 Poster: A snowHead
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Just wanted to do a quick report on our trip to Ellmau. Not sure it will be helpful to anyone in future. It certainly wasnt our best ski holiday so far.
We stayed in the Fuchs apartments in ellmau, booked through Crystal. hotel was ok, nice and spacious.
we had never stayed in a resort where we had to get a ski bus to the lifts so that was a first (and a last). even though we left our skis and boots in the ski lockers at the foot of the train station, i personally found it a bit of a chew on. but its also a learning curve and I have found that we are suited to ski in and ski out type holidays.
we had hoped for lovely cruisy blues. however, most of the blues had an extremely steep section somewhere in it and conditions during our week were not the best and found that the moguls left by other skiers (even early on in the day) we found it very difficult trying to get down some blues.
the piste map was not the best (although i knew that before i left) I still never found the blue run that went from lift 71 to 66. we tried on 2 separate occasions to find it. I also found that some of the runs were a bit on the dangerous side, where you would ski down a particularly steep section of a blue and god forbid you stumbled and started rolling, you could roll right off the side of the mountain, there were a couple of sections like this and my heart was always in my mouth when watching the kids ski down them. some of these runs only being cordened off by a 1 " piece of tape just to warn you. a lot of the blues were just narrow roads too.
My overall view of the skiwelt would be that maybe it is better suited for more advanced skiers. I dont know how people who could only snowplough turn could make it down most of the blue runs, especially given the condition of the slopes too. I also found that if you wanted to stick to blue runs only, you were quite limited in your selection of runs. My kids and husband did the 90 run (red) while they were waiting for me to come down in the train and they said it was very very steep.
I did find that eating out was quite reasonable though.
Sorry its not more positive about the skiign and I am sure there will be lots of people who completely disagree with what I have said so I can only write from my own perspective about how I found the place given my own skiing ability.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for the resort report, we are heading off to ski welt on 2nd march. the ski bus thing is something we are new to aswell (and maybe not looking forward to). we have been skking about 8 times, so we are looking forward to the challenging rooms. thanks
there seems to be a lot of snow there over the weekend and this week, so conditions are looking good.
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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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I'm sorry the SkiWelt didn't match your expectations. I wondered about your saying that "a lot of the blues were just narrow roads" but, on reflection, you are probably right. Many of the blue "runs" are really only connections from one piste to another and do tend to be tracks. When I skied in the SkiWelt last week (Thursday), the only places where I can remember troublesome moguls were on pistes 3 and 2a in Hochbrixen, relatively short sections but certainly difficult for less confident skiers. The general problem is that mountains weren't really designed with skiers in mind, so I think that you will find that blue pistes often do have steeper or narrower sections in many resorts. Often the lift companies try to offer "bypasses" at more difficult sections but that isn't always possible. I expect, though, that as your skiing continues to improve, if you were to return in a few years, you would wonder what the problem was  The step from pure beginners' areas to real pistes is always difficult and challenging.
I can understand your problems with the piste map; it is complicated. And it isn't surprising that you had difficulty finding the run from lift 71 (Aualm) to 66 (Südhang). There isn't really one! Though it is shown as "two way traffic" on the map, it is (slightly) downhill from 66 to 71 and reasonable to ski in that direction. Going in the other direction would be an uphill push at the best of times (though not greatly so). My explanation for this confusing marking is that the Aualm chairlift can be a bottleneck at busy times towards the end of the day, so the lift company has shown this alternative way to get over to the Brandstadl and back to Scheffau (or on to Ellmau). The actual run comes out just above the bottom station of the Aualm lift (on the left looking up) but unless you like poling up slight slopes it would never be recommended for going from 71 to 66. The only improvement I can offer is that I have seen reports that the Aualm chairlift will be upgraded in the coming summer (from a 4-seater to 8-seater) so perhaps the crowds will disappear and it won't be necessary to have this confusing marking on the map.
I would agree that run 90 is steep in places (though the steepest part does have a slightly less steep bypass). A challenging run for intermediate skiers. It is a red.
cathy's recommendation of instruction is sensible, not only because it might help with skiing technique but equally because an instructor will usually take on you on runs matched to your skiing standard. That can be very useful if you are going to an area you don't know. But if you're ever out this way again, give me a call and we can explore the area together 
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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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SportBilly, the bus really wasnt that bad. where abouts are you staying? the buses ran what seemed about every 10 minutes for us. we only waited once for the train too. but just for what we want out of a skiing holiday, i found, was just to be able to ski from our door.
espri, I think if the conditions had of been better, the blues that were roads would have been really pleasant to come down, but they were really bumpy and i was quite worried about the ikids going over the edge on some of them, and also trying to look where i was going too, trying to avoid the bumps and grooves. 97b and 99 were really awful for moguls. at the beginning of the week 98 was really bad, i just think we were unlucky with the conditions to be honest. yes we skied 2a on thursday too and it was pretty bad. I even posted a thread on facebook asking them about the run to the 66 chair and they tried explaining it. this is what they replied
It starts on the righternside nearly next to the Aualm restaurant to lift nr. 66. And the other way around approx. 20 m bevore the bottom station of the lift Nr. 66 into the left.
