Trip Report - Mayrhofen 5th - 12th March

A snowHead

@drporat, I think you will find that there isn't a train station in Konigsleiten.

A snowHead

Lucky enough to have been in Kaltenbach for a few weeks January/February - we loved the skiing and the huts. A few favourites - for coffee the Wedelhutte or Die Kasehutte, they both have fantastic views and lovely terraces, for lunch I’d recommend the Kaltenbacher Skihutte - under the Neuhuttenbahn. Have a great day

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

If you don’t fancy the upload queues at the Penken, get the (free) bus on routes C or D to the Horbergbahn and go up from there.

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Thanks for all the suggestions so far everyone! Just about to load up to head to Kaltenbach. It’s going to be another sunny, warm day. Touching 10 degrees in the valley.

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Thanks for sharing. Especially as we are heading out 10th April and flying same route.

Glad you are having a great time

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Sitting with a hot chocolate, topping up the goggle tan at the 8er above Hochfügen.

Pistes are good. As you’d expect, some soft stuff around due to temp/sun. Steeper pitches getting scraped away leaving the hard pack underneath so you need to have your wits about you.

Still very enjoyable though.

Will head back over towards the Kaltenbach side for the afternoon and find a nice spot for lunch.

After all it is free

We went to Hintertux today
Caught the free green line bus from the town centre ,
Well worth a visit

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Yes, we have spent many full days there especially when fully open, after exploring all the runs at the top, then you can work your way down to the mid mountain area and then try a couple of full top to bottom circuits.

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Over on the back side of the glacier on red 5, there is sometimes (snow dependant) a crevasse visible just off to the left hand side of the run, its worth a look, if "open".

You know it makes sense.

Got to Hintertux nice and early. Just as the lifts opened at 815.
Took the 3 bubbles up and had some lovely runs up top. Getting freshly groomed runs up until about 11. It was lovely. Had pretty much skied all of it by 2ish so had a beer stop and came home via the red down. Was good fun.Then headed back to Mayrhofen to chuck the stuff in the locker and enjoy a few beers in the sun. Rest the legs a bit as we have covered a fair bit of ground the last 5 days.

Currently sitting in the sun at the Edelwiess Lounge thinking among eating here, the Berg and Tal or El Toro…

Plan is tomorrow to get up early and hit it hard from the first lift. Ski till 2ish. Then find a terrace, drink and eat till it’s time to come home.

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

Morning all.

Last day. Looking to be another sunny, warm one. About to head up the Penkenbahn and will probably aim for Rastkogel.

Anyone have any experience of what the traffic can be like heading back to Munich on a Saturday morning?
I was planning on giving it 3 hours, leaving here at just before 6am.

A snowHead

@Fridge03, at 6am probably ok. The traffic in the valley really builds up and it can take an hour to get out onto the motorway. Around Munich it will be busy. We have nearly missed flights several times. However I am normally airing for late afternoon flights and not leaving as early as you are.

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@Fridge03, this is what we did last week on the advice of the hotel's staff. They mentioned that taxi drivers always ask to leave 3 hrs before.
Left at 6 AM and every exit of a tunnel showed us a lighter sky. Easy driving, arrived at 08 and a small change.
Diesel fuel was cheaper in Austria.
Be advised, we reached Munich's airport without driving by any petrol station and wasted quite a few minutes navigating the precincts to the closest one. Still we had enough time for the bakery near the rental cars lease

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

There is a petrol station right before the terminal but you have to turn off the highway. It’s on a side road.

Nordallee 45, 85356 München-Flughafen, Germany

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@Matrix, that's the one we went to but only after reaching the airport. Now I saved it on Google maps as future destination for next winter, many thanks.

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This is the petrol station we used , not sure if its any cheaper as off-site ??
Still only 2-3 minutes to the airport

https://goo.gl/maps/sC3JDF5xmSiwz2oW9

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It's probably not, like all on site stations.
But I always fuel on my way and only use it to fill the last drops before returning the car

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Thanks for the tips all regarding fuel and timings.

Great last day. Got up early and headed over to Rastkogel. Pistes were lovely and still skiing corduroy until mid morning in some spots.
Headed down the 75 and stopped at the Waldhutte. Just basking in the sun. Lovely.

Had a quick run on Eggalm and then back across. Midday saw the pistes start to really soften up in the sun.
After hitting a few more runs down the Horberg we headed over to the Almstüberl for a late lunch at about 2pm. As you can imagine, it was packed. But we really love the spot there.

After that it was about 3:30pm so we decided to call it a week. Pistes were getting slushy, we were tired and decided to beat the mass down the Penken. Dropped off the skis to Rent For Fun and has a beer in the last remaining bit of sun at the Edelweiss.

