest of the world was generally awful but the snow came and kept those lucky enough get some of it more sane than would have been. The season opened for us with a powder day at the start of October on the Stubai Glacier and closed with some great Spring skiing on the Hintertux Glacier. Injury free skiing for me for the first time in many winters and the skigloo were a couple of the highlights. And for the coming winter I have become a family skier with the arrival of Josh, so time to learn a whole new way of doing things. Looking forward to every second of it!
July 15th, 2009 by mat
One man’s spam is another man’s ham maybe, but how does this pan out when one of the best off-piste ski areas in the Alps gets an improved lift? What happens when an existing ski lift is replaced with a higher capacity lift or terrain previously only accessible on touring skis receives a new lift? A couple of seasons ago my local ski hill in Innsbruck had 2 new gondolas installed. The Mutters and Gotzens ski areas had for several years existed as the preserve for ski tourers, the old lifts had been de-commissioned and the only way up was either on skins or via some routes out of Axamer Lizum. For several years I effectively skied a private ski piste, you would rarely see any other skier on a descent and just a couple making their way up on skins. The arrival of the new lifts brought mixed emotions. Snow cannons, piste markers and numerous piste users replaced the serenity of the area but whilst the negative aspects of this development were clear, the boost to the local area and the joy (yes genuine) at seeing others on the slopes to appreciate the superb terrain and views outweighed all other aspects for me. What must the locals of St Anton be currently thinking? For years the Rendl side of the St Anton ski region was underused and remained a locals’ hangout. For obvious reasons the lift company has invested heavily to increase the convenience and capacity of the lift accessing the Rendl ski region. Mixed emotions for sure with more competition for the famed Rendl powder routes. But St Anton locals, whatever they do are reliant on visitors and to make the visitor experience better can only benefit them and their standard of livings. And remember, at one point in time a lift didn’t exist, what would the previous users of the Rendl have thought when the lift pylons went up for the first time?
June 3rd, 2009 by mat
rendlbahn built 1974 and with a very 80s logo - image © ineedsnow.com
Built in 1974 the Rendlbahn, St Anton am Arlberg has come to the end of its life and is being replaced by a new system that connects from the heart of St Anton. For 35 years the Rendlbahn has carried skiers and snowboarders to some of the best powder fields in the St Anton ski area. And whilst the iconic yellow cabins have formed a part of St Anton scenery over the decades the time has come to replace the lift.
Valley station 1312m
Top station 2030m
Vertical rise 718m
Route distance 2440m
Max capacity 1300 Persons/hour
Time 12 minutes
Vitally the capacity, speed and age have not kept up with the rest of the St Anton ski region, whilst the most impressive aspect of the new development is the location of the valley lift station of the Rendlbahn that will occupy what is currently the bus terminal in the centre of St Anton. Just as with the relocation of the St Anton train station from the centre of the resort to a location across the river, so the centre of St Anton is going to be shaken up with bus terminal being buried underground and the main lifts hubs of the Galzigbahn and Rendlbahn leaving from the centre of the resort. Work is due to start in June 2009 and should be completed for the start of the 2009/2010 winter.
May 23rd, 2009 by mat
With a top height of 3250m the Hintertux Glacier is still offering great skiing conditions with blue skies and plenty of snow today. I spent much of the day capturing images and film in the terrain park as well as chasing a ski ballerina – I thought this discipline was long extinct but there he was, a guy in his 60s, resplendent in his one piece suit and glacier glasses performing some staggering tricks on skis. I will edit the video from today as soon as possible and see if I captured any of his moves on film.
There was a great display of freestyle skiing and snowboarding today on the Hintertux Glacier.
Big air Hintertux style – image © ineedsnow.com
The top station of the Hintertux Glacier is located at 3250m ensuring great snow conditions into early summer and from autumn onwards. The Hintertux Glacier actually offers skiing throughout the year.
The Hintertux Glacier top lift station – image © ineedsnow.com
And the viewing platform above the lift station – image © ineedsnow.com
I managed to ride with Matt from the USA again today before he heads over to Vienna and then back to the mid west.
Air Matt – image © ineedsnow.com
May 21st, 2009 by mat
Warm weather across the Tirol the last few days produced soft snow on the Stubai Glacier today and whilst the skiing was heavy later in the day, the snow pack up there is still something to behold – over 3m with May drawing to a close. Morning skiing on the glacier is superb with Firn snow offering effortless carving. Following overnight freezing the surface of the glacier is often hard and icy for the first couple of runs and then as the surface melts a wonderful melted depth of granular snow develops. Today I made a few turns with a blogger from Minneapolis, USA – Matt flew into Vienna last night and was on the snow this morning – highly committed! And for those who form stereotypes get this – I, the European had Ribs and chips for lunch and no beer, Matt from the USA took a salad and a beer.
Protective thermal / reflective blankets shield the south facing areas of the Stubai Glacier during the summer months – image © ineedsnow.com
The Stubai Glacier offers year round skiing and snowboarding one of the few places in the Alps to offer this. Remedial work was ongoing this week to protect some of the more exposed and higher areas of the Stubai Glacier from melting due to strong sun and warmer temperatures. The glacier deploys reflective thermal blankets at the upper reaches of the glacier, particularly on the south facing areas in order to preserve a thickness of the glacier that will over time feed the lower areas of the glacier. The north facing side of the Stubai Glacier that comprises the biggest ski area on the Stubai Glacier is open all summer down to the Eisgrat lift station. One thing I would be confident of, there will be one or two more powder days on the Stubai Glacier before mid summer sets in, there always is.
April 28th, 2009 by mat
Like the early days of Hewlett-Packard - image © ineedsnow.com
Many of the lifts are now closed over here in Innsbruck although there are a few ski regions that are still open including Ischgl which will be hosting a Kylie concert at the start of May. The glaciers over here are in absolutely superb shape. We had clients recently at the Stubai Glacier and they described the conditions as the best they had ever experienced. For me it is a short break between the end of the season, some glacier skiing and the start of planning for the coming winter. Plans that are currently a bit on hold as I await the arrival of my first child – currently 6 days overdue. The current names in the hat are Franz Bode Brown for a boy and Renate Brown for a girl. During the wait I am designing some new camera accessories that I intend to utilise in the filming of the ski areas over the next year. There are some great online resources that I am currently modifying to fits our needs, I am really hoping for some great results from the new gear.
April 20th, 2009 by mat
There have been rumblings of disquiet regarding the look back at some of the images from the 08 / 09 winter. More precisely the blog entries have been compared to a re-run of MASH in terms of allure. Apologies for that, although I would quote the wordsmith Pat Butcher in this case “bit ‘arsh innit?” Ever one to keep the blog readers happy I will draw this theme to a close with three images that I think are worthy of a show. One I took and the other 2 were the work of a skiing obsessed Swede. I have to confess that he has the beating of my image in my opinion but I will let all you MASH fans be the final judge of that.
Ok, firstly the images taken by Petteri Koste. I was at Axamer Lizum, Innsbruck the same day as Petteri but whilst he took a series of shots that I rate as some of the very best I have seen, I moved between a plate of spare ribs and a few powder routes. You can find more of these at Petteris’ youtube channel.
© www.snurt.se
…and another great shot from a great day…
© www.snurt.se
…..and one last one of mine, from a few weeks ago in Stuben (so no “already seen that” complaints please)
I did those 
– image © ineedsnow.com
April 19th, 2009 by mat
For anyone else ruing the end of another winter season there is some solace – autumn glacier skiing. Why wait until Christmas to start skiing again – this picture was taken on the 5th October 2008, with great powder skiing on offer after several days of snow. The crowds were really absent as well making for a really sensational day of powder at the Stubai Glacier.
Powder the first week in October – image © ineedsnow.com
April 18th, 2009 by mat
Finkenberg, December 08 looking pretty special. This was a mighty cold day in a very cold winter and the Zillertal was completely dumped on. The lifts were still closed as it was November but there were ski tourers up in the mountains who had sensational skiing.
Mayrhofen, just down the valley also had great conditions.
Deep December snow, Finkenberg – image © ineedsnow.com
April 16th, 2009 by mat
I had skied the Ski Welt Wilder Kaiser in all kinds of weather but this was about as good as it gets – the very end of February, I had just skied over to Westendorf and back and by the time I got back over to Brixen the mist and clouds have fully lifted to produce this. A random farmers hut just next to the Brixen piste – this is one of my favourite images of the 08 / 09 winter.
Huge snow pack in Brixen, 28th feb 09 – image © ineedsnow.com
April 15th, 2009 by mat
Whilst the rest of the Alps were in Autumnal mood, these hard core boarders were walking for their turns in Gerlos, a resort in the Zillertal Arena. I was their to shoot some images of the resorts of the Zillertal Arena and saw these guys waste deep in snow trudging up the back of a dam. I am not sure of the legality of it all but the turns they had were well worth any repercussions – awesome conditions!
Lift-off, Gerlos - image © ineedsnow.com
April 14th, 2009 by mat
So as the season winds down (unless you are thinking of taking advantage of some of the outstanding glacier skiing that is on offer or plan to ski tour into any of the medium high ski areas that will be great for another month or so) then I thought about a ski photo series to accompany the closing lifts would be worth doing. First up then is a picture courtesy of Finbar over in Donegal, Ireland who had a near miss with an avalanche. This crossed moments before his group were set to ski this section of the piste. An avalanche team were on the scene in seconds with a rescue dog bounding down the piste but luckily nobody was caught.
View from inside the rescue pisten bully – image © Finbar / ineedsnow.com
Remember that all the glacier ski areas will be open long into what we think is the summer, the Arlberg and Ischgl will stay open until the end of April / start of May. Even of you miss the end of the season, the glacier skiing in the Tirol starts in October – I managed to get some great powder skiing under my belt on the 5th October last year. Endless winter – almost!
