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All things Ellmau

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Ok, snowHead . Sitting around at work helping out with the IT on a Saturday morning and nothing else to do. Off to Ellmau late January so if anyone's got any good info on Ellmau or skiwelt in general, please let me know....Best pistes, best bars, things to do, things to avoid...

Cheers
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Things to avoid: Trees, snow cannons, signs and other skiers.

Skiwelt is great, you'll love it and IMO the better skiing is on the Ellmau/Scheffau side.
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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?
I'm already checking out the apres ski songs...something about wanting to see polar bears.
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Another one who loves Skiwelt with Scheffau our favourite. Never stayed in Ellmau, have stayed in Brixen and staying in Soll in February
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Do the valley runs all day long and not just at the end of the day. Assuming you're not beginners aim to get to at least one different village each day.
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The Ski Welt is a great place, but does get slushy lower down if it isn't cold.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@musher, I heard about that - hopefully at the end of January it won't be too bad. But you can never tell. Bizarrely, the most slushy holiday I have had was a week in Norway in February.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@andybomb1, that's the plan - we'll try to get around the villages as much as we can.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Great ski area. Make the most of it.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@dobby, Nice resort, great ski area, lovely people, wonderful food.

As others have said the Ellmau home run is particularly lovely. Westendorf also has great skiing if you like thing a bit steeper

Ellmau is very lively without being too yobbish and isn't as overrun by Dutch as some of the other SW resorts
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Down to Scheffau has always been popular with my friends and has always been good for me in bad weather.

Brixen in the morning and over to westendorf for a few laps top to bottom. Brixen is south facing and gets chopped up in the afternoon.

Heading back from Soll towards Ellmau can be a bottleneck as you leave Soll. It's not actually that bad but there's a little section that beginners have nerves with so if your group has anyone like that I find it best done without the pressure of making late lifts. The map is fairly useless in that area but signs work so just go with it.

The dead end runs can provide great conditions.

I find some really snobbish attitudes towards the area but I've been loads of places and I keep going back as well as trying other new places.
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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.
The piste map can be difficult to follow, but in the main section (Not the Westendorf area), the pistes are all numbered for the lift they finish up at, which actually makes it quite easy for navigation. If several runs go to the same lift, they will be suffixed with letters (so the runs to the base at Ellmau are 80 and 80a)

If anywhere is going to be slushy, it will be the run down to Brixen, as others have said. It is the only Valley run which is South facing.

If you are taking the home run to Ellmau mid to late afternoon, watch out for Piste Bashers, they often re-piste that run in time for the end of day rush. But it is a lovely run.

Another run I personally like a lot is run 7, though lift 7 just takes you back to the top of the same run (where you also have the choice of runs 72 or 5).

The Rigi is one of my favourite restaurants in the Ski Welt, though pretty well at the opposite end from Ellmau.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
i loved the area, the valley runs are particularly good, only dissapointment was the smokey mountain restaurants, its about time austria joined in with the smoking ban, one check out lady in a restaurant above ellmau blew smoke all over my meal, so i just left it there without paying and walked out.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Favourite has to be run 80! Get's a bit churned up at the end of the day though. Another little Gem is Going/ Astberg. Ok may be a bit limited on runs but really nice spot.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Thanks all for the tips. @compostcorner, it'll be like a trip back in time to my parents' pub in the 1980s where I was brought up....be interesting to see whether the smoke bothers me at all.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
And there's snow down to the valley...excited, moi?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
red 27 wrote:
@dobby, Nice resort, great ski area, lovely people, wonderful food.

As others have said the Ellmau home run is particularly lovely. Westendorf also has great skiing if you like thing a bit steeper

Ellmau is very lively without being too yobbish and isn't as overrun by Dutch as some of the other SW resorts


Remember this home run in the 80s. Near the end, mud, with a small band of slush each side...

Of course, pre snow cannon days (I think Kitz had cannon on one south facing run a couple of years later) and was in March.

No funicular any more either I believe
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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?
@buchanan101, thankfully they seem to have lots of snow cannon these days. I think they've been working overtime the past few weeks....
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@red 27, and cheap beer!
I also enjoy the runs from the Astberg chair at Going, they can be very quiet.
The funicular from Ellmau has gone. But the new gondola is very quick. And the return run 80 is excellent as others have said. For restaurants we liked the one at the bottom of the Brandstadl chair. I don't remember its name though.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I hear that the Grostl is a good call for lunch....
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@dobby, Fried potatoes and eggs with bits of ham... Alpine peasant food but it does the job in extremis. Perhaps best thought of as 'brunch' for those who couldn't face breakfast

Plat du Tag is usually the better option (as long as it's not frankenfurters spoo )
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Anything as long as it's followed by germknödel.

Another thing, they really need to name the pistes. Knowing piste #80 is about as dull as M1 till junction 10, right at the roundabout, through the lights and straight on till you yawn.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
red 27 wrote:
@dobby, Fried potatoes and eggs with bits of ham... Alpine peasant food but it does the job in extremis. Perhaps best thought of as 'brunch' for those who couldn't face breakfast

Plat du Tag is usually the better option (as long as it's not frankenfurters spoo )


I love that stuff, whatever it is called. Throw in a big Wurst and its almost a 'full Austrian'

Also love kaiserschmarren, the hacked up pancake thing with plum jam. Delicious as mid morning snack to put you on for a late lunch.
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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.
Can anyone comment on the toboggan/ sledging in this area ?.. we've previously only done it in jungfrau region so I think we have spoilt ourselves. May sound strange but we don't ski, we got hooked on winter holidays about 5 years ago and keep going back to murren for past 3 years following a few at wengen. Can skiwelt compete with what we are now used to ?
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@gamer2471,
The toboggan run from Going down towards Ellmau looks like fun, but it certainly isn't for the fainthearted. It gets cut up and a bit bumpy. Not for kids. More gentle times can be had by using the slopes by Ellmau or Going ski schools.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Looking at the piste map (the solid yellow lines), it looks like they are illuminated at night.
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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.
We are quite hardcore tobogganists so the icier the better Laughing We even take gaffer tape and pipe lag to customise our rentals Laughing
Thanks for comments, will start doing some research on places to stay in the area.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Love ellmau, probably one of my favourite places. the ski welt is great for touring about all day to different resorts and westendorf and back is great and easy to do for intermediates that like to ski at a decent pace and clock up the miles. Always finish the day having a beer at the top of what was the funicular until most people have gone down and then head down the valley and straight onto the old 2 man going chair which runs until 515pm, all the way up to the top and back down into ellmau via a car park and onto the nursery run in resort. great village, food and bars
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Another fan of the SW here. The run down into Ellmau is a great run with choices of red or blue on the way down so plenty of variety. I don't know the town. Restaurants on the mountain, top of Ellmau the HarteKaiser is big selfservice lots of seats quick and good food, separate coffee bar. Half way down to Ellmau the Rubezahalm says it is the oldest restaurant in the SW, should go in to see the old woodwork really cool (mind your head) famous for rack of ribs. Near Brixen try Frankalm for a coffee and cake one of the most beautiful buildings on the mountain very small very traditional. Run down into Brixen try the Nieding half way down, new last year good food, nice place inside and out, can get the Jochban lift back up rather than go down what can be rather slushy in the afternoon.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@mikeelsa and @wakkitt, thanks for the tips. The late running 2-man chair sounds good - our hotel is just off the piste which runs down from that lift to Ellmau.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@dobby,
Have you got kids?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I have but they are not going with me Toofy Grin . Not this year. Next year maybe. And by then I'll be struggling to keep the 17 year old off the apres ski.....
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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?
We finish the day by doing that 2 man lift to Going, then the kids sledge in front of the ski school or go into the Ellmaeur Alm for an Ice cream while I do a few blasts up & down the T bars.
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