 Poster: A snowHead
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looking for somewhere for myself, an intermediate piste cruiser, and my partner, a nervous beginner. Finkenberg has come up as a possibility, so I'd be grateful for any feedback on how it would be for a beginner e.g ease of access to beginners slopes, choice, ski schools etc.
I Would also be interested in how easy it would be for the beginner to get up the mountain to, say, meet for lunch ( ie are there any huts near gondolas/cable cars or with easy runs back down)
cheers
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 11-10-09 18:02; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The beginner area at Finkenberg is close to the top gondola station. There are blue pistes with lifts bringing you back up to the gondola station as well as blue pistes that go to the Penken area. The Penken is the area that is directly accessible from Mayrhofen itself so it can get quite busy. There are plenty of restaurants around the top of Finkenberg and around the Penken, easily accessible for both of you... My personal favourite is at the top of Finkenberg - called Christa's Skialm, where they sell roast chickens. 
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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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thanksSaraJ, I presume then that the beginner area is pretty exposed should the weather close in, though it sounds as though there's plenty of places to retreat to should that happen.
I notice you're located in the area, do you know anything about the local ski schools ?
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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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nickH, Finkenberg should be fine - we went there as nervous 2nd weekers after Andorra, and loved the place so much we've gone back 3 more times in between other Austrian areas.
Plusses are that the village is small and not too noisy except for one bar by the lift station, and the skiing area is excellent, especially with the link into the Penken area. The beginners slopes are right at the top of the lift. For intermediates, the run back to middle station is challenging but fun, while anyone comfortable on blacks will love Black 12 down Katzenmoos. Finkenberg is the perfect backdoor into the Penken area, avoiding the lift queues in Mayrhofen, and the "interesting" apres ski bars.
Minus points are that the beginners area is not large, there are few blue slopes in the whole ski area, and the two main ones on Penken (2 and 20) are effectively just roadways for much of their length, so they can be busy and develop into U-shaped pipes at peak times. Blue 14 on the Finkenberg side is much wider and easier to handle, but is relatively short and ends at a T-bar. Tree-line skiing at Finkenberg is limited to the red and black runs, so if the weather closes in (fairly rare, in my experience), visibility will be down to 20 feet at times.
As soon as your partner can handle blues with some degree of comfort, take yourself over the Penken side via the blue ski route (there's a set of spped control gates half-way down: take it easy approaching them...) and then go up the 150er Tux cable car and play on Rastkogel - long, cruising blues and reds but sometimes a bit exposed and wind blasted. Coming back, go back down in the cable car, then up Nordhangbahn to get back to the Finkenberg side (or send your partner down in the car and take the spectacular but hardish red 16 off the ridge for great view.
Also, for a nervous beginner, always take the free ski bus to the lift if you are more than 50 metres away - the uphill or downhill walk through the village is not easy for beginners, as the village is on a 20 degree slope, since it is half-way up the side of the valley.
On the mountain, there's no such thing as a bad place to eat - they're uniformly excellent in their own way, but with enough variety to cater for everyone.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Oh, and for ski schools, the Skischule Finkenberg was good in our experience, but that was about 7 years ago. For equipment hire, also try the ski school, with their shop below Café Sennhütte opposite the lift station. As well as providing excellent service (and good English spoken), as part of the ski school they have a store on the mountain where you can leave your kit overnight if you wish. While this limits the options for trips futher afield (your pass covers the whole valley, and Hintertux and Eggalm are worth a visit), it can be helpful for some.
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May be the title should be "I am going to Mayrhofen would Finkenberg area suitable for a beginner?"
The Finkenberg is one of the 4 gondolas to the Marhofen area which the Austria steepest groomed piste situates. The information provided by the site list the following.
Ahorn Mayrhofen 670-1965 m
18 km overall, 9 km medium, 9 km easy
Penken Mayrhofen/Hippach 630-2095 m
58 km oevrall, 5 km hard, 35 km medium, 18 km easy
Penken Finkenberg
34 km overall, 10 km hard, 21 km medium, 3 km easy
Rastkogel Vorderlanersbach 1300-2500 m
28 km overall, 5 km hard, 14 km medium, 9 km easy
Eggalm Lanersbach 1300-2300 m
21 km overall, 13 km hard, 6 km easy
Staying in Mayrhofen may be better for accessing Ahorn which I thought is more suitable for beginners. From Finkenberg one can ski to Rastkogel and Eggalm too.
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SaraJ, ousekjarr, saikee, thanks all, some really useful information, though I'm not sure it's made it any easier to make a decision !!
