 Poster: A snowHead
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Just got back from a very enjoyable trip to SJiP. As short breaks are usually DIY, I thought I'd give up some info so that others can break free of week long TO tyranny!
Some context: I had a week off that needed using up, kids at school or Uni, no-one else available. Had been laid low by various lurgies for a few weeks and felt I needed a short ski break to get fit and healthy again. More therapy than indulgence. Sounded reasonable to me...
So to be fair to all concerned, it had to be cheap. To be fair to me it needed perfect snow, wall to wall sunshine and miles of skiing accessed by super efficient lifts. Plus lots of dumplings...
Resort: St Johann in Pongau
Obviously it's been a mixed season for snow in the alps, but even a couple of weeks ago it was obvious that Austria, and particularly Salzburgerland was looking like the place to be. I chose SJiP because the ski area looked big enough to keep me going for a few days, and it was easy to access by public transport. The more transfers there are, the more there is to go wrong.
Travel (all booked 2 weeks before departure in a two hour frenzy...) :
Out - Flight Stansted - Linz Tues morning £9 + £15 for luggage (boots+helmet wouldn't go in hand luggage).
shuttle bus from airport - Linz Hbf £2. They run every half an hour or so, I suppose you could get a cab, but I wasn't in a hurry.
Train Linz-Salzburg (1hr20), then Salzburg-SJiP (1hr). I don't pay public rates for trains, but OBB is pretty reasonable. I think it's between 15 and 25 euro depending on whether you book a specific service in advance.
I broke my journey at Salzburg, left my bags at the station (£2.50) and had half a day there. Fantastic - in the snow the city was breathtaking. Heartily recommended as part of any trip to this part of the world.
Back - Train St JiP to Salzburg (1hr) £10
Bus (line 2) from Salzburg Hbf to airport. They are every 20 mins or so from the bus station right outside. Take 20 mins. Cost £2
Flight Salzburg-Stansted £32+15
I parked in the short stay at Stansted right in front of the terminal. £46 for Tues thru Sat.
Hotel :
Pension Wielandner
Booked through booking.com
£145 for 4 nights bed and breakfast.
Really happy with this. Great location, less than 10 mins walk from the station. Ski bus stop outside. Family run pension above their ski equipment shop. The daughter of the house who does all the admin etc is charming and helpful and spoke good English. Rooms clean and functional. Shower hot. Breakfast, the standard Austrian buffet fare. It's not at all luxurious, but did a great job of providing excellent budget accommodation that didn't feel compromised by the value.
Ski logisitics:
Free ski bus to Alpendorf where the Gondola goes up into the Alpendorf sector of Amade. Every 20 mins at peak times. Took between 5 and 10 minutes. Published timetable which seemed to work. I know that a bus is a big red flag for some people. I don't have a problem providing they are run properly. It eliminates a lot of fantastic places if you can't get your head around it.
Ski hire - I just used one of the shops at the gondola station. There are several. I think they all offer overnight storage to save dragging the kit around. My 'normal' skis were £60 for 3 days
Lift passes - £150 for 3 days for all of amade. There didn't seem to be an Alpendorf only option, which might be nice for low mileage skiers.
Skiing :
Snow was uniformly excellent, top to bottom for all three days. Weather was cold and sunny with no wind. Off piste, any untracked snow was knee deep powder and still very light (last snowfall just before I rocked up). In short, it was as good as it could have been, so I saw the area in its best possible light. Maybe in less perfect circumstances things would be different...
First day - skied pretty much all of Alpendorf/Wagrain. Didn't venture over the G-link. Lots of lovely long red runs. I was surprised by the length of the runs. Obviously some were short, but there were a number of 750 - 1000m descents from various points at the top of the area to various points at the bottom. Only disappointment was that the drag on the far right side of the area as you look at the map was closed. It serves a couple of blacks and some tasty looking just-off-the-piste areas which looked in perfect nick.
