st anton in january

A snowHead

just starting to plan the first of my trips for 2011 and am looking at an off piste trip based in st anton, and wondered what folk think about the snow conditions at this time of year, want to get it right this year as went to zermatt last year and the off piste was almost non existent Sad

A snowHead

Depends on the weather & how much early snow falls and stays but in general January is early for Off Piste & can be dangerous.

To little snow your hit serious obstacles (rocks,wells,streams) under a small layer of snow.

You need a good two or three dumps to giving at least 0.5-1metre base.

Off Piste is better later in the season February...>>> when a deep base is guaranteed.

Last season was FAR from a vintage year for Off-Piste in St Anton Sad

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

stanton, I've only been to St Anton once, in Jan 2009, so that's why I'm asking you. How did last season 09/10 compare with the season before 08/09? I take it from your comment that 08/09 was much better?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

stanton, thats what i was afraid of, there is two snoworks course in st anton , both in jan, that i fancy trying but i may look at the one in gressonay in march.
or does anyone have other recommendations for off piste instruction in st anton

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Neilski, I don't know factually, but I think Snoworks have been running those courses in St Anton for quite a few seasons now, they are pretty switched on so I don't think they'd bother running a Backcountry course in a month where it could be iffy for snow if you see what I mean- especially when you consider the nature of the Backcountry course and what it entails as opposed to the regular Off Piste courses.
Although I didn't do the course, I was there the same week as them in Jan 2009 (happened to stay at same accomodation by chance) and there was plenty of snow off piste that week, I know because I was skiing in it, I did a few days with Piste to Powder. I don't know about other years but a fair few Snowheads have done courses with them, someone who has done the Jan St Anton courses might be able to tell you what the conditions were like at the time.

Piste to Powder might be worth you looking at, another British company who are based in St Anton and they seem to get good reviews.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Neilski, here are the average snow depths for St Anton I obtained from the SCGB website (January)

Upper slopes/Lower slopes

Week 1 Jan 185/45
Week 2 Jan 200/48
Week 3 Jan 209/50
Week 4 Jan 231/53

Don't be put off by the low depths on the lower slopes as in Feb, Mar and Apr the figures are 59 66 71 75 67 63 57 54 47 35 28 so 45-55cm is not that much different to the other lower slope figures.

I don't know how accurate the SCGB figures usually are but that should give you a better idea on what you're asking anyway. As I said, I've only been the once in Jan which was brill but someone else might be along who has been on the Snoworks course other years. They might be able to tell you about Gressoney as well as I've not been there.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I cannot predict the weather for this coming season in July!!

If you want to book your trips basing it on off Piste courses in the early season I would say that is just like playing the "weather lotto" however you might get lucky.

On the other hand the company's offering these services also take a big risk like Piste to Powder who spent most of early part of last season on the piste, LOL

I really cant understand why folk want to book up so far in advance other than cost Puzzled

After all it is free

stanton, makes a good point. All things being equal the base won't be that deep by January, some years though are obviously better than others. You might well get some big falls but if they are sitting on top of a not particularly deep base there may well be plenty of rocks and branches waiting to grab you. This will be the case with pretty much everywhere not just St Anton. Still if you are with good guides they should know where the better snow is and which routes are best for the conditions. For what it's worth despite enjoying it throughout most of the season the best and most fun memories I have of off piste in St Anton have been later than January.

Edit: though come to think of it I had a great weekend at the end of Jan last season... wink

I've been to Lech in January for many years and there has always been a good snow base. We were there for the last week in Jan this year and it snowed most days. I wouldn't ever be concerned about the lack of snow. If there isn't snow in the Arlberg, there isn't snow anywhere.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

stanton, but do you remember 2007/2008 season ? knee deep in the first week of December Very Happy

it is just a lottery trying to plan for off piste now though

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

erica2004, off piste thougn ? a bit different to piste skiing

snow reports

I was in St Anton this January on the first of the Snoworks weeks and conditions were pretty good.

It was not a classic off piste week but still very good. We had two full days in powder plus a couple more where our guides and instructors found us more than enough.

I know St Anton quite well and we did a lot of the well known routes for example from the Albona down to Langen and to Restaurant Ferwall in the other direction, Hinter Rendl and over into the next valley down to Kappl, plus various couloirs and gullies in the Valuga area.

Snow cover was good with few rocks and those that know St Anton will know that some of the routes I have mentioned finish low down. We were helped by the fact that temperatures were very low and that in the first week of January the resort was not too busy and therefore the off piste did not get tracked out quickly.

erica2004, agree you often get good snow in January in Arlberg but later in the season will have a much better base off piste. 08th December 2007 fighting through the hang over and suddenly realising how deep it was ... 

You know it makes sense.

richjp, how was the course as a whole, did the instruction/guiding format work well, i have only done one short weekend with them and was most impressed.

i will probably look at the later of the two weeks so as to have a better chance of good cover, but think i will stick to st anton as i have never been before and have heard such great things about the place Razz

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Neilski,

Yes the format worked very well, although I have to say that I have been using Snoworks for several years now and have always been impressed by them.

There were five days of instruction and guiding, with the first day split between a guide and an instructor. There were then alternate full days with either a guide or an instructor, which gave them scope to go further afield if required and we did get over to Lech and Zurs as part of that. On the instruction days we also spent as much time off piste as possible.

St Anton used to be my favourite however this season was my first visit for several years. I would say that it is one of those resorts that any keen skier should try at least once.

I believe this year the snow was better in the first week, but that could just be down to good luck.

A snowHead

A snowHead

rayscoops, I wasn't aware that snow only fell on the pistes. Toofy Grin

There was plenty off piste in Stuben and Lech.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

erica2004, well it falls every where but the piste fairies seem to pile it up nicely more so in some places than others, and those pesky crevasses and rivers seem to need a bit more than the nice green pastures Little Angel

clarky999, it was awesome !

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Help!!

st anton in january

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste