 Poster: A snowHead
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I mentioned this in another thread noting that we have only really been to 3V and GM in France; and really ought to go further afield. The shopping list is...
In short, we would like...
Lots of wide cruisey blues and reds for 'us'; and a few blacks for me.
Big area for 4 weeks, and maybe a cheeky sneak back in March for a 5th
Good quality 2 bedroom self catering accomodation... comfort for old bones and quiet evenings after skiing
Ski Pass way cheaper than 1400E each if poss
Free parking
Not much to ask.. , but the choices seem endless...
I got a couple of replies, but thought hijacking that thread was a bit much, so, here I am.
Zillertal valley and Tirol Snow Card was mentioned, but that area seems (at a quick look) too red-heavy for my wife who remains a bit cautious. Any other suggestions? Info on travel, accom and instruction are as welcome as skiing hints. Thanks
CG
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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90 odd ski resorts on the Tirol Snow Card,
Red - heavy!
I think your missus might find a few blues to keep her amused, in the several hundred km of piste. 
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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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Tirol Snow Card or Salzburg Ski Card. Both around £700ish. Some resorts are common to both (e.g. Kitz, SkiWelt) and then others are unique to the pass. It can be hard to find 4 weeks continuous accommodation in Austria (not impossible) so you may as well take advantage of that and try a few areas. This is actually a good thing in my opinion.
Some people love Solden and Mayrhofen in which case choose the Tirol pass and others love Saalbach so go for the Salzburger. My money the last couple of seasons has been on Salzburger but it's personal preference at the end of the day.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Bergmeister, On closer looking, Solden appears to have the odd blue! 
@andybomb1, Cheers. I'll have a good look.
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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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@Charliegolf, you will not be short of blues and reds pretty much anywhere in Austria. I haven't skied Mayrhofen and that's one place people on here offer caution to complete beginners, much the same as they do for Tignes in bad conditions. FWIW, I think Solden is marginally harder / less interesting than the other places I mentioned in Austria for timid skiers but still entirely realistic to go to.
I'm assuming you're driving based on the request for free parking so it makes sense to point out that you can drive between huge ski areas such as Kitz or SkiWelt and Fieberbrunn which links into the just as huge Saalbach in half and hour. All easy bottom of the valley stuff too with easy parking almost everywhere so depending what your idea of après is you can hit a lot of places that you might not have otherwise considered possible. There's people on here that will be able to tell you how to join the dots further east in Salzburger land which I'm no expert on.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Charliegolf, Ischgl is on the tyrol snow card also. That's a heavy weight station
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'Twas me who responded to Charliegolf on the original thread (ie 'It's a Wrap'...). After recommending the Tirol Snow Card, and after suggesting the Ziller Valley, I had suggested the following possibilities for a two or more centre trip over a few weeks:
- Sölden/Obergurgl.
- Ski Welt (Söll, Ellmau, Hopfgarten etc).
- Ischgl/Galtür/Kappl/See.
- Kitzbühel.
All would have enough to entertain skiers of every level, as well as offering a wide range of accommodation and decent access by public transport.
You could even throw in an Innsbruck stay (as we did this winter) - beautiful city, loads of dining options and 7 or 8 ski areas easily accessed by public transport. (Free bus in some cases.)
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@mountainaddict, I'll be doing kitz at Xmas/new-year would you say there's plenty for 2 weeks?
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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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@Charliegolf, I think your wife would like the Saalbach area.
More blues than reds according to Bergfex.
I assume you can go there on one of the multi-resort ski cards.
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I'll be doing kitz at Xmas/new-year would you say there's plenty for 2 weeks?
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As always, it depends on conditions, and what type of skiing you want. We stayed in Kirchberg for a while this season, and could either take the ski bus (I don't see much point in driving less than 2km) to the lifts into the Kitzbuhel ski area, or drive 10 minutes to Brixen for SkiWelt, and it was a pretty even split which we did. The main factor was the weather; if it was windy, the Kitzbuhel lifts seemed much more likely to shut, so we got in a habit of checking the lift status first thing if it was likely to be windy, and most often ended up at Brixen.