Second day - Went straight (well, via 3 lifts) over to Wagrain/Flachau via the G link. Similar terrain to day one, but enjoyable to do it somewhere else. Took about 45 mins in each direction, so not too much effort. Had the distinct impression that there were a lot more people going in the opposite direction to me in both the morning and afternoon. Alpendorf is maybe less popular as a start point into the ski area than Flachau. Again, impressed by the length of the runs, the views etc etc etc. There was some lovely powder available near the pistes down to, and off the top of, the Topliner lift.
Third day - had decided to go for a big trip over to Zauchensee via Flachauwinkle, but on getting to the top of Alpendorf found that they had finally opened the aforementioned drag (Stegbachlift). Decided to give it a go. Several trips up and down the T-bar exploring the options just off the piste in perfect powder. Fantastic. After this, Zauchensee was a step too far, but I decided to go over to Wagrain and then take the bus to Kleinarl. They run every 15 minutes from the Grafenberg lift station in Wagrain up to the Kleinarl base station. Just as easy as taking the G-link to Flachau. Really glad that I did - nice little ski area, with the advantage of a number of 'ski routes' which have the odd pole for guidance, and are avi protected, but pretty rustic to say the least. A couple of them are straight down under the lifts, others are in a big area just over the Flachauwinkle side. The one I enjoyed the most was K5, accessed from just to the left of the start of the slalom at the top of Flachauwinkle, but drops down on the Kleinarl side. It felt a long way from civilisation and had more unchopped snow than the others.
My overall impression was that the Amade area was perfect for decent intermediate skiers. In the areas that I skied, there weren't lots of easy blues for the less confident. For good skiers, there are nice spots here and there, but apart from the ski-routes in Kleinarl and the specific areas mentioned above, it is not especially steep or challenging. The views over surrounding valleys and far flung hills were great, the tree lined slopes offered bad weather protection but were not particularly claustraphobic. Oh, and the lifts are fantastic. Mostly really fast, lots of seats, many of them heated (love it). The one thing that surprised me was that there was only one chair to get back from Wagrain to Alpendorf. It was the oldest, slowest one in the entire resort. Strangely, it never seemed to have a queue when I was coming home, but I wonder if it is any sort of a bottleneck in the high season.
The other thing that is noticeable is how much lower the ski area is than the French resorts that I am more familiar with. I think that people whose first question about a resort might be 'how high is it? what's the top lift?' might be put off by looking at the piste map. Talking to people there, they assured me that the snow record is good throughout the season, and that the distance east from the sea makes the altitude less important. The snow was fantastic from top to bottom when I was there.
On slope Dining:
I did various dumpling soups and a beer at random locations whose names I forget. All good, all between 8 and 10 euro. I don't like to eat a lot when I'm skiing a lot.
Apres:
I was on my tod, so not particularly interested in the night life. SJiP is a decent sized town so has a variety of hotel restaurants, standalone restaurants and bars. Most (but not all of them) were uphill from my Pension, about a 10 minute walk. I found the Cavelli resto decent and pleasant.
Conclusions:
I had an absolute blast. I've skied for a long time (25 years) and in lots of places. This was as good a few days skiing as I've had for a long time. Obviously a lot of weather/snow conditions worked in my favour, but if you don't have to go away in February or New year then a couple of weeks notice should allow some certainty over conditions in a particular area. I really enjoyed the Amade, there is a LOT of skiing of good quality. for short breaks Austria really seems to work, as it has lots of small hotels which can be flexible about the number of nights, it has good public transport, and a number of airports from which the ski areas can be accessed (Munich, innsbruk, salzbug, linz, klagenfurt etc etc).
Go on DIY it, go somewhere you've never heard of before. It's fantastic !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@pendodave, welcome to the fan club. I'm just back from 2 weeks in Flachau with excursions to other resorts. This last week has been epic...i have never seen Flachau as good in the 5 years i have been there.
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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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@pendodave, glad you had a good trip. Another member of the fan club here too!
Go back, base yourself somewhere more central (Radstadt with Flangesax!), with a car and go to all the different areas in the Amade. It's amazing!
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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