Poster: A snowHead
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Saalbach? Ticks the big mileage good lifts good schools boxes. Try landhaus hager for ski in skiout apartments. You would need 2 x 2 bedroom but there are only 4 in the whole block. Seriously huge for the price.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Risoul by a country mile. Even got a wonderful sweet shop in the main street
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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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Risoul by a country mile. Even got a wonderful sweet shop in the main street
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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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A resort good for beginners with a magic carpet area, gondola/village access to nursery slopes and good English-speaking ski schools
Nannies easily available
Sizeable linked (ideally no buses) pisted ski area for good skiers (we want more than 200Km for one week) with good, fast lift systems
Busy reasonably compact village with lots of restaurants and bar choices (our children are now at an age where we can take them out for diner and enjoy it)
Availability of high-end 4 bedroom self-catered chalets (I don't really want to stay in an apartment if I can help it but this is not a deal-breaker if it's nice enough)
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You've just described Saalbach
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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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@Tatman's Tours, How does Saalbach fair in March? Was worried about sunny low slopes. Also, how much is there for good adult skiers (seems like a paradise for intermediates)? Found an awesome chalet there very suitable for fussy people (yep I have insight) so am interested. @cameronphillips2000, unfortunately with Risoul the after-ski school childcare is an issue for us.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Mountaindoc, Although the south-facing side of the valley obviously bakes, as spring approaches, there are plenty of slopes out of the 270km total that are oriented in other directions. Even the slopes that face the sun are usually good to ski in the mornings, and we've never, since we bought our apartments 10 years ago, been unable to ski all the way round the valley and all the way down to the village right through the season until the resort closes in mid-April. The quantity of snow has never been a problem, although the quality clearly depends on whether it is spring-like or still wintry. Quite honestly the worst conditions for late season slush that I've experienced have been in Courchevel and Verbier.
It's of course impossible to generalise or predict the weather - we have often had sizable dumps of snow in late March and into April. A few seasons ago I recall that the first week of April was one of the best weeks of the season, with cold temperatures, fresh overnight snow and powdery, perfectly groomed, practically deserted pistes. In my experience, the norm in late March or early April however tends to be freeze/thaw conditions, with good skiing on all pistes (including those facing south) during the mornings, and decent skiing over at Leogang (mostly north-facing) and on the Fieberbrunn, Zwoelferkogel and Schattberg sectors in the afternoons. When the weather is warm and sunny in late season, the pistes on the Kohlmais, Bernkogel, Reiterkogel and Hochalm sectors will get soft/slushy as the day progresses, but we've never let that bother us, and we've always skied down at the end of the afternoon (rather than bail out by taking the gondola down from the mid-station, as some may advise) - much depends on your competence level and how you feel about skiing through late afternoon spring snow (some actually prefer it to hard-packed/icy conditions).
As you say, the area is an "intermediates' paradise, with lots of cruisy blues and reds, and the ability to plan long itineraries without repeating the same run twice in a day. However good skiers are unlikely to be bored, and there are plenty of good skiers who live in the resort throughout the winter. Pistes 1, 14 and 15 are long, quite challenging runs, and there are other shorter blacks, as well as snow parks. Fieberbrunn has the reputation of being Austria's best freeride "secret". Whether there will be any decent off-piste obviously depends on the conditions, but there is extensive back country skiing to be found (search on youtube for "Bergenholtz Saalbach" for videos, showing what the off-piste can be like).
If you're referring to a catered chalet, it must presumably be the Pension Enzian or the Chalet Christina. There aren't any others that I know about - most visitors to this resort stay in hotels, B&Bs or apartments.
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@Tatman's Tours, that's great to hear. Thank you for sharing your in depth knowledge of the area. We are looking for a self-catered chalet. Not a huge fan of the hotels and prefer a front door rather than apartment (yes I know, very fussy). I found something that seems to fit the bill on one of the many "owner-friendly" websites on the net. I'm sold. Now I need to convince my friends (who are even fussier than I am)
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Trysil has a really good English speaking ski school and is no more expensive than the alps if you aren't wanting to go and get drunk every night.
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