Poster: A snowHead
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Howdy all
Need some help from locals pls....
Currently in Lofer for 1/2 term which appears to have coincided with National holidays for the rest of Western Europe. When I organised the hol, I knew it'd be busy this week, but I thought somewhere small and off the beaten track like Lofer would be ideal...
However, it took us 1 hour 20 mins this morning to get from the valley station, up the two bubbles to the ski school meeting place for Jr's lesson
And then when you're at the top the queues are still horrendous. A quick queue would be about 10 minutes, with the queue for the Family Express Lift taking as long as 30mins...
Talking to the Ski instructor at the end of Jr's lesson, he says it will be same in Lofer all week...
It's Jr's last ski school lesson tomorrow, so would there be anywhere nearby for Weds & Thurs (we go home Friday) that won't be as busy / silly queues?
Looking on Google Maps, Waidring/Steinplatte is 10 mins down the road and St Johann looks about 20-25mins. Leogang / Skicircus and Ellmau/Going/Skiwelt seem about 30-40 mins - We've got a car so as long as it's not more than about 30-40 mins away it's do-able.
Any help will be gratefully received, or is Austria pretty much the same everywhere this week? Should I expect to spend more time queuing for lifts than actually skiing?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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we have been to Lofer at various time over the last five years. We have skied in Waidring and Saalbach. Waidring is actually our favourite resort.
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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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Fieberbrunn, Maria Alm (Hochkonig) are less well know resorts that might not be AS busy around 30 mins away. Saalbach - Hinterglemm & Leogang are about 25-30 mins from Lofer and also well worth a look.
Zell am See is also about 30 mins from Lofer, though will be busy, it has four village gondola's so getting up the mountain shouldn't be a massive issue.
Plenty of choice within 30 mins. All mentioned above have modern lifts that should hopefully help alleviate with the volume of holiday makers.
I would do Saalbach as it has the sheer size to swallow more people and would also try Fieberbrunn, just cos it's a bit of a unknown (to brits) gem.
Other than that my advice would be get up early and get on the first lift at 8-30 am
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@mauddib, Kitzbühel is about 35 mins, Saalbach about 40 minutes. Those would be your best bets i think, but they will still be busy unfortunately.
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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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Zell am See is also about 30 mins from Lofer, though will be busy, it has four village gondola's so getting up the mountain shouldn't be a massive issue.
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I seriously doubt that. Was there 2 years ago at half term and the queues were bad. My sister is just back from her place there and the same again - think the issue was with the Arietbahn????
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@boabski, Was there over New Year which is pretty much on a par with half term, we used the city Xpress Gondola in the centre without issue and also the lifts at the opposite end to the areitbahn called the Schmittental area and there is 3 gondolas just there which were very quick. So in fact there are 5 separate gondolas to get up the mountain. The Areitbahn is one option but not the one I would use unless staying in Schuttdorf. It's a bad bottleneck as many people use the parking there, but also skiiers/boarders from nearby Kaprun use the free ski bus which stops there and this adds to the queues.
Apart from said Areitbahn which I used when I skiied to the bottom of Piste 10 I didn't wait for a lift for more than 5 minutes the whole week - which is fine in my book.
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Saalbach is not bad at the moment as long as you get on the lower lifts before the ski schools arrive at 10.00. The only bottleneck out on the circuit today was at Schonleiten 6, where the queue looked long but took no more than 10 minutes on the two occasions that I was there. Everyone tends to follow the main pistes around the circuit - if you know where to find them, there are lots of gems that are almost empty.
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We were in Kitzbühel one year for Fasching week, and other than a 20-minute queue for the Hahnenkamm lift and busy home runs at the end of the day it wasn't too bad at all. The huts were very busy between 12:30 and 2, so we timed our food/drink stops outside of this time. However this was a year when Fasching was late and didn't coincide with UK and Dutch school holidays.
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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 was in Lofer today too and had similar queuing trouble, though it only took us 45 minutes from the valley to the snow (9:45-10:30). As the trip in the gondolas probably takes 20 minutes anyhow, the queuing would have been about the same. Once we were up, we avoided the Family Express where the queues did look horrendous and skied mostly with the Schwarzeck chair (where the queues weren't bad) and the Grubhörndl T-bar (short queues but maybe not everybody's cup of tea). Around midday we skied down to the valley and there were no queues for coming up again. Late afternoon, about three o'clock, the Family Express and Schönbühel chairlifts became usable.