If you're in the Kitzbuhel area, it's worth considering the odd day elsewhere. If you're staying in Kitzbuhel, you've either got the train to Brixen, or the bus the St. Johann
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Paying close attention to this thread as we've been talking Austria for next season.
Missus learnt in Mayrhofen in 2019, and I've been to Bad Gastein and Wagrain, but the latest of those two was in 2008, so quite a while ago!
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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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I’d second the suggestions of using the Zillertal as a base. If I was planning a four week trip I’d base myself in one of the village near the entrance to the Zillertal. Kaltenbach is my favourite area for cruisy blues, or Hochfugen. Loads of skiing in the Zillertal and you’re pretty close to the motorway there for ski away days or trips to Innsbruck or Salzburg. I rented a really nice apartment in the small village of Stumm for a fortnight and had a great time there.
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From your description I would say Saalbach Hinterglemm would be best. If you fancy easily being able to explore some other places (Kitzbühel, SkiWelt, Hochkönig) then one of the outlying villages of Leogang or Fieberbrunn would be better. Zell am See might be another good option, linked to the SH area but also easy to get to Kitzbühel ("back door" at Mittersill), the glacier at Kaprun, even Ski Amade (Alpendorf / St Johann im Pongau) is not far. As it is a slightly bigger town it might be easier to get suitable accommodation. If you dont fancy wandering than either of the main villages in the Glemmtal itself would work. Lots of info on the SH thread and local resident @tatmantours, .
I would say the Zillertal is a good option though some seem to think not so many easy runs.
Serfaus might work though not sure how easy to find suitable accommodation.
If you have the cash then Lech would be perfect, you could get in some trips across to St Anton (plenty of more challenging stuff in Lech too) with lots of straight forward skiing around Lech & Warth.
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You know it makes sense.
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@viv, we're in to O/P, steeper Black and itinerary runs don't mind trenching on blues for a bit. I've got kids in tow though at ages 7 and 9 as of next year. we kinda have to pick a station and stick with it due to ski schools etc.
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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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@Charliegolf, Warth/ Schrocken/ Zurs / Lech / St Anton to have widest selection of runs and greatest chance of good snow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Charliegolf, Saalbach Hinterglemm, the ski circus would be a reasonable choice, you have the link over to Fieberbrunn and then the new one over to Zell, if you are driving then Kraprun and Maria Alm are within easy reach.
Saalbach will give you free parking at the lift stations, found this out this season!
Its a large linked area, good lift infrastructure, lots of heated seats. There are lots of nice blues a few challenging blacks and some interesting reds, it's quite mixed and there is also off piste and the itinerary routes, decent mountain restaurants
@Tatmantours, is the local expert, he introduced us to the delights of Saalbach and we landed up with an apartment.
This is the thread for Saalbach https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=156241&start=960&sid=65cc6846f56698ca2650020930c57b57
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Wow! Hours of reading, best I take one for the team lol. Thanks everyone, keep em coming.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@swskier, @Charliegolf,
Ski Amade!! But I would say that. The lift pass for the Ski Amade area (760km Gastein, Hochkonig, Schladming, Wagrain, Alpendorf, Flachau et al) was €645 if booked before early December. Add on another €100 for the Salzburgland Super Pass which includes Saalbach, Zell, Kitzbuhel, Ski Welt, Zillertal Arena (but not Mayrhofen) and others.
If you go for just the Ski Amade (which is probably more than enough for you) then I suggest you base yourselves in Wagrain, Flachau or Altenmarkt to be more central. For the latter, then Saalbach is as good a place as any, but to be honest I'd opt for two weeks in one and two weeks in the other. Less driving between Ski Areas that way.
I'd also consider how many days you will actually ski? Plan on a couple of non-skiing (or bad weather) days and look at where you'd like to visit. Salzburg is fab at anytime of year but Zell am Zee can be a little insular after a week or so. Choose your base wisely.
Apartments will be similar cost pretty much anywhere outside Kitzbuhel or Mayrhofen (not sure the Zillertal really suits you by the way) but book early and seek out deals from owners. If you use Airbnb and want 4 weeks then use the "enquiry" function. If you are looking at January or March, you can make a reasonable offer and might be surprised. Try Chalets Direct too, that way you speak directly to the owner. For 4 weeks in Jan 23 (after Drei Konigstag) or Mar 23 anything less than €4000 would be a good deal.
