 Poster: A snowHead
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Many thanks @Langerzug, appreciated. Crest looking favourite from what I can see from my desk. Presume these are all best booked in advance?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Dr John
I have no idea- never been here before and today we didn't even stop for a coffee... 
Looks like other Snowheads have come to the rescue though!
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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.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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@Dr John,
We never book in advance for lunch.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Why stop for Lunch when ApresSki starts at 15:00hrs 
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Local forecast suggests a few colder days, followed by another föhen on the weekend.
Today was pretty ordinary. Wet snow up high, while the precipitation down low was clear Aussie powder (aka rain).
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@stanton, that's usually when we finish lunch. Seamless transition.
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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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I am so lucky, I will be in St Anton again for a few days this year. Doing the Silvretta tour, but as it turns out my airline tix gets me into the arlberg a few days early, so what better place than st anton for a few warm up days. I will be there on Easter weekend, so if anyone is going off piste and wants to share a guide, or just wants to ski around, give me a shout.
Question for you touring experts (I am ridiculously new to this). I have to have my touring equipment and don't plan on bringing my regular alpine boots with me. would you just use your touring equipment at the resort?, or use your touring boots and rent alpine skis? My dynafit boots feel pretty beefy, although I will admit, I have not had the time to really use them in a downhill setting (there is no snow in the northeast USA).
So excited to be coming back to the arlberg. Hope everyone is well on this board.
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@Redwine, You probably won't be able to use your touring boots with regular alpine bindings, so I would just use the full touring set up in resort.
If you have a super light weight touring set up and don't want to use it for regular downhill skiing then you'd need to rent skis and boots but if it were me I'd spend a couple of days getting used to going downhill with the touring gear. There are lots of short tours you can do too (check Andy Thurner's 2nd book for suggestions). If you are on your own and don't want to head off-piste you can skin up beside the piste - a lot of folks do this from Alpe Rauz up to the Ulmerhutte. I don't get it myself, the point of touring for me is to escape the pistes, but it's all good practice with your new set up.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Awesome weeks' skiing in Warth so far, this morning 20cm of new snow at all levels and skied fresh offpiste all day in -5C and bright sunshine. Looking out window early evening it's coming down again. Dipped into Lech on Monday, was super busy and cruddy offpiste, headed back over to Warth pdq for empty pistes. Driving round to St Anton Saturday for next week, conditions fantastic right now and not heard hardly any English spoken around here, if you don't speak German in Warth you go hungry! 😜
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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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Looked a nice fresh covering off pite today, albeit shallow, under blue skies. Noticeably colder today too so the pistes held up much nicer.
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You know it makes sense.
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It slowly is growing into a funny cliché: Since the new connection time and time again people staying in Warth saying that the skiing in Warth is fantastic, and the skiing (etc.) in Lech is awfull.
After two years we still think it is the other way around.
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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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Lovely day today- even got press ganged into going off piste and I hate doing that....
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Langerzug, your opinion. I never said anything wrong with the skiing in Lech just that it was rammed with people with large lift queues at a time when Warth is empty. Mind you it was 11am so maybe the folk were just starting out and hadn't got to lunch yet.
That said if I was to create a list Ski Arlberg ski areas St Anton, Stuben, Zurs, Warth/Schröcken and Lech I know which I least prefer......albeit there's great skiing Lech can be very busy.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Tuesday was all day in bed with some St anton flu couldn't even stand up. Wednesday got out not expecting much taking it easy, managed somehow to time getting out of galzig when valluga just opened and got first valluga gondola up which resulted in some excellent first tracks high up some nice new pow not that deep. Couple of first tracks on backside tbar before next valluga gondola arrived then first tracks down main face from valluga, way better than I was expecting.
Did shindler chair then a few times, shindler face was dusting on top crusty underneath, same at rendl in afternoon.
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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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Snowing top of galzig now.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Am planning on leaving Saturday then coming back 12th March. Am I crazy to be leaving for what could be best dump of season? ?? hmmmm. .. what to do...
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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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@Windskisurf, the weekend forecast looks OK , but it's not promising anything epic for the Arlberg is it? I think the Dolomites might be getting hammered though 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Markymark29,
Lech and Zürs=one community, one skiing area.
And St.Anton is much busier than Lech.
Saying Lech is busy...I reallly think that's nonsense, especially compared to many other major skiresorts in the Alps. I'm really curious where it was you have been queuing, because the only real longer queues are at the Rüfikopfcablecars, and even these are never really bad.
