 Poster: A snowHead
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Having researched Scheffau before we went and found scant information, I thought a trip report might help a few people who are considering Ski Welt and specifically Scheffau as an option for a week long holiday:
Resort: Scheffau, Austria
Tour Party: 22 + 1 baby. Mixed ability from total beginner to BASI level 2 qualified and everything in between. 4 boarders.
Flights: Saturday, Lufthansa. Heathrow T2 - Munich return. Ski bag as main bag as long as <23Kg.
Transfers: Private Coach company with 52 seater coach! Amazingly worked out cheaper than any other option for that many of us.
Munich - Scheffau Nearly 3 hours, horrendous traffic most of the way
Scheffau - Munich Nearly 2.5 hours, not much better traffic!
Lodging: Chalet Heidi. We took the whole place. Solidly built Austrian chalet with very spacious rooms, all en-suite. 10min walk from the main ski bus stop in Scheffau. Run by an English couple and their team. Decent food. Licensed bar in the premises meant no BYO, but reasonably priced. Very happy to help with taxis, ski hire, guiding and even a trip to the local shooting club one evening! I can highly recommend the shooting as being great for everyone to have a go at regardless of experience and was very cheap. They didn't seem to mind that most of us were not in any way sober.
Equipment Hire: Most people had their own, but a few hired through the chalet as they got preferential rates at the local shop, which was by the main bus stop in Scheffau. No problems with the kit.
Scheffau the town: Is not a big place and other than a few quiet pubs and restaurants is not particularly note-worthy. There is no run back to Scheffau so you must catch the (free) ski bus back, or a taxi from the foot of the slopes charged 3EUR per person for a 5min ride. In the morning you could ski down an almost entirely flat blue run, but we only did this once - the bus was quicker and easier.
Skiing:
Day 1: Took a little while to find out how the piste map translated to what was actually achievable on the ground. It was never too frustrating, but it's fair to say that the piste map looks as though you have more options for navigating than you really do when aiming for specific peaks. Regardless, we had a good first day where we headed over to Westendorf. The link back is really not too bad with just a short travelator and rope tow to get you back to the gondola. The run 120 down to the Kitzbuhel bus link is an absolute corker and we stopped for lunch near the bottom and did it all again straight after lunch.
Day 2: We decided to see if we could ski to the far side of Kitzbuhel and back from Scheffau. We set off around 9am and caught the 10.30 bus over to Kitzbuhel. You could be there for 10am if you were in a rush we decided. Kitzbuhel upgrade was EUR21 for the day. About halfway through the day we decided it was silly to waste our time in Kitzbuhel just heading to the far side and back so just started to enjoy the place. It's steeper and "more serious" than Ski Welt, but not much difference in the snow quality. As you got below 1000m you could feel the snow was either synthetic or warm affected. We decided to get a taxi back and had our only bad Austrian experience: First taxi driver tried to tell us it would be fine to have two people sat on a single seat in the front and charge us EUR70. After we refused, the driver behind gave us all seats(!) and only charged EUR50 between 7 people. Very reasonable given it's a 25-30min journey.
Day 3: In the morning decided to see if we could hit the 6 highest peaks in the SkiWelt area (without going to Westendorf), which was very achievable. The link over to Ellmau is a very slow 2 man chair, and the pistes over there were not anything special. As we tried to get to the top of Hohe Salve that was closed due to high wind, which was good news - it was bringing snow.
Day 4: Best day of the holiday by far. Between 4-8" of snow deposited and blue-bird conditions. Everywhere you looked there was fresh snow to be skied on, all day. SkiWelt is a very family orientated area and finding fresh powder was only a matter of opening your eyes! We didn't stray far beyong Scheffau/Ellmau. A few of our group who were less keen on powder went over to Kitzbuhel for the day to ski pistes and also had a fantastic day.
Day 5: Still a fair amount of fresh snow to be found, but had to look slightly (and i do mean slightly) harder. Best run of the day was being what felt like the first (and only?!) people down the Ski Route 63 that runs from the top into the bottom end of Scheffau. Apart from some dodgy sign-posting through a farm, it was completely deserted and the only people we saw were 3 people walking uphill!
Day 6: Unbelievably we were still finding some fresh powder to ski on, though admittedly was becoming a bit harder. By the afternoon it had warmed up a bit and we decided to ski down to Itter from the top of Hohe Salve, for the nice red/black at the top and for the long red into Itter itself. We then encountered a very noisy bar in Soll called Moonlight - typical Austrian apres, if a little more sedate than Mooserwirt!
Apres Ski: In general this does not really happen in Scheffau. There is a moderately busy pub at the bottom of the slopes, but didn't seem noisy on any day we were there. The actual pubs in the village are also not busy either. We had a bar in our chalet so this was less of an issue for us. We had a couple of drinks in Kitzbuhel which seemed much more lively, but the Moonlight bar in Soll was easily the busiest place we visited.
Food: We ate on the mountain every day. Most people had some form of goulash or grostl with optional apfelstrudel! Always provided in generous portions and a very reasonable price. Goulash was typically EUR5-6, Grostl EUR8-12 and Strudel EUR3-5. Didn't pay more than EUR4 for a large beer anywhere.
Conclusions: This was a great holiday, we loved it. That being said, I probably wouldn't return to SkiWelt as the area in general felt like skiing in very big hills rather than mountains. I would recommend that anyone go once to see it, and I think you'll have a fantastic week - but I'm fairly sure that even vaguely adventurous skiers will hit its limitations after a week and might find that a second week would drag. Fresh snow hides a multitude of sins 
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 18-02-16 13:14; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great report magicrichard - glad you enjoyed it.
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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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@magicrichard, off to Westendorf on Saturday so your TR timing is perfect, thanks.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks for the report. I went to Scheffau with a group when I was young (about 20 years ago) and we had a great time. A number of us were beginners and the Ski School was excellent for them. I went back to the Ski Welt for a weekend last month and again had a wonderful time. This time we stayed in Soll and also enjoyed The Moonlight Bar apres carnage!
I completely agree with you about how good the area is after fresh snow. There doesn't seem to be many 'powder hounds' around, so the ability to make new tracks lasts longer than in other resorts. Food on the pistes was second to none IMHO for quantity and value.
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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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Thanks for an interesting and full report. Not stayed at Scheffau but have stayed at other parts of Ski Welt. Your report makes me want to go back with younger family members
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@EdYarker, You are spot on. No "powder hounds" in sight, and the ones that are local probably have much more interesting runs to be doing than the obvious faces that are in sight for punters like ourselves. That fact and all the trees, make it a superb spot when it does snow.
@JohnHSmith, Very suitable for younger family members with plenty of blue slopes. Perhaps a slight deficit of very wide and flat slopes for absolute beginners, but none of our group found it a problem. I should add that we thought the ski school prices (along with everything else!) were very reasonable.
It is very nearly one of those places you don't want to tell anyone about, so you can keep it for yourself! It's only the slightly tame terrain that would make me explore other areas first, before returning to SkiWelt. That being said, Austrian resorts are becoming a clear favourite with us, even if they may not be able to claim the km of the French super-resorts.
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