 Poster: A snowHead
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Living in a small surf town in spain where schools aren't the best, we're looking to move to an Austrian resort with a reasonably good middle school for our son (will be 12 then). I've looked at the usual, St. Anton, Kitzbühel, Lech, Sölden etc. Am wondering though, if there are any smaller resorts that offer good freeriding while attracting more family style on-piste skiers rather than being full of ski bums that fight for prime positions on powder days. Should be high enough to get fair amounts of snow even with our warming climate temperatures. Fieberbrunn came to my mind, but I'm hesitant bc it's really low..? Any ideas appreciated!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@butterhead, most of Ski Amadé would fit those criteria. Real towns rather than purpose-built resorts, with schools and amenities such as Radstadt, Bad Hofgastein, St. Johann, Schladming, etc. and access to many ski areas all on the same lift pass. It works for me (although I'm a bit too old for school!).
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I do like the "one-lift-wonder resorts"! And the "angsty freeriders" cracked me up hahaha 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well - Kappl in Paznautal could be an option:-) close to some major areas, but still not big enough to catch the eyes of the powderhounds. School in town, and highschool i Landeck:-)
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Maybe Klösterle, or a village close to it? You get Sonnenkopf, which is a pretty laid-back ski area, with heaps of side/off-piste possibilities, and on the same lift pass as the rest of the Arlberg. Might be a “best of all worlds”?
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re Fieberbrunn. I never bothered visiting as it seemed to be another small low resort, plenty of those around. Great for families in a snowy January or February not so good for others. However once the link the Saalbach was opened I did visit as it was a much easier trip from Munich. What I saw was the area between Fieberbrunn and the Glemmtal, mainly the big bowl below the Hochhörndl (?) , which gives the place (and Saalbach) a completely different dimension. You can see why it hosts the freeride World Tour. Off piste touring routes down towards Kitzbühel too. Even so it is still not that high, maybe 2000m or so, fine for January or February other times maybe not so much.
There was a recent discussion here about the best place to move to in the mountains, to live in not just in the ski season, much of it was dull and boring but a common thought was Innsbruck might not be too far from the ideal. As @clarky999 regularly demonstrates there is a lot of freeride / touring skiing nearby (some of it suitable for a quick run before starting work in the morning, certainly for a couple of hours in the afternoon). A goodly number of large areas nearby Arlberg, Paznauntal, Zillertal etc etc plus lots of smaller places. There are plenty of year round mountain activities too. From a general life perspective its good for work, finding places to live, schools etc. Some of the smaller towns like Landeck, Imst and Jenbach could be similar.
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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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Went to Fieberbrunn before the link to Saalbach opened. It's a proper snow trap that place, altitude means nothing with that sort of aspect/orientation.
Not sure I could live there though, it's a really small town, I wouldn't even call it a town.
Incidentally, why are you discounting Switzerland? Not sure Austria is that much cheaper any more.
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| ulmerhutte wrote: |
| Might be a “best of all worlds”? |
The “best of all worlds” is definitely what we're looking for, small enough to be overlooked by the powderhounds but close enough to some bigger resorts
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Bodeswell wrote: |
Went to Fieberbrunn before the link to Saalbach opened. It's a proper snow trap that place, altitude means nothing with that sort of aspect/orientation.
Not sure I could live there though, it's a really small town, I wouldn't even call it a town. |
Interesting, reg the snow trap despite the altitude...!
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| Incidentally, why are you discounting Switzerland? Not sure Austria is that much cheaper any more. |
We've been skiing all over the European alps but Switzerland has always been more expensive. Even the Swiss people go to Austria if it's close bc its cheaper. Sure, if you count St. Anton, Kitzbühel and the likes, they're just as expensive, but there's a lot of not so fancy resorts that for sure are cheaper, especially reg every day living costs.
