 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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La Plagne
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Solden would fit the bill. Big nightlife, high (lots of glaciated terrain so snowsure) and a decent size ski area. Also it's close to Innsbruck so short transfers are possible.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Sorry to be a bore but Ischgl.
And also Serfaus as cathy recommended.
Obertauern and Obergurgl are both high and snowsure but not massive ski areas. Obertauern is reasonable though and has good nightlife.
D
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End of March looking for Apres and a large area I would head for the Arlberg or Ischgl.
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Arlberg (St Anton), Ischgl or Sölden meet all of your specified criteria barthez1980
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| Quote: |
End of March looking for Apres and a large area I would head for the Arlberg or Ischgl
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second that. Not been to Serfaus but my impression was it's more family orientated. St Anton and Ischgl will be hard to beat on the apres (my preference is St Anton but many others prefer Ischgl). Skiing easeir in Ischgl than in St Anton itself. St Anton's snow record better than Ischgl
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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obergurgl
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I suppose Ski Amade and Ski Welt are too low altitude for end of March.
St Anton (Arlberg), Ischgl, Solden/Obergurl and even Serfaus should be safer.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Ischgl, St Anton or Mayrhofen
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Ski Amade is IMO fine in late March if you have a bit of flexibility about where exactly you ski. When we do Amade holidays, we tend to have a car and travel to different resorts every day. If you're going to be in one resort the whole week with no transport then it might be a bit more of a risk (although you could of course get tons of new snow, you can never tell). There are of course buses as well.
D
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You know it makes sense.
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Actually from experience Austria has the best snow in the Alps. The runs to the bottom stations may not be covered fully but in general above first station there is seldom anything wrong everywhere. This may be due to the way their resorts are arranged.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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barthez1980, I think you'll find that Sölden provides you with all those things, plus a day trying out Obergurgl as well. Obergurgl is possibly too quiet at that time of year for real party animals! Hintertux (end of the Zillertal) and the Stubaital (Neustift) are also pretty safe bets but I'm not so sure about the après scenes in those areas.
Ski Amadé, Schladming and its area, plus the Kitzbüheler Alpen and the Zillertal will all provide good skiing as well, but the base stations are relatively low and it may not be possible to ski back to the bottom of the resort in late March. The photos that Alex posted were taken at the beginning of March and although the conditions were perfect at the top, it was pretty heavy going in the afternoon on the home runs.
Isn't it about time we put this "Austria is low, France is high" myth to bed for once and for all? The permanent snowline drops the further you get away from any moderating influences of the warm ocean currents. France has a predominately temperate maritime climate; i.e. it is affected by the Atlantic Ocean. Austria has a Temperate Continental climate, i.e. its position in the centre of a large land mass means it has a more stable but extreme climate. The further east you go from the Atlantic (warm ocean in the north-west part due to the Gulf Stream), the colder it becomes and the lower the permanent snowline. I know that this is a rather simplistic explanation, but I don't want to have to haul out all my teaching notes for the meteorology and climatology courses I have taught over the past few decades!
Accept that in Western Europe, if you want to ski late in the season in France, you have to go very high in an average season. If you want to ski in Austria it helps to be high, but you do not have to go as high as you do in France.
Simples! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Also Kaertnen (south Austria) enjoys some of the best snow in the Alps due to it being central Europe (cooler) but close to the adriatic. The southern Austrian alps are the first major range to catch the weather moving north. Hermagor / Nassfeld has an amazing snow record. (oh, and my family all live down that was in BKK and St Ozwald, I love it).
PSG
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Agree with saikee and Samerberg Sue, especially re what constitutes low and high being very different from east to west. Re resort design, yes most resorts have the bulk of the skiing above the mid-station where there is rarely a problem with snow. I'm fine with downloading the bottom bit on late season trips and sitting outside a bar at the bottom in 20 degrees with T-shirt sleeves.
gilleski, I used to live in Kaernten and skied Nassfeld and Heiligenblut as well as Bad Gastein in mid-April with no real issues (apart from the first weekend in May, skiing Heiligenblut in about a metre of fresh snow, a bit of a white-out and the piste markers being removed throughout the day as it was the last day of opening! Cue two very lost and fairly novice skiers!).
I had originally mentioned Ischgl as a good combo of nightlife and snow and large extent, and I still stand by that in the main. Lower resorts are quieter later on, even when there is plenty of snow - they usually close from lack of punters rather than lack of white stuff.
D
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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thanks guys, solden is sold to me...i've been looking through to's, but none seem to come up with solden as a resort to go to....can anybody help me further?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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barthez1980, Neilson and Crystal both go there, and some of the other majors as well IIRC.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Samerberg Sue wrote: |
Ski Amadé, Schladming and its area, plus the Kitzbüheler Alpen and the Zillertal will all provide good skiing as well, but the base stations are relatively low and it may not be possible to ski back to the bottom of the resort in late March. The photos that Alex posted were taken at the beginning of March and although the conditions were perfect at the top, it was pretty heavy going in the afternoon on the home runs.