PM me if you have any questions or you'd like more info on for Ski Amade.
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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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The Zillertal valley is not a bad option having been to Kaltenbach a while ago and you can access some of the others by train rather than car if you wanted to.
Lots of wide cruisey blues and reds for 'us'; and a few blacks for me: split appears to be (I've added Hintertux as its not far)
Total kms Blue Red Black
Kaltenbach – Hochzillertal/Hochfügen (SKi-optimal) 86 30 41 15
Spieljoch – Fügen 17 4 11 3
Zillertal Arena – Zell am Ziller/Gerlos/Königsleiten/Hochkrimml 147 49 87 11
Mayrhofen – Penken/Ahorn/Rastkogel/Eggalm 142 44 66 32
Total 391 126 205 60
100% 32% 52% 15%
Hintertux Glacier (Hintertuxer Gletscher) 60 14 35 11
100% 23% 58% 18%
I didnt recall many reds being tough reds though and its condition dependant too.
Good quality 2 bedroom self catering accomodation... comfort for old bones and quiet evenings after skiing:
As an example we stayed in this apartment - https://www.vrbo.com/en-gb/p5183800?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-04-30&childrenCount=2&departure=2022-05-07&uni_id=3735152 - its the best value/biggest we have come across for the money in any country so far (£850 per week at the mo -but I have their details if you wanted to try direct), it was very comfortable and well appointed, the local agent was great (just a few doors down), and its next to a hotel that does good food and near a ski bus stop, they also have another one in the same block - note they took bank transfers (maybe different now?) and the location is actually a little further south than shown on this website for some reason, nearer Arhnbach.
Ski Pass way cheaper than 1400E each if poss - 21 days is eur780
Free parking - I think the parking at Kaltenbach was free (we used the bus)
But you have such choice, good luck!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@ster, That looks a great place. Do the local ski buses go past the door? I can see it's near the main Innsbruck to Mayrhofen bus route.
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@Riccardo, Its not far from the bus stop at all, the apartment is actually about here - 47.28089576160874, 11.894964856093486 - copy that into google maps. From here you can see the bus stop on Ahrnbachstraße just outside Natur Resort Rissbacher (gosh that place has changed since we were last there). Maps will take you via the roads if you ask it to plot a walking route so about 400m. But you can walk down a pathway which links Loachweg to Distelbergstraße along side the Alpaka farm to the Rissbacher resort which is a bit shorter.
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@ster, Fantastic, many thanks. Frequency of the buses?
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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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@Riccardo, we only took the ski-bus to and from the apartment to Hochzillertal area (Kaltenbach) and this was a while ago. From memory that local ski-bus didnt run at a very frequent intervals and could get quite busy. I cant see them in the links below though as there seemed to be several local ski-bus routes running from the Kaltenbach gondola to the local areas, these seemed to come in the gondola in the morning and only back out in the afternoon, so you couldnt take them back and forth all day, and they didnt seem to run in the middle of the day at all, a bit odd but thats how it seemed.
We did take the normal country bus (post bus I think - see the normal bus networks) to/from the Fugen swimming pool complex as well.
No idea about how it was to Mayrhofen.
But the schedules were listed here - best to check that for the most up to date info nearer where you want to go.
https://www.hochzillertal.com/en/ski-area/ski-bus-train/
https://www.zillertal.at/en/information/holiday-info/mobile-in-the-zillertal.html
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@ster, Thanks again, gives me plenty to think about. Always a trade off, proximity to the slopes vs value for money. But if you're going to take a bus to the base station anyway, you might as well be further away and pay less but you need that insider knowledge of how easy it actually is to travel about. The main attraction of the valley would be the ability to get there from Innsbruck cheaply and quickly and then be able to access different areas as conditions/whims dictate.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Charliegolf, if you’re interested in Saalbach as a possibility and would like a copy of my comprehensive guide to the resort, send me a P.M. (with your email address). As a Saalbach resident I can also help you with all the incidentals.
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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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@tatmanstours, That's really kind; and since nothing is off the table yet, I'll send you that PM. Cheers
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