One thing I did notice today was that there were a lot of numpties about. People who didn’t care about others eg, come flying into the turnstiles at the lifts thur barging others out the way or just some reckless skiing, especially at the crossing points of pistes. Not seen anything like that this week. Maybe it was the sun….

Did I mention…it was warm. Really warm. By lunch time I was skiing with the jacket zipped half way down, just my thin glove liners on and all my vents open on by gear. With no snow on the horizon for the foreseeable and with these temperatures, they’ll be really earning their corn to keep the pistes in as good as condition as they have been.

Will post my overall thoughts when home but overall, loved the first trip to Zillertal.

After all it is free

Really loved reading this trip report!

We are heading out to Mayrhofen on the 26th. It's probably my favourite place to go, loads of brilliant memories!

Have never gone so late in season. Your reports of it getting warm and slushy the last couple of days have me a little scared and as you said, no snow forecast on the horizon right now. Going to start doing the snow dance from today snowHead

Definitely going to get a good day at Zell Am Ziller. It's such a stunning place to ski.

We are also out there at the same time and are not too worried about the snow. We've been out there at the end of March, start of April for more than 20 years and only once or twice have not had powder days and clear blue sunny skies. You do have to expect hot afternoons and all that comes with that too, sunbathing and a bit of slush on occasion.....

Here are some late season pics from the last 20 years to give an idea of typical conditions.

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=92512&highlight=easter

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@random_banter, it's the best time of year to ski. The snow is great. there almost always a top up of snow to freshen it up and you're guaranteed corn and slushy bumps.

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How is usually in mid-December?
I am searching for a Tignes alternative for that period

We will be there end of March too. I love the sun and corn combo. My favourite snow. Smile

You know it makes sense.

@drporat, it’s usually fine as they have good snow making and will be very quiet. Normally have 80-90% of pistes open with just a few areas like Katzenmoos lift that won’t be open. The other resorts will also be open so loads of skiing.

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

@drporat,

Typical mid December conditions here. 14th Dec 2006.

http://youtube.com/v/EgiH1daNgHU

A snowHead

@JimboS, amazing to see all the old infrastructure. They have spent a fortune in that area of the Penken!

A snowHead

@JimboS, @Matrix,
Many thanks. Will definitely book for this December.
Sole problem with Dec.2006 is that the global warming has gradually become more and more serious in the last years.

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Hi all

Firstly can I say, thanks for all the tips, comments and recommendations! Hopefully, this thread has/will also help others planning similar trips!

Straight back to work yesterday so only just getting around to putting together my final thoughts on things!

Airports + flights
Flew from Heathrow T2. Maybe it was the time of morning (about 4am) but we breezed through check-in, bag drop and security in about 30 mins. Weirdly, the self-service terminals were off so even though we had checked in online and had our boarding passes already, we still had to queue for a manned desk. Lufthansa (at Heathrow anyway) were very efficient. Flight left bang on time, with a free bottle of water and chocolate bar for us peasants in economy.
First time at Munich airport. Was lovely. Clean, efficient even though it was busy. Was about 20 mins to get through passport control and our bags were waiting for us on the reclaim.
Flying back was much the same apart from Lufthansa physically checking all travel documents, regardless of if you had checked in online and uploaded required certs etc. This did cause a delay of about 30 mins.

Car Hire + transfer
Booked direct with Enterprise as I get a discount using my blue light card. Have used them many times before and find them always to be very good (along with Europcar). Not pushy to take any extra cover (I always get an independent one anyway prior to travel). Was a bit odd when they asked me if I wanted snow chains, when I had already paid for them (not that they were needed, but better safe than sorry). Got a lovely, almost brand new Hyundai Kona with many bells and whistles on it. The drive to Mayrhofen took about 3 hours in the end. There was a lot of traffic on the A8. Picked up a Vignette just before the border. Really easy drive in all honesty.
Return was even easier. Left at 6am. No traffic at all. Found a petrol station about 2 miles from the airport. All good and deposit returning the same day.

Accommodation
Found the Apartments Sonnenschein straight from the Mayrhofen resort website. Glad I did because they were lovely. Immpecably clean and Annemarie was a lovely host. The room was warm, spacious and a king size, very comfy bed. The kitchenette had everything needed to self cater and the bathroom was modern. The shower was powerful with plenty of hot water. There was a sauna and steam which I didn't use but did have a look round. I would have been impressed if I found such good facilities at an actual spa, so for a guesthouse....was blown away.
Free parking on site with spacious boot and ski storage. Location wise (for those that know Mayrhofen) it was by the helipad. This was about a 10 minute walk into town everyday. For us, this was no problem but just something for others to consider. The only very minor slight gripe was that if you had the windows open, you could hear the busy main road through the valley. But with the windows shut...not a peep.