Basically having left it a bit late for really cheap flights , & thus going diy as I normally do, I'm now scouring the t/o options & looking for somewhere that will be good for both of us as far as the skiing goes, somewhere I've not been before ( saalbach, kitzbuhel, flachau, ischgl) pleasant & not too noisy or busy on the social side. Finkenberg has come up as an option as have a number of the ski welt resorts.
ousekjarr, having tried some of the other austrian resorts can you recommend any others over finkenberg that I'm likely to find with the t/o's
saikee, heaven forbid that I should put my needs first !! (I'll not mention that I'll be having a week in the dolomites on my own before joining my partner in austria) 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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nickH, Rule out Ischgl then. as while it might suit you its not really beginner territory and expensive. As Saikee has said the Ahorn in Mayrhofen is suitable for beginners - excellent I would say. The downside is, that apart from a great run down to the village, an experienced skier would find it limiting. You would need to go to the Penken which would make it difficult to meet for lunch. Finkenberg is a nice place but blooming hilly. 
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nickH, going with a tour op, you'll find that most of their capacity is concentrated on a few places such as Mayrhofen and Saalbach. Flachau would be an excellent choice as long as you are happy to use free buses to see a wider area (I wrote a Trip Report in January), but it is pretty much DIY only. Saalbach was our second Austrian destination, and was a great success - at the time, the biggest issue was aching legs due to the length of the runs and the keenness of the skiers  T/O packages are (/were?) plentiful, and not too expensive, but we did it by DIY via Salzburg and a private transfer due to there being 12 of us. It has a wide range of slopes, with a lot of crusing blues and reds, and being on both sides of an east-west valley, there are always good conditions somewhere.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Also - Zell am See is worth a look, although with a beginner I'd avoid Kaprun as a base as the glacier needs a degree of confidence and the number of T-bars can be offputting. Having said that, the Maiskogel runs into town can be great if occasionally busy at pinch points, but they are extremely limited. Zell on the other hand has enough for an intermediate for a week.
You don't say when you are looking to go - it's never too late for DIY, but if it was half term or New Year you were after, it will now be fairly expensive to find flights.
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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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Corky, ousekjarr, thanks again. My last post was not very clear as saalbach, flachau etc are places I've been & hence would rather go elsewhere, though I must admit to a real weak spot for saalbach & would certainly like to see more of the ski amade area.
The main reason for looking at t/o's is that because I can't find any particularly cheap flights ( I live in bristol & going via gatwick adds a fair bit in both time, petrol & parking), their prices are competitive if not better than I can do it myself, even though I'm looking at the 2nd or 3rd weeks in jan when things are quietish.
Have either of you done any of the ski welt resorts ? ( soll, ellmau, sheffau etc ?)
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nickH, I have no experience of the Ski Welt, sorry - it's on my list of possibles for next year though, so if you do go, please write it up...
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You know it makes sense.
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ousekjarr, will do, though the possibility of fitzmoos has just come up so ............
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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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nickH, My first ever skiing holiday was in Ellmau but I can remember little about it other than the nursery slopes are on the edge of the village. I was in ski school and spent three days on them which saved on lift passes. However, Elmau isn't particularly snow sure and had I gone a week later would have had to learn up on the mountain as the nusery slopes had completely lost their snow cover.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Corky, yeah, the height is a bit of a worry, particularly as I'm looking at the 2nd week in jan ! I remember arriving in flachau the 19th jan a few years ago to pouring rain & brown mountains with muddy white strips on them ! perhaps another reason to consider finkenberg as the glacier is just up the road !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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nickH,
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I can't find any particularly cheap flights
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This may be of no interest to you at all (because I realise that Stansted is not exactly convenient for Bristol), but Ryanair is currently offering mid-January flights to Linz for £10 with no taxes and charges or check-in fees. Linz is about an hour by train from Salzburg and I think they may do direct trains from there (as well as via Salzburg) to Zell am See and no doubt other places (see www.oebb.at). Just a thought.
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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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I can't find any particularly cheap flights ( I live in bristol
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EasyJet are flying from Bristol to Innsbruck on Fridays and Sundays.
If you are able to DIY and aren't restricted to places that T/Os have accommodation, I would suggest looking at Hochzillertal... The beginner terrain there is excellent and there's lots of great skiing for you there too
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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thanks Tatman's tours, those are great prices & will sit & do the maths, but stansted is something of a bug to get to from bristol.
thanks alsoSaraJ, I'm aware of the flights but the trick will be to find accomodation that's not tied to sat/sat only, otherwise there's a night or two extra to be spent somewhere, all of which adds to cost ( unless it means an extra days skiing, in which case ..... !!!) Will certainly look further into hochzillertal as well
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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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SaraJ, have been looking at the hochzillertal & it's pretty interesting & has raised a few questions. It looks as though it's made up of a number of villages - can you recommend any particular area/village that has easy acess to a beginners area ? can you recommend any particular hotels ? what are the chances of finding a good english speaking instructor for my partner ?
cheers
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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nickH,
Aargh!! No! 
I just spent ages answering your questions and giving you loads of info... I clicked Submit and Hey presto! It all disappeared.
Let me go and compose myself, then I'll come back and try again.