Warth:
short pistes, lots of crossings, difficult connections (getting back from Warth-village to the Auenfeld: so circumstantial!). Large, ugly parkinglots and buildings around the Hochtannbergpass.
Must admit I'm worrying about the new connection next year. Especially the skiing in Zürs might get a los busier, as I'm expecting much more influx from St.Anton compared to 'outflux' from Lech-Zürs to St.Anton.
But the same is being said in reverse by St.Antonians....so maybe we're all just a bit 'ethnocentric', and all will be settled quite evenly....
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Snowing nicely in stuben on chair up
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Good morning. I haven't posted on here for a while, but I'd be grateful for some advice. We'll be in Lech (my favourite resort!) from Saturday for a week. Snow Forecast is predicting 209cm through to next Friday! If it turns out to be half that, great. I'm a 62 year old confident intermediate who skis like a dad and stays on piste. I shall be hiring skis, but with so much snow forecast, I can't imagine piste skis will be very effective. Should I be starting out with All Mountain skis or whatever the hybrid is called?!
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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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@Colin Bell, the great thing about hiring is that you can swap them if conditions change. I'd certainly get something wider than a regular piste ski, but if you are staying on piste all week there's no need to go crazy and get something huge. I give up on the marketing words, I just go by the width of the ski underfoot and advice from teh shop. Personally I ski about 100mm ski on-piste and off-piste, and use a fatter ski if there's deep snow and I'll be off piste most of the day. Skiing on piste on a fatter ski is also fine, but over 100mm I find hard work on hard pack snow.
If you've never skied a fatter ski maybe try something around 90mm waist to start with. To be honest I'd ask in the shop, see what they recommend based on teh conditions at the time, give it a go and don't be afraid to swap during the week. You're on-piste sking won't suffer, but it might take a couple of runs to get used to the idea.
With all that snow are you *sure* you won't be tempted by a little off piste? There are some great ski routes in Lech, or maybe take a guide and explore some of the good stuff 
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Just ask at the ski-rental. Chances you will be getting All mountain anyway by default are likely, as these are fine on piste as well.
But saturday looks to be sunny! And you can change ski's every day!
Enjoy!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks, really helpful. We were in Lech around the same time last year. Loads of snow,cold and high winds. We did Madloch, if that's how it's spelt. But it had been closed for a few days due to avalanche risk and when opened was very busy and there was this very icy and bumpy section halfway down............
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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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| Colin Bell wrote: |
| Snow Forecast is predicting 209cm through to next Friday!! |
wait.. so there's 209cm coming next week?
Snowing nicely in Zurs now.
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| Redwine wrote: |
Question for you touring experts (I am ridiculously new to this). I have to have my touring equipment and don't plan on bringing my regular alpine boots with me. would you just use your touring equipment at the resort?, or use your touring boots and rent alpine skis? My dynafit boots feel pretty beefy, although I will admit, I have not had the time to really use them in a downhill setting (there is no snow in the northeast USA). |
Depends a lot on what your touring set up is(?)!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Colin Bell wrote: |
| I can't imagine piste skis will be very effective. Should I be starting out with All Mountain skis or whatever the hybrid is called?! |
I use 96cm wide twin tips as do it all ski and they literally do it all, deep pow, moguls, piste carving, ice no problem.
Snow falling heavy now in Zurs.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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| Colin Bell wrote: |
| Snow Forecast is predicting 209cm through to next Friday!! |
What SnowForecast says and what happens in reality are barely comparable.
Bergfex, which uses data direct from ZAMG says 26cm up to Tuesday evening. After that it is saying an additional 75-90cm is possible but these are very rough estimates. These are the figures for 2,811m. As I've said before predicting snow depths is almost pointless, you can never know the depth, even if you knew the exact amount of precipitation you still have to account for wind, temp changes, sun, compaction etc etc.
Basically, it looks like a moderate storm coming in Sunday night with a fairly promising looking dump of snow on Monday, Tuesday could certainly be a powder day. After that it might get heavy again Weds/Thurs/Fri. It could be epic, but really it's hard to say and 2m over the week is *very* unlikely. Still, no harm in dreaming, and I'll be bringing the fat ski next week
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Advice please . A group of 6 x families are looking at trying Austria out next years after many years of France , but we know so little about the area . We have to go in half term cos of the kids . I have stayed in St Anton 3 x times before , but the group fancy Lech or Zurs this year as there seems to be a lot for non-skiers to do .