Everywhere will be busy this week. We skied Fieberbrunn yesterday and, apart from longish queues at the Lärchfilzen chairlift in the morning it wasn't too bad. The Steinplatte might be worth a try. It will be packed, with queues, but the lifts are mostly modern and have a good capacity. There are World Cup ski races at Hinterglemm this coming weekend but I don't know whether that will make Saalbach busier than ever. Your best bet there might be to go up from Leogang, e.g. on the Steinbergbahn gondola (if you are happy to take the lift back down at the end of the day).
Another place that might be worth a try would be Rauris. We were there on Saturday and it was very quiet then (but that was changeover day). I couldn't say how busy it would be now (though I did ski there last year during Fasching and I don't remember it being too bad with queues). The valley runs at Rauris are quite steep (piste 5 black, piste 1 a steep red), so again you might want to download on the lift if you don't fancy them. The easiest skiing is at the upper section of the Hochalm gondola and the runs down from the top of the Gipfelbahn aren't too difficult.
I hope you can enjoy the rest of your holiday.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And still there are people insisting that half term crowds are over exagerated...
It must be a British myth that places which are not big on the British Tour Operators lists must be quiet..... there are lots of other nationalities skiing out there too!
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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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@espri, we were there for 0900 to make sure we weren't late for ski school, which we were...
We're going to go for 1st lift at 0815 this am and see if that is any better
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Fasching week doesn't always coincide with UK and Dutch half term, it's just that this year it does so queues are probably worse than usual.
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You know it makes sense.
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I'm skiing for my first half term since I left school a lot of years ago. I'm in Saalbach, Austria and have to say it's not been that bad. All the accommodation and the slopes are busy but it really isn't as bad as everyone said it would be. I still managing about 90% of my average daily distance, some of the slopes are actually quieter than normal, especially at the top of the valley or on the shaded blacks.
As Quinton said, the only really bad lifts were the Schonlietenbahn and the Schonlieten 6, but they were only 10 mins , you can park under the nursery slope in the multi-story for the Kholmais side or the big green multi-storey as you come into town for the Schattberg side. IMHO, it's definitely worth a trip up.
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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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@mauddib, Waidring/Steinplatte will be fairly full of day skiers from Bavaria as the schools are on holiday this week. Tomorrow should be quieter as tonight is the final "last blast" for Fasching - Lent (Fastenzeit) begins tomorrow and many will attend Mass as it is Ash Wednesday. Expect a lot of fish dishes to be on offer in the huts and restaurants!
You may find that things get gradually quieter as people return to work on Wednesday and Thursday as well. We had lots of people out of the office today who will be recovering tomorrow and back in work on Thursday. We even had our core time lifted today so that people could leave at lunchtime to start enjoying Fastnacht. I enjoyed the quiet and was able to complete a lot of work as a result!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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In Maria a Alm at present and whilst it is busy nothing like the queues you mention. 15 mins max for bottom gondola (walk on at 9am) then maybe 10 mins for chair to top of Aberg.
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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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We were on the Steinplatte and Winklmoosalm today. Very busy but all queues less than 10 minutes, some (e.g. Schwarzlofer and even the new Kammerkör) a good deal less.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks everyone, but we ended staying in Lofer as we'd kind of worked out a system...
Because it was so busy, the bergbahn company were opening all the lifts earlier, so we made sure we were on one of the first lifts up at just after 8am. Once at the top, we did Family Express / Schwarzeck a number of times and then at about 0945 headed across to Schonbuhelbahn. We did that lift a few times and then when the ski school parents started to catch up at about 1030-1100 we moved back across to Schwarzeck, Grubhornedlift or the home run and had an early lunch at about 11ish.
1200-1400 was a bit quieter as everyone else was having their lunch, so we stopped for a drink and rest at about 2ish and by 1445, the lifts were stating to get quieter again.
The key we found, was to stay ahead of the ski schools and ski school parents
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