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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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Thank you guys for all the input, there's a lot of material to get my research started 
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| Bodeswell wrote: |
| Incidentally, why are you discounting Switzerland? Not sure Austria is that much cheaper any more. |
Austria is significantly cheaper – we have friends in Basel and have heard about the eye watering costs of living. It can be affordable on a good Swiss wage, but as @butterhead says, lots of Swiss cross the border because of the price difference. In Austria, most costs (except car stuff) is around the same or maybe a little less than the UK, depending on where you come from.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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@DB, thanks for the school links. Unfortunately a lot of them are in Vienna where we definitely don't want to live, too far away from the good stuff... But there's actually some more in other places that I hadn't previously found. Although I do like the idea of getting my son into a German speaking school so he'll be perfect in all 3 languages. And we don't really want to be in a city, although you're right, the Austrian cities are quite small and living in the outskirts isn't really city life...
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Poster: A snowHead
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@butterhead,
Best schoools, job opportunities & wages tend to be in Vienna, best skiing is elsewhere. Weekend trips are perfectly possible from Vienna and it often tops the "best quality of life" city list. I often do ski touring day trips at the weekend (90 mins each way). Will probably move out west when I retire and can ski most days.
Just in case you haven't already seen it this thread has a lot of useful info.
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=151203
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@butterhead, have you thought about some of the German resorts? Pretty decent freeride possibilities around Oberstdorf on Nebelhorn and Fellhorn / Kleinwalsertal. Not full of ski bums like the bigger resorts. Oberstdorf has everything you need in terms of schools and amenities. It's not just a village, so is not quite as badly hit by the seasonal variations as a true ski village.
My wife comes from Mittelberg/Kleinwalsertal, which is in Austria, but only reachable from Germany by car ( you can walk / ski tour from Lech/Warth if that's your thing ). Village life is fine during the summer and winter seasons, but non-existant between the seasons. Deader than a dead thing. "Da willst du nicht tot über den Zaun Hängen". I think this applies to most ski resort type places, so I would definitely be looking for a slightly bigger place with easy ski access but with all the amenities at hand.
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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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@Steilhang, Garmisch too...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| DB wrote: |
@butterhead,
Best schoools, job opportunities & wages tend to be in Vienna, best skiing is elsewhere. Weekend trips are perfectly possible from Vienna and it often tops the "best quality of life" city list. I often do ski touring day trips at the weekend (90 mins each way). Will probably move out west when I retire and can ski most days. |
We definitely don't want to live in a city, even if it tops the best quality of life list  best job opportunities and wages is not of interest in our case (my husband has his own business and can work from anywhere and I am a self employed holistic nutritionist, so a city would have better opportunities to find clients but this is not the first priority. It doesn't have to be "the best school" either, some smaller local schools can still be good, this is obviously something we'll have to research when we narrowed down or search, but for now our priority is finding a place where we can ski daily without having to drive more than 15-30min, and that has bigger resorts within an hour. So definitely not Vienna, but some of the options mentioned earlier i.e. sound promising.
if I read this thread correctly, it is all about how to make a living in the mountains? As mentioned above, this is not our problem, we have jobs we can do from anywhere/online. I was looking for ideas of "where" more than "how" - but everybody's input has really helped to get started, so I'm sure we'll find something 
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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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@butterhead,
Wasn't sure of your line of work and how flexible your work is. As I said earlier I wouldn't recommend Vienna for someone who is looking for big mountain skiing if they can afford to live nearer the mountains. Having said that Vienna is much better than living in Manchester, Wolverhampton or Ipswich on so many levels inc. skiing. If you are self employed and can take days off or be flexible with your hours at short notice to chase powder then being near the big mountains is great. If you are still working and have appointments etc you could end up getting paid a lot less than in a city to work during the week while all around you the tourists are going skiing. Some places (resorts, villages etc) are very much dependant on tourism and the actual all year round population can be very low. Small villages etc tend to look after their own (this is true in many places inc. the UK and Austria). Trying to start up a business, providing a service in an area with a low population where locals prefer to keep business local can be a real struggle. A friend of mine moved to Graz from Vienna, his mother is German but he's still seen as an outsider (as I was when I lived in a small derbyshire village and near Tenbury wells in England).
My Mum & Dad moved to Spain and said every day would be a holiday on the beach, they only go to the beach when they have visitors now. I suspect the same happens to some people who move to ski areas. There is more to life than the beach or skiing.
The thread I mentioned above covers "how" and "where".
It's really difficult to get the right balance but it sounds like you have many more opportunities than most, best of luck.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
| @Steilhang, Garmisch too... |
Yep, Garmisch also good.
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