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nickH,
No easy answer to your questions, I’m afraid. You’ll have to decide what your priorities are and do some compromising.
The Hochzillertal Ski Area includes Hochzillertal and Hochfügen. The base of Hochzillertal is in Kaltenbach in the main Ziller valley, Hochfügen is at the end of a side valley that starts in Fügen. There is a ski bus from Fügen to Hochfuegen every 15mins and is a 20/25mins journey.
Kaltenbach has the easiest access to a good beginner area outside the top of the gondola. The top of the gondola in this case is not at the top of the mountain.
Kaltenbach itself is quite spread out; there are a few hotels, restaurants and a great Après Ski bar called Postalm. It’s not noticeably a holiday village though. A lot of people drive to Kaltenbach to ski and drive away in the evening.
Stumm, on the opposite side of the river to Kaltenbach is prettier, more compact and is a short bus ride away, about 5mins.
I haven’t stayed in either village so I don’t have any personal recommendations but if you search on www.zillertal.at for accommodation, let me know what you like the look of and I can tell you what I think with regards to location etc. (Sometimes it’s possible to find places that from their address appear to be in a central location but in actual fact are halfway up a mountain!)
Hochfügen has 3 or 4 hotels, some self catering accommodation, a small kiosk/shop and a couple of après ski bars and nothing else. You walk out of your accommodation, across the road, put your skis on, go skiing… It’s a great place to stay if you want to ski for as long as possible, have a few drinks and collapse into bed. If you are prone to cabin fever and need a change of scenery once in a while it’s not ideal. Once the last ski bus has gone at 1715, without a car you would be stuck.
The beginner area is directly across the road from the accommodation.
Fügen has plenty of choice of hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and bars. The downside is the bus ride up to Hochfügen to ski. Saying that, lots of people do it because the skiing is worth the journey. There is a ski area accessed by gondola from Fügen, called Spieljoch, It would be a great place for your partner to learn – a good beginner area and not busy. On the other hand, you might find it a bit limited for yourself for a week.
For lessons on the Hochfügen side of the ski area I would recommend Top Privat (www.topprivate.at). Although, the clue is in the name and they only do private lessons.
For group lessons, Skischule Kostenzer and Skischule Total are both ok. It depends on who you get (and who they recruit for the season). As for English speaking, you would more than likely have an English speaking Dutch instructor.
On the Kaltenbach side, Skischule Optimal is the biggest ski school.
For ski hire in Fügen/Hochfügen, Ski Check have good equipment, Sport 2000 Unterlercher have a great selection. In Kaltenbach, Sport Stock have a good choice and have a Ski Depot in the gondola station where you can leave your equipment overnight.
For a transfer from Innsbruck Airport to Zillertal, look at Four Seasons Travel (www.tirol-taxi.at/airporttransfer/index.html). Or, cheaper would be the train. 10mins bus ride from the airport to the main railway station, then a train to Jenbach, then change onto the Zillertalbahn. Costs about €10. For train times look at www.oebb.at
Phew! I hope this helps… If you have any more questions, give me a shout.
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SaraJ, many thanks for persevering - loads of really useful information. I've had a look at the zillertal site, but you've really helped give it some perspective.
It looks as though fugen or kaltenbach are the most likely contenders as both have easy access to the beginner slopes ( my partner is not yet used to walking distances in ski boots & with ski gear), so will now start to check out the accomodation. I also like the idea of the glacier not being too far away should the season be a late starter.
thanks again
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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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nickH, No problem!
What kind of accommodation are you looking for? Apartment, B&B, 3* hotel, 4* hotel? I could give you recommendations in Fuegen, if you want.
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SaraJ, modest guesthouse or hotel would do, & for convenience would prefer 1/2 board. I'd welcome any recommendation for fuegen, though I suppose I'm leaning toward kaltenbach for convenience to slopes ( esp for me !!).
On the off chance you know, the flights home ex innsbruck are fairly early on a sunday ( dep 11.00am) do you think its easily doable by public transport on the day or would overnighting in innsbruck be safer?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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nickH,
The first train out of the Zillertal, starts in Mayrhofen and goes through Kaltenbach at 0612. That gives you 3 hours to get to Innsbruck assuming that you need to check in 2 hours before your flight. I'd say it was doable with public transport.
Hotel Sonne (www.sonne-fuegen.at) is a 3* hotel, in the middle of Fuegen with a bus stop outside the door and a great bar! The prices on the website seem to be out of date, but email them for an offer - the Receptionist speaks English!
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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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SaraJ, thanks for that, train time sounds good - I tried to check some obb times a couple of days back & it would only go to the end of the year !.
Will look into the hotel , sounds interesting ( not, of course, that a great bar would offer any incentive !! )
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nickH, Ah, yes... You would be looking for train times for next January - not next week!
The Oebb website says next year's timetable will be available at the end of October. I was looking on the local Zillertalbahn timetable for 2009, I can't imagine it changes much from year to year though.
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