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The last week of March, not the beginning.
I'm pretty sure those were taken on the Sunday of my trip, which would have been the 21st.
Although I know we were lucky, and conditions can't be guaranteed to be that good then.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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alex_heney, You should know Alex as it was your holiday - I had 9th March stuck in my head for some reason. Unfortunately the pictures are stored on my laptop which is being bloody-minded and not booting correctly!
BTW what are your plans for this coming season?
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Just booked Obertauern for 2nd April, when DIY prices plummet pre-Easter. Been 3 times as late as mid April, when they had the largest dump and deepest snow depths all season and often do in March and April. Considered Solden for all the above reasons, but Jet2 have kindly added Manchester-Salzburg to their destinations after an absence of any budget airlines for 2 years, so the opportunity to return to our fave hotel, with private transfer, and a saving of £500 on the TO prices was too good to miss.
We liked Soll, but it did suffer with early spring conditions in 1st week of March, no snow on lower slopes, upper runs very icy/hard first thing, then slush in afternoons. So won’t go that low again, but it was snowing as we left so you can just never tell!
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| Samerberg Sue wrote: |
alex_heney, You should know Alex as it was your holiday - I had 9th March stuck in my head for some reason. Unfortunately the pictures are stored on my laptop which is being bloody-minded and not booting correctly!
BTW what are your plans for this coming season? |
I never make plans this early 
Seriously, I don't expect to book anything before November, and when I do it will be whatever is available at a reasonable price that I fancy - which certainly means probably Austria, probably in January.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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as you are planning to go fairly late in the season, altitude is not too much of an issue, as the snow tends to gradually build up week on week... which opens the doors to loads of the lower Austrian resorts, some of which can be quite inexpensice such as Mayerhoffen and Niederau.
I usually go to Austria mid Jan, and at that time the snow is only guaranteed at the higher resorts such as Obergurgl, where I have been several times. The night life in Obergurgl is pretty limited though. Solden is fairly high and has a lot of nightlife, Saalbach is high also and good nightlife, even a couple of strip bars... expensive though ! Never been to St Anton, but it's very poplular, it's a high resort, a good sized town with lots of nightlife.
Again, at that time of year, altitude is less of an issue, so consider the lower resorts... take a look at WTSS.co.uk... I bought the book quite a few years ago and it's been a great source of information about ski resorts... and it's all free online now.
I've skiid for about 15 consecutive years and never lost a days skiing due to bad snow conditions... the assurity of good snow has cost me though, as the higher resorts are always more expensive than the lower ones.
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JonnyRocket,
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| I usually go to Austria mid Jan, and at that time the snow is only guaranteed at the higher resorts such as Obergurgl, where I have been several times. |
What a load of Bovine Faecal material! I'm sorry but that is just plain rubbish. I've been skiing for over well over 40 years and there has always been an element of luck in predicting when the snow will come or not. When I started skiing resorts opened in November and closed before the end of March, sometimes earlier as there were not the masses of punters there are now. In the past 20 years it seems that the best snow dumps come in March and April and resorts without glaciers can stay open until the beginning of May. However, these past few seasons we have been shovelling snow in order to get out of our house earlier and earlier in the year - last year it was on our Bank Holiday weekend, 3rd October FFS! But then it melted and we did not have to shovel much until the end of December. Oh and by the way my village is only at a very lowly 700 to 800m.
In 2005/2006 we started our daily "Winter fitness training" on 28th November and had to continue on a daily basis until the end of April, with deep snow still lying on the alms well into May. You cannot predict the year on year arrival or depth of snow cover, some years it will be good, some years it will be bad but late March, based on historical data is becoming a more main stream period than it was earlier and all the major ski resorts will probably still have plenty of cover. More than that we cannot say. Skiing in March is a real pleasure after freezing your proverbials off in January - long days, clear skies and sunshine during the day and snow falling at night, if you are really lucky. Often this is accompanied by empty pistes as the mainland Europeans start to think beach holidays as soon as the sun starts to shine! Flangesax and I had great powder in Zauchensee in late April this year - just a pity I took sick during the day and messed up!
I've been skiing in your so-called "low altitude resorts" in November and December for aeons. It is not the height that is critical so much as the passage of the precipitation bearing air currents and temperatures. And it is a well known meteorological fact called Continentality that contributes to lower temperatures in central areas of large land masses.
According to your criteria, Schladming is lying when it opens in November then? It is consistently one of the first non-glacier resorts to open each season. The cold temperatures combined with the increasingly sophisticated technology of snow making ensure that the bases are much more durable than they used to be. The mixing of natural and man-made snow builds far more stable and deeper piste bases than used to be available and that goes on throughout the season to ensure that the summer alm grasses are protected as well as to give safe skiing for punters.
