Ineedsnow ski holidays blog » Tirol

Gearing up for winter 2010/11 with the Tirol snow card

mat — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:19:54 +0000

Covering a total of 81 ski areas, offering a total of 960 ski lifts and boasting over 3100m of Austria’s best skiing and snowboarding the Tirol Snow Card is surely one of the best ski passes available anywhere. With skiing from 1st October10 through to the 15th May11 and including ski areas such as Kitzbuhel, Obergurgl, Stubai Glacier, Hintertux Glacier, Mayrhofen, Gerlos and Soll as some of the 81 covered ski areas, the Tirol Snow Card has some of the big names in Austrian skiing on it. The price is a jaw-dropping 608 Euros and for locals it should be around 450 Euros for over 7 months of unlimited skiing. Life is good in Tirol.

The Arlberg – the best ski holiday region in the Alps?

mat — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:02:23 +0000

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…..

Christmas looks outstanding for visitors to the Tirol

mat — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:41:53 +0000

And you could really extend that to almost all alpine regions in Europe, the early winter 08/09 has been quite outstanding. Here around Innsbruck the early glacier skiing was incredible, with powder skiing as early as 5^th October on the Stubai Glacier. The Pitztal Glacier also had great powder conditions but one thing was notable – the local mountains had very little snow until November, then we had a week or so of low clouds and snow across all the mountains. Since then we have had almost continual cold and periods of snow. Last week saw the arrival of the Foehn wind, with warm temperatures and ionised air from Italy. Whilst temperatures meant that snow melted in lower resorts, the snow on the mountains compacted and as usual, the Foehn broke to release snow over the Austrian Alps. Snow is forecast for the entire weekend around Innsbruck and whilst the visibility might be poor in the mountains, those visiting over Christmas will be treated to outstanding snow conditions. Off to a very local resort tomorrow, Gotzens, my home village for the resort opening and a ‘Big Air Bag’ show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct1MNKgigUE

The latest from weather man flo from Nordpark / Seegrube, Innsbruck – serious steeps and the hangout for the locals of the north of the city.

Latest – cold but incredible skiing in the Tirol

mat — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:22:49 +0000

So the cold weather continued but clear blue skies that not been predicted in the Tirol arrived to offer really outstanding conditions. I was in the Zillertal and spent some time capturing shots of a group of snowboarders who were riding perfect powder down the back of the Durlassoden Dam, between the resorts of Gerlos and Konigsleiten. The resorts were closed but these guys as well as a number of ski tourers had incredible conditions.

They had to walk for their turns but it was a great and untracked backside of the dam

All the glaciers were open as was Obergurgl where my brother-in-law went. He reports outstanding conditions, but also very cold. Not too many people either.