Having trawled through a number of web sites we can’t really find any chalets /apartments that fit right budget . Most 8 person self-catered chalet’s appear to be over €15000 for the Half term week , way more than even Val D’Isere or Courcheval I was working on the basis that Austria might be a little cheaper than the top French resorts . Whilst I would regard ourselves as looking at the higher end of the market , I am amazed at the sky high prices .
Anyway I am rambling so to be specific here are 4 x questions .
1) Does anyone know any good chalet operators / web sites to trawl through that maybe independently owned/run .
2) Is accommodation mainly hotel based , and if so , should I change our search to hotels.
3) Would people recommend St Anton , Lech or indeed Zurs as a base and are they linked by piste /lift ( I vaguely recalled we had to board down to a road catch a bus and finish the journey on the bus )
4) And is there a good web site that shows the ski links , the official web site seems very clunky
Be warned I may have a whole load of other questions if Lech/Zurs still sounds promising.
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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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| gwatts10 wrote: |
| Be warned I may have a whole load of other questions if Lech/Zurs still sounds promising. |
Skiing back to St anton, it seems to have/still is snowing a helluva lot more in zurs/Lech than it is in St anton today.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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| sah wrote: |
| Still, no harm in dreaming, and I'll be bringing the fat ski next week |
When are you coming, for how long?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| gwatts10 wrote: |
Advice please . A group of 6 x families are looking at trying Austria out next years after many years of France , but we know so little about the area . We have to go in half term cos of the kids . I have stayed in St Anton 3 x times before , but the group fancy Lech or Zurs this year as there seems to be a lot for non-skiers to do .
Having trawled through a number of web sites we can’t really find any chalets /apartments that fit right budget . Most 8 person self-catered chalet’s appear to be over €15000 for the Half term week , way more than even Val D’Isere or Courcheval I was working on the basis that Austria might be a little cheaper than the top French resorts . Whilst I would regard ourselves as looking at the higher end of the market , I am amazed at the sky high prices .
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Lech is the most expensive resort in Austria, and you're looking at the most expensive time of the season. I'd have thought that there's more for non-skiers to do in St Anton?
Is there anything in particular that's attracting you to the Arlberg and Lech/Zürs?
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@clarky999, Hi, my current, new and only touring setup is a set of fischer ranger 90s, with fischer classic AT bindings (which my understanding is effectively the exact same thing as the dynafit radical bindings and my boots are the dynafit radical CR. It seems pretty light, maybe not the lightest, but much lighter than my regular downhill setup.
As an aside, and maybe this is better asked of the off-piste group, but what din setting do you use. Have you had success just setting the back DIN at the same number as you do with downhill bindings?
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@stanton, windy? That presumably means the tops of the mountains will be closed?
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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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Been snowing heavily all day in Warth and it's been white-out conditions.... looking like a big day tomorrow.
@Langerzug, Re your question - the busy lift queues Monday late morning in Lech were Kriegerhorn and Steinmähder, huge queues especially at the 8 person Steinmähder. Bit worrying that given the volume of traffic the new Rauz/ Trittkopf is going to generate doing the White Ring, this lift is a major element.
In hindsight....Maybe it had been broken down before we got there, never seen queues ic that size before there.
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@Markymark29,
Thanks
Yes, that's typical. We rarely use Kriegerhorn as it does not give acces to very nice pistes. We prefer the Waldabfahrt from Schlegelkopf towards Oberlech and use the Petersbodenbahn first thing in the morning. Always quiet.
From there Hasensprungbahn (always quiet, close to Auenfeld/Weibermahd topstation!)) gives a better access to Steinmähder.
Regarding Steinmähder: it's an 8 seater with huge capacity. Even the longest queue never takes long. Moreover there is a trick at Steinmähder: people tend to linger at the righthand side of the queue, whilst people coming from the Steinmähder piste (nr 45) , at the other side of the station, have free way.
You can 'legally' pass the queue -coming from Kriegerhorn piste nr 43- at the left side towards the central entrance, making things very easy in general. 
Should the line really be huge, we would go into Zugertobel towards Zug. Not a very interesting piste as such, but such lovely views, including Chamois (Gams in German) at several occasions.
Not sure about crowds this week. This is the half-term holiday for the main part of The Netherlands though (our Royals our currently in Lech). But the Dutch are not a very big part of the Lech-target group, as Dutch tend to prefer to go Dutch and Lech does not cater for going Dutch in general.
But I'm a bit under the impression that Lech has been given an extra boost by the Condé Nast "best skiresort of Europe" award, as it appears that Lech is extremely well booked this year. And yes we are of course very worried about All-Those-People-Coming-From-Warth (not in evidence up till now)
Will find out myself from March 5....
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