Where to go from Salzburg - Ski Welt v Ski Circus

A snowHead

Good Evening, as ever, i turn to the collective wisdom of the Snowhead matrix.

A mate and I have booked a flight to Salzburg on the 26th of January. Neither of us have skied that far East in Austria before. We're 30s and good piste skiers. We have no interest in off piste. I enjoy drinking.

Currently looking at Ski Welt and Ski Circus and would like some advice.

Where has the more difficult pistes?

We've skied 3V loads, St Anton, Ischgl and the Dolomites. Looking at the maps, am I correct in thinking that generally the runs in the East of Austria are of shorter length than those of the West?

Any advice is much appreciated. snowHead

A snowHead

its a conundrum, but having been to both several times over the years I would without a shadow of a doubt go ski circus and stay in saalbach .if you cant get accom in saalbach my choice would be between hinterglem circus or soll ski welt or possibly westendorf for the links none of the skiing is really difficult in any but lots of mileage , presuming you are on holiday out to enjoy the whole experience.and as for length of piste your thighs will burn whichever run you take from top to valley floor

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@sean1967, flying in to Salzburg why aren't you also looking at the Ski Amade region? Easy and quick access from Salzburg, great skiing area and it's had masses of snow in recent weeks. Smile

Check to see if snowHead flangesax in Radstadt has availability (I think he may one room available for the week): https://www.austrian-adventures.com/

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@sean1967, altitudes are lower but Saalbach has almost as much vertical between highest lift and town as St Anton or Ischgl. Nothing super steep in Saalbach, the blacks there seem to be a similar gradient to those in Ischgl.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@sean1967, either would be a good choice. The SkiWelt has a lot of runs from the top of the mountains to the bottom of the valleys, and it is a paradise for anyone looking for lots of red and blue runs. There are black runs to be found, but not in huge quantities and it's a cruisy sort of place in general where high mileage and getting out and around the area is positively encouraged. With the extended pass, you can easily get to Kitzbuhel/Kirchberg for some variety and a wider area, and if you are on the first lift out of any of the SkiWelt villages you can make it all the way to Pass Thurn and back again with just a short shuttle bus ride from the bottom of KiWest to the Pengelstein lift in Kirchberg to connect the areas. If beer is your thing, Soll is likely to be the better location for apres as the others can be relatively quiet compared to e.g. Ischgl. According to https://www.skiwelt.at/en/ski-slope-status.html the longest run is 5Km with 1200m vertical, but there are multiple examples of runs which join up and can be done as a single run, so for example from Hohe Salve you can take red 22 down to Rigi (1043m long, 330m vertical) then continue onto 21a (2579m, 466m vertical) to the Hopfgarten middle station, then continue onto 20a (3293m, 632m vertical) for a total of 1428m vertical and a run of 6915m. The only downside of the SkiWelt is that almost all of the lifts are a bus ride away unless you are very careful in your choice of accommodation, as the village was there before the lift and the centres retain their character because the lifts are kept on the edge.

For the Ski Circus (Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Leogang and Fieberbrunn), most of the runs are shorter, but there are a couple of long ones and some more challenging terrain including the world cup run on Zwolferkogel, and the lifts are generally much more accessible and within walking distance in a lot of cases unless you choose to stay further out. The longest run is 7km down to Leogang, with 1020m of vertical, or if you prefer that sort of vertical more quickly, the Schattberg black covers the same height in 4km.

You won't go wrong in either place - we're regulars to both.

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Thanks for all the replies.

At the moment, I think I'll heavily investigate Soll.

It's not likely to be a busy week so would my normal approach to put in an accommodation request and emailing a load of hotels on the Thursday afternoon, anyone think this a little too risky?

I've a mailing list I made for Saalbach last year that has all the mid range hotels, I'll have to make one for Soll now.

I've found the last minute request can inspire hotels to pretty decent offers. snowHead

I will have a look at the Ski Amade but I'd thought, possibly wrongly, it was a little more spread out than Ski Welt and Ski Circus.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@sean1967, the Ski Amade region is fairly spread out, but within that there are a couple of fairly large contiguous areas. The most obvious are Flachau/Wagrain, and the Gasteins, but one pass covers all of them and there's a lot of skiing. We frequently stay in Flachau, and have stayed in Wagrain a few times, and from Flachau you can easily reach Zauchensee/Flachauwinkel/Kleinarl via a short bus ride, and Wagrain via the G-Link, so that's a pretty big area. Schladming is also fairly big, with 4 main hills to play on plus the Dachstein glacier for a change of scenery. If a different area each day appeals, a central location such as Altenmarkt or Radstadt might be worthwhile, though they are mainly normal towns rather than ski resorts as such even though each has a local slope.

After all it is free

@sean1967, yes, as others have said, Ski Amade is worth adding to your list. Its a massive area so you need to choose a base. Our guesthouse is in Radstadt, and from here, ski busses go our local mountain, Flachau, Zauchensee, Reiteralm to name a few. Also on the Tuesday of your holiday week - British skier Dave Ryding will be hitting the slopes at Schladming for the night slalom which is a fantastic event to see. We have hosted many a happy snowHead

over the years and its always good to meet new snowHead

s. Happy holidays. Very Happy

Ange

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@sean1967, you can get a shared taxi from the for about €50 return, our guests have used a couple of different local companies over the years, you need to book in advance. Or, Flixbus from Salzburg train station to Radstadt for €5ish - each way, again book in advence, or, train to Radstadt for about €17ish each way. HTH. Ange Very Happy

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If the post skiing drinking bit is important then go to Saalbach / Hinterglemm. I may have reservations about the skiing area but most people dont. There are plenty of bars maybe not quite in the St Anton or Ischgl league but not far off at all. See https://www.goasstall.com/ or ask Tatmanstours over on the S-H thread for lots more info. I would say Skiwelt is a bit more sedate, though Söll did have a reputation as a party village for Brits. Not sure if it still has but it does have a great toboggan run. Ski Amade is also good though perhaps lacking a particular centre, a wide variety of villages, easy transfers but perhaps not really party central, though finding somewhere to have a beer or 5 is not normally a problem anywhere in Austria.