I think you are right though and myabe we will return in a few years time. Im more of a nervous skier so the steep sections of the blues did throw me especially with the moguls, i guess we have been spoiled with the cruisyness of valmorel and les saisisies. but if we do come back i will defiinitley look yoyu up and you can show us around, thats very kind.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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And I do know what you mean about the piste map - it must be one of the most confusing ever
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Are there still two versions on the same map, a normal one and a 'view from above' one? I've always thought that with the plan view it was one of the best piste maps out there - I get really annoyed with the standard piste maps that often have a section somewhere that looks perfectly viable until you realise it's uphill. The Ellmau map seemed to deal with this very nicely (at least when I was last there...).
polo99, sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it. It's a ski area that comes into its own when you can confidently navigate your way around on blues and reds, but I can see it might be limiting if you're mainly on blues.
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The step from pure beginners' areas to real pistes is always difficult and challenging.
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Some resorts manage this transition a lot better than others, and is always worth exploring if you're beyond the complete beginner stage and not yet at the intermediate "tackle any red" stage.
I think cathy has an important point about tuition too - some people can improve their skiing just "skiing around" and getting some more miles under their skis but most people need tuition too - I certainly did. To open up a greater variety of resorts for future holidays, this is something you probably need to think about. Having lessons is a particularly useful way of using time productively when conditions aren't great - e.g. in poor visibility.
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You're right about 99, polo99. Especially if you ski straight down, it is too steep for a blue. There is a track going off to the right at the top of the steepest bit which is a little easier but that's not so easy to spot if you don't know the run.
I'm a bit more surprised about (blue) 98 which I usually find quite skiable, except maybe lower down, near the bottom station of lift 98 where red 98a joins it.
This piste colouring is a general problem, though, which has often been discussed here. The colour system for pistes is not an exact science. What's blue in one place can be red somewhere else or vice versa. Doesn't help skiers who don't know an area but is a fact of life. Blue doesn't necessarily mean easy. Seeing the SkiWelt map now through your eyes, I could happily agree that the piste planners may have looked through rose-coloured spectacles (if I may mix my colours), for e.g. the blue runs down from the Eiberg to lifts 97 and 99 are all quite steep. All you can really say is that in any resort the blues are (mostly) easier than the reds. As pam_w says, the progression may be easier in some places rather than others but it can be very tricky trying to determine the "absolute" difficulty of a resort's pistes (probably impossible, for the result will be different for every skier). The only answer is to keep skiing, so that the pistes in time seem easier
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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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The SkiWelt isn't exactly renowned for difficult skiing, most of the pistes are pretty cruisy - sorry to say it polo99, but it really does sound like you could have used some lessons! Blue doesn't neccessarily mean 'fine for a beginner,' and I don't think that someone who can only snowplough should expect to be comfortably skiing all of them.
The drop off the side of the cat tracks you refer to are almost always nowhere near as bad as they look btw - if you go to the edge and look over, generally they're jsut a gentle slope, it's the transition from flat to slope that makes it look like there's a massive vertical drop-off, even when there isn't.
I do know what you mean by the piste map though, once ended up getting lost trying to find one of the (ungroomed) ski routes, and ended up trekking through fields before luckily stumbling onto a road, about a 30 minute walk from one of the base stations.
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clarky999, sorry if you read me wrong, maybe we could benifit from lessons as i know you never stop learning, but we can all parallel turn
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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polo99, ah, ok, sorry about that - I really should be in bed already 
Hope your next trip works out better anyway!
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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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polo99, sorry to hear it didn't quite work out the way you had hoped. Where was your apartment? We found walking was quicker than the bus, it about 3 mins walk to snow tubing arena, from there we took a t bar up, then a short steep red to the bottom of the funicular, otherwise it was 15 min walk to the other nursery area.
But yes ski in and out is always favourable, but we have only had that twice, when we got a good deal!
The piste map was very hard to follow, but although I am still careful and quite nervous I can pretty much get down anything, I found the skiing mostly enjoyably easy ish!
I had a private lesson there and found it really beneficial, it's been a long time since I had lessons but it definately gave me some confidence.
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Hi all late on to this one but we were out last Feb with two children 11 & 9 and we and they had a ball- so much so we are off again next week! I agree though the colour coding of the piste map is a little optimistic and we said as much when we were out there- I think that's done so as not to put people off coming if every blue that has a red section is marked red! It can be a challenge but it is a great area and brilliant for kids.
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FAQ
It was a very warm week last week so I can imagine how the slopes would have got bumped up - unfortunately this happens everywhere. Did you and your family book into ski school during the week? It sounds like you could have perhaps benefited from some instruction. And I do know what you mean about the piste map - it must be one of the most confusing ever 
