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Austrian resorts which don't depend on gondola?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Odd question, I know. But my partner and I are planning a ski trip, probably to Austria, in March, and are a little concerned about Covid still, and would prefer not to start each day crammed into an unventilated gondola with loads of other people. We were just about to book for Mayrhofen when I realised that basically you require a gondola to get out of the village. So I'm looking for tips for other places, which are likely to have decent snow mid-March, where you can start off with a chairlift, preferably places where the package holiday companies such as Crystal go to. We don't need to avoid gondolas and cable cars altogether, just at the very busiest times.
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Obertauern? Good mid March snow record, but low amount of vertical due to height of resort. 100km of runs. Only 1 gondola from memory.
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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?
Mrs MA and I are in Austria now, getting 2 weeks' use out of our Tirol Snowcards.

We've skied nine different ski areas (from small to large) in the last 12 days. All but one require a gondola to access the skiing. Having said that, at the smaller, off the UK radar ski areas (eg Kappl, See, Hochoetz, Hochzeiger and Galtuer) we haven't had to queue at all on a morning and have ridden the access gondolas on our own.

The odd one out, with both fast chairlift and gondola access was Galtuer. It's a lovely small village, at 1400m, so will have skiing to valley level in March. Only 40km of piste but most runs are fairly steep - no poling along required. Great scenery and nice mountain restaurants too.

Should you decide to give gondolas a go, Ischgl and Kappl are covered on the same lift pass and there's a free ski bus.

I'm fairly sure Crystal and co. do package holidays there.
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Quote:
Obertauern?
Good suggestion s397cyg. It's a pretty decent ski area.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Obertauern? Crystal, Igluski and Inghams do packages there. In March you'll have low risk of poor visibility too.
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s397cyg wrote:
Obertauern? Good mid March snow record, but low amount of vertical due to height of resort. 100km of runs. Only 1 gondola from memory.


Thanks! Only package I've found so far to there was prohibitively expensive but I'll keep looking.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
We were in Söll over New Year and never once had to share a Gondola, resorts aren’t busy and people are conscious of not piling into Gondolas
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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!
For Mayrhofen, get uplift from the Horberg lift instead. You'll be alone in a cabin.
Or pop down the valley to Zillertal Arena and/or Kaltenbach, where they both have 2 gondolas up on to the mountain, where you will also have the cabin to yourself. In all of those, I've never had to queue for more than the 3rd gondola, and don't ever recall anyone else getting in my gondola cabin up, ever. On the way down maybe 2 other people if coming down at a busy time.
I'd be more concerned about the hotel dining room.
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J2R wrote:
s397cyg wrote:
Obertauern? Good mid March snow record, but low amount of vertical due to height of resort. 100km of runs. Only 1 gondola from memory.


Thanks! Only package I've found so far to there was prohibitively expensive but I'll keep looking.


Yes it’s a difficult balance. The valley towns do tend to have cheaper options, but they have invested in gondolas to get you up to altitude quickly. The amount of gondola investment over that’s 15 years is incredible. Kuhtai is similar to obertauern, but I have not been.
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2waterford wrote:
We were in Söll over New Year and never once had to share a Gondola, resorts aren’t busy and people are conscious of not piling into Gondolas
I'm relatively confident that numbers are about to go up, a couple of hotel owners I have spoken to in the last couple of days are telling me they are full from either this weekend or next. The removal of UK and Netherlands from virus variant list makes travel easier. Germany will still have problems with children so maybe still not as busy as usual.
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If you go to the Espace Diamant in France, it's a sizeable ski area (about the size of the Kitzbuhel area) and there were no gondolas until this season, and now there's only one, on the edge of the domain and easily avoided. All chairlifts and drags otherwise - terribly healthy. If you go the second week in March it will all be very quiet. Stay in Les Saisies, the highest of the centres in the area, at 1650m. Lots of easy and intermediate skiing, beautiful scenery (Mont Blanc), very reasonable accommodation and not many irritating package-tour Brits. You need to DIY, but it's very easily done.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Gondolas are not being packed in any resort, so if you get there early you avoid the crowds, plus if there are people there, you can travel up with less than full capacity. I wouldn't let that worry me too much to be honest. You will be wearing pp2 face masks,
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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
Gondolas are not being packed in any resort, so if you get there early you avoid the crowds, plus if there are people there, you can travel up with less than full capacity. I wouldn't let that worry me too much to be honest. You will be wearing pp2 face masks,
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@J2R, Lech. 4 banger chairlift out of the village on the main side of the resort

Zurs would also work
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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, a lot to work with there. In retrospect I phrased the question wrongly. I should actually have asked about cable cars instead of gondolas, because that's where the biggest risk is, loads of people crammed into a tight space, and often with a tendency to wait until they're reasonably full before going. Gondolas/bubbles are obviously less risky, as you might have a max of 8 people in them and you can often open a window anyway.

Wife is far more wary about this than I am, but she's a doctor, so she knows stuff.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
How do you plan on getting to the resort itself?
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@J2R, Lech or St Anton, Lech as above and Gampen/ Zammermoosbahn chairs in Anton. You will have to use gondolas up Stuben, Rendl and Schindler though. I’m with you btw….no desire to be stuck in a bubble with others I don’t know
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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 think you'd waste your money on Lech if you don't want to use gondolas - while it's perfectly possible to ski a fair number of runs just using chairlifts, you do need gondolas to make full use of the resort and access a lot of the fun stuff. Having said that, later in the day you might find them quieter. I think St Anton is easier to get around in that respect. I used to be scared of gondolas (really!) and was perfectly happy in St Anton, mostly relying on chairlifts.

Obertauern can be done almost entirely without ever setting foot on a gondola. It's an 8 seater and at Christmas we always managed to have it to ourselves as a family of 4. But the slopes are probably busier now.
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Katschberg has a large-ish area you can ski without needing a gondola. Kleinarl does too - although if you want to ski over to Zauchensee then you need the gondola.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@rjp123, yes, of course we're going to be using an aeroplane and a transfer coach, both of which are Covid risks Smile. Can't do anything about that, though, but would still like to minimise other risks.
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