April 13th, 2009 by mat
I have to admit that spring skiing is not for me – I miss the short days and biting cold of the glaciers in November and December. That said (and not for the first time) I am widely ostracised when I air my views on Spring skiing. And if it weren’t for the dread that I feel each spring, imaging our mid winter climate in the Alps in the not too distant future then I would celebrate the great aspects of spring skiing more – the firn snow skiing that I have to accept is next in the pecking order after powder, the days with mates on sunny mountain hut terraces and the stunning views across endless ranges.
But this year where did the spring skiing go in the Alps – it went from winter to summer skiing? Here in the Tirol I was skiing powder on the 1st April in Stuben and since then it has been close to 20c each day and perfect sunshine here in Innsbruck. The snow pack has assured that patches in the ski areas around Innsbruck are almost entirely absent whilst the glaciers will offer sensational skiing and snowboarding for very many weeks – just pack the sun block !
The Skigloo – check google earth to see it still standing in August – image © ineedsnow.com
One casualty of the warmer temperature has been the Skigloo – still standing and sure to be seen the next time a google commissioned satellite maps the area this summer but starting to take the brunt of the warmer conditions. Not sure if it will be ready to host another bash before the lifts at Axamer Lizum stop running next Sunday but if not, then it has been fun. Time out of the office digging, a back injury, hospital bills, some large entertainment expenses landing on a desk at HMRC and some fairly challenging mornings can all be ascribed to the Skigloo. Was it worth it? Yes!
April 10th, 2009 by mat
My run home, luckily after the avalanche and not during – image © ineedsnow.com
Plenty of wind, sun and snow in Innsbruck today with great spring skiing conditions. Although the avalanche danger is low at present there have been many slides over the last week or so and several of the connecting pistes have been dissected by avalanches especially between Axamer Lizum and Mutters / Gotzens, high above Innsbruck. For those who enjoy spring conditions then the snow pack is sensational at present and the high pressure pretty sustained here in Innsbruck. For the coming month or so then the glacier skiing around Tirol is very likely to be outstanding. I will be spending much of my time dealing with maternity wards – very exciting if also terrifying.
April 4th, 2009 by mat
The ski holiday resorts of St Anton, St Christoph, Stuben, Zurs and Lech go to make up the Arlberg ski region. Individually the ski holiday resorts generally offer excellent quality and variety and access famous ski areas. Collectively the resorts of the Arlberg could be reasonably rated as producing one of the best ski regions in the world but how does it compare with The 3 Valleys or Les 4 Vallees? Having skied extensively across the Alps (and beyond) I rate the Arlberg as generally the best ski region in Europe.
Stuben powder – image © ineedsnow.com
Snow – let’s start with something that goes beyond the subjective, snow fall histories. Zurs am Arlberg is rated as having the second highest snow fall accumulation of any ski region in the Alps, only beaten by the Bregenzerwald ski area of Warth-Schrocken located just in the next valley. Statistics are banded around for Stuben claiming it has the 3rd highest snow accumulation of any resort in the Alps – for anyone visiting between December and April any year they are almost certain to see near unbelievable snow depths around the village. The same can be said for Lech and St Christoph whilst the Valluga peak above St Anton ensures that the ski area is often deep in snow.
Lech am Arlberg & Arlberg gets snow – image © ineedsnow.com
Resorts – St Anton is a true alpinists resort with hard core riders and hard core après skiers, St Christoph is stylish and upmarket, Stuben is really atmospheric, Zurs is ski-in, ski-out, whilst Lech has style, fine hotels and real refinement. Amongst the resorts there is almost something for everyone
Zurs am Arlberg ski-in, ski-out luxury - image © ineedsnow.com
Ski terrain – St Anton steeps, Lech – Zurs and St Christoph intermediate cruisers or Stuben off-piste. The variety of skiing in the Arlberg is absolutely superb and really covers the entire spectrum of abilities, not all comparably sized ski regions can boast that.
St Anton steeps – image © ineedsnow.com
OK, the downsides……
Costs – the Arlberg can be more expensive than many other Austrian ski regions. That said I skied in Courchevel 1850 last year and saw lunchtime menus in mountain huts that featured dishes at over €100 and bottles of wine for €9000. We had a client contact us recently saying they bought 2 glasses of orange juice (200ml and not freshly squeezed) in 1850 for €32 – nicht gut!
Crowds – popularity leads to crowds and whilst Meribel pistes (in The 3 Valleys) can seem like Liverpool Street at 17:30, the Arlberg does have some issues with crowded pistes just above St Anton and traffic on the Lech roads. To get away from either head to Stuben.
Glacier skiing – one thing that the Arlberg does not have is glacier skiing and whilst it is not for everyone it does extend the ski season hugely. That said there are Austrian resorts that are 750m higher than Stuben that don’t come close to their snow fall levels.
Generally though I think I have to say that I have yet to find a ski region offering more than the Arlberg. I will keep skiing and looking though – feel free to add your favourite region…..