Skiing for 15 years means you have a minimum of 15 weeks experience (you may ski for more than one week a season), but sorry, that is not a very long period of time! You have excluded many excellent resorts from your choices a a result of your blinkered thinking.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Used to ski St Anton every year around the 3rd / 4th week in Jan. Once it was raining up to around 1800m another time it wasn't possible to ski as there was too much snow (avalanche warning 4/5).
Serfaus is brilliant for families and high but expensive.
Obergurgl is snow secure (snow isn't guaranteed anywhere) but quite on the Apres Ski side - although this might be a plus for some.
The highest Austrian resorts ......
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Pitztaler Gletscher 3440 metres
Pitztal 3440 metres
Pitztal/Innerpitztal 3440 metres
Zillertal 3280 metres
Finkenberg 3280 metres
Hintertux 3250 metres
Sölden 3250 metres
Fulpmes 3200 metres
Innsbruck 3200 metres
Kaunertal 3200 metres
Stubai 3200 metres
Mölltal Gletscher - Flattach 3122 metres
Flattach 3120 metres
Obervellach 3120 metres
Obergurgl-Hochgurgl 3080 metres
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http://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Austria/TopAustrianSkiResorts.html
As others have said height isn't everything e.g. one of the most snow secure resorts in Austria is 900 to 2000m high (Tauplitz). I've heard that St Anton / Zurs sees the most snow in Europe on average although they peak below 3000m.
I follow the snow every season in Austria and sometimes two resorts either side of a mountain peak can have very different snow conditions. Late march should be OK for most resorts above around 1500m but best to be near a glacier just incase the weather isn't ideal.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Thu 2-09-10 10:02; edited 1 time in total
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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JonnyRocket, really not sure I agree with you. Most years there is plenty of snow across most Austrian resorts in January. That said obviously as you say it builds up over the season. I also wouldn't say Saalbach is especially high...
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Saalbach is high also and good nightlife
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Saalbach isn't high, and as many of the slopes are south facing (ie get a lot of sun) late season snow can be quite hit and miss there, and at that time of year the apres dies down considerably. The only time I've been to Ski Welt/Kitzbuhel late season the snow was fine, a bit slushy lower down but in a fun way, and we had a few days worth of fresh new snow too, however it (Westendorf particularly) was like a ghost town, although in quite a nice way, it was just so uber-chilled compared to other times when I've been there in Feb.
If good apres is a deal-breaker, then you're best bet is to head to Ischgl or St Anton, which one you choose depends on what sort of skiing you want?
Samerberg Sue,
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I've been skiing in your so-called "low altitude resorts" in November and December for aeons. It is not the height that is critical so much as the passage of the precipitation bearing air currents and temperatures. And it is a well known meteorological fact called Continentality that contributes to lower temperatures in central areas of large land masses.
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Amen! (but don't tell everyone, they'll steal all the freshies!)
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You know it makes sense.
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| JonnyRocket wrote: |
| as you are planning to go fairly late in the season, altitude is not too much of an issue, as the snow tends to gradually build up week on week... which opens the doors to loads of the lower Austrian resorts, some of which can be quite inexpensice such as Mayerhoffen and Niederau. |
Apart from the comments the others have rightly made, Mayrhofen is NOT "low".
The one and only time I have experienced a serious snow shortage in January was 2007 in Neiderau - when large swathes of the mountains were very short of snow for a few weeks. The Hahnenkhamm race in Kitzbuhel was cancelled due to lack of snow.
But we still skied every day - by being bussed to Kaltenbach - same valley and same height as Mayrhofen, but you come to it first as you travel up the valley. I believe all the Zillertal resorts were pretty well fully open, in spite of the lack of snow in many other places.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Agree alex_heney, Jan 2007 was difficult for lots of resorts, but this sticks out as a complete anomaly to me. I've only been skiing for about 12 years ago when I lived in Austria for a year, but have always had a week or two in early Jan and a week or two mid March, and Dec/Jan 2007 was a complete sore thumb in terms of general snow reliability. Still, we were in low altitude Kitz that year and skied all over, including down to resort, albeit on manmade snow (it was thankfully pretty cold), at Kitz, Skiwelt, etc.
What was also unusual about it was that it was lack of precipitation rather than warm temps that caused the issues, and very few places in the whole of the alps would have called it an epic season start.
We have probably spent 70% of our time in low altitude resorts and rarely had any problems.
D
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Poster: A snowHead
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Skied Mayrhofen 3rd week January 4 out of the last 5 years, never been a shortage of snow (2007 wasn't perfect, but still plenty of skiing to be done). Was in Kaprun for New Year this year, runs fully covered to village (artificial, but it was white and slippy).
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FAQ
. Im looking at booking a trip to Austria at the end of March 2011. Any 