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@munich_irish what are the reservations in regards to Saalbach skiing?

You know it makes sense.

I would try searching for accomodation asap as think you may struggle in saalbach you may be lucky in soll ,says it all. At this short notice and with the current snowfall .

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@sean1967, define “better” - both are excellent areas, SkiWelt has lots of long valley runs while Saalbach has more challenging runs and is maybe more snow sure, but either is likely to work well for you. Just get on and do it... wink

A snowHead

I just read your top line @sean1967,
The only answer is hop on the train or a bus to Zell am See.
It takes about an hour and you can drink yourselves silly

A snowHead

Actually if you can get to Soll that would be a good fun place too ...#Its just a bit harder to get to.

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@Ldj226, @sean1967,

I know this is a minority opinion here but a very high proportion of the slopes at S-H are low & south facing, no issue at the moment but not good later in the season. I also dont like what I find to be the fragmented layout of the ski area, though the locals dont agree with me. S-H does have more challenging runs than Skiwelt especially at Fieberbrunn. However Skiwelt has a link to Kitzbühel which I think has better and more challenging skiing than S-H. Personally if I were to choose a location for a ski holiday here I would go for either Brixen or Kirchhberg both of which allow easy access to both Skiwelt and Kitzbühel. Neither are particularly great apres locations though of course no difficulty in finding places to go drinking.

In general the mountains in the east of the Tirol and Salzburgerland are lower than in western Austria hence the runs tend to be shorter but the villages tend to be lower so in good conditions (as at the moment) there are some great runs to village level.

I am sure you would have a good time in either place, as others have mentioned availability of accommodation might well be the deciding factor.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@munich_irish thanks useful intel

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@munich_irish, It’s fair of you to concede that the majority on this forum do not share your reservations about Saalbach. I realise that anything I say will be read in the light of the fact that I live there during the ski season (as well as in mid-summer) and have obviously developed a fondness for the Ski Circus.
Without wishing to repeat counter-opinions that we might have shared in the past, it’s perhaps worth pointing out that one of the resort’s big attractions is its connectness - lots of fast lifts and little, if any, need to walk or take ski buses.
I find the reference to a “fragmented” ski area genuinely puzzling. Many skiers of my acquaintance think nothing of skiing around the entire area in a day, including to the bottom of the valley in both Leogang and Fieberbrunn. The ski buses also make it easy to get from one extreme end of the main valley to the other in only 20 minutes - something we often do to get quickly from Hochalm or the Zwolferkogel to the Scholeitenbahn, so that we may finish up skiing down the Kohlmais to our front door.
As for your point about late season conditions on lower, south-facing slopes, in a 270km area (from next season around 450km) there will inevitably be some slopes that those skiers who hate the slush (some of us actually don’t mind it - or even enjoy it) may prefer to avoid in spring weather. However every mountain in the area is served by a gondola, so downloading is easy (even though few people seem to think it necessary), and sometimes (e.g. last season) the conditions in mid-March and early April can be really excellent. We stay until usually the second week of April, and we wouldn’t do that if there wasn’t plenty of enjoyable skiing to be had in late season.
I don’t want to sound defensive, but, in the interests of maintaining a balance and avoid people latching on to a few pejorative comments, I do think it appropriate to point out that many well-travelled people love the resort, return year after year, and find that for them it ticks all the boxes.
Am I right in my admittedly vague recollection that you have never actually stayed in Saalbach and have only visited the area a few times? (I do find that perceptions can be greatly influenced by the location of accommodation, and also of course by subjective experiences of the weather and conditions on a particular visit or a very few visits.)

After all it is free

Righty, thanks for all the advice.

I've booked an apartment in Kirchberg next to the Flackalmbahn.

A bit of a walk into town but should be handy in the mornings and evenings for access to the mountain and is on the main bus route connecting Kitzbuhel to the Ski Welt at Brixen.

@sean1967,
Sounds great.
The Fleckalmbahn has just been replaced so nice shiny new gondola.
Make sure you get a pass to cover both areas.
https://www.superskicard.tirol/en/super-ski-card-ski-pass-tyrol-salzburg-skiing-in-austria.html

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@sean1967, with the extended pass you can ski down to the bottom of the Pendelstein lift and get a short shuttle bus to Ki-West to access that area which is pretty good in its own right and has a great run down to Brixen. At the bottom there is an underpass with a magic carpet to get you back up, and then a rope tow to reach the gondola station, so there's only a very short walk to an escalator and across the bridge to get into the Skiwelt if you wanted to do a short visit. However, it's a huge area and an early bus to Brixen to allow a full day would be well worth it. The valley run back to Brixen can get a bit cut up as it's south facing and fairly narrow and steep in places, so downloading is always an option on the way back.

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@Drammeister, I think you must have had a dram too many, for the Fleckalmbahn is still the old one we love, with the national flags on the cabins. Maybe next season! Laughing

You know it makes sense.

@Drammeister, planned for next summer https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/kitzbuehelkirchberg-kitzski/ski-lifts/l103819/ . Hopefully the new one will be less prone to closure due to high winds.

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Where to go from Salzburg - Ski Welt v Ski Circus

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