Ski hire
I'd read a few interesting comments about Ian at Rent For Fun. He certainly is very knowledgeable, with very competitive prices for gear. I don't think customer interaction is he strong point. Maybe a little harsh but it was all good. And location wise, its hard to beat. Just opposite the Penkenbahn.

The town
Obviously, the town has a bit of a "party" reputation. However, even at the busy times by the ice bar etc it wasn't unpleasant. And the week we were there was the first week after restrictions were lifted so they were going for it hard! Could only imagine the carnage in the UK in a similar situation.
Once you got a little bit away from Penkenbahn, it quietened down and we found ourselves sitting outside under heaters most evenings enjoy a relaxed drink before heading back to the digs. Personally, I wouldn't say it's the most "picturesque" mountain village I've ever seen but it wasn't unpleasant and certainly much nicer than the purpose built resorts of France. It's surroundings were stunning though with snow capped peaks at all angles. That does mean though that you lose the sun quite early, so those temperatures do drop in the shade!

The skiing
Finally, the most important bit. We knew that they had a good base of snow throughout the Zillertal valley on the pistes. Considering the lack of fresh stuff, the pistes were in brilliant shape especially early on. Some of the lower runs (specifically over at Eggalm and the runs home at Zell/Kaltenbach) were suffering though with shades of brown starting to show through. I'd be surprised if they remain open much longer if the temperatures remain warm and with no new snow. Talking of the weather...wow. I've never had 6 consecutive days skiing with wall to wall blue skies. Seriously, not a cloud in the sky all week. It started cold but by Friday it was very spring like. As you can imagine, the terraces were packed and I'm not gonna lie...after the winter we've had it was some much needed tonic.

I really enjoyed the skiing around Mayrhofen. The runs were lovely. My only gripe....often they were too short lived. I think the lack of big vertical drop does mean that just as you really start to get into a run....it's time for another lift. There are of course exceptions. Like from the top of Rastkogel down the 75 or from the top of Eggalm down the 77(b). I definitely felt that I had skied everything after 2 days.
However the beauty of the Zillertal is that you have several class resorts on your doorstep.

I loved Zell. Out of all the days, I enjoyed it there the most. You get a real sense of travel and some of the slopes.....specifically the reds on Karspitz and königsleiten were amazing. Kaltenbach was enjoyable and some of the runs directly above the town were wide, reasonably empty and perfect to practice some carving technique on.
Hintertux was a great experience. For a glacier, there is a vast amount of skiing and a variety of runs there. And with the altitude, the pistes were and stay in much better condition. I'm glad we made the effort to get there early because for the first few hours. We had the place almost to ourselves. By late morning, those travelling by buses had arrived it was busier (but nothing horrendously so).

My favourite run of the week was the 5 from down the Ahorn. We did it early morning on the first day (we went up the Ahorn to get our ski legs back!). It was a glorious run from top to bottom.

We love the feeling in Austria. It's hard to describe but I think someone on here wrote that in France....skiing is a sport. In Austria...it's a pastime. Everything just feels a lot more....laid back. That's not knocking France...I'm a bit of a Francophile (the old man lives there). The French resorts I think offer the type of skiing I personally prefer (bigger vertical/larger linked areas) but I just love skiing in Austria! Ultimately, any time spend on the hill with planks on is good time.

We had a great week in the Zillertal. A modern, efficient lift system. Great piste management. A great first trip there and it won't be the last.

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@Fridge03, Fantastic photos

Ive returned to a positive Covid test this morning
Felt tired since we returned late Thursday evening , put it down to skiing hard and lack of sleep . Not sure if was the packed Brück'n Stadl or flight home ??
luckily its just a sniffle and slight cough

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Came back from Innsbruck 2 weeks ago. OH had SIX notifications of a close contact from flight home.

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@Fridge03, great report, thanks for the detail and summary. It’s our family favourite so always interesting to hear other views.

Re the town, new extensions and some new properties close or on the Main Street keep getting approval for builds and it feels like the character has changed over the last 5 years. It’s still attractive but more of a town. In the summer everywhere is covered in flowers and it actually looks very nice. Big summer destination.

We also love the Ahorn valley black run. I wish they would/could do a bit more piste development on that mountain so that it became a destination for a whole days skiing.

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Great TR, thanks. I've been to Mayrhofen loads and it has changed a little over the years but it's a great spot and the valley is an excellent space to explore.

After all it is free

@Fridge03, Great TR and Photos. I've only been to Mayrhofen for a week so haven't explored it all by any means, but where's photo2 in the set above? - looking up the valley towards a glacier running back down to you.

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Similar pic taken from the Gletscherhütte cafe terrace.

Help!!

Trip Report - Mayrhofen 5th - 12th March

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