 Poster: A snowHead
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Resort: St Anton
Country: Austria/Nederland/Svierge/UK
Domain:Arlberg
Author: boabski
Date: 27th Feb 2010 to 6th March (although was diverted from Innsrbuck to Verona for departure and eventually left 7th  )
Our holiday: This was my 5th or 6th boys trip to St Anton but have also stayed in Oberlech and Stuben as bases with family or friends. 6 of us ranging between me (38  ) and the eldest at 52. All reasonably competent skiers - ie can ski all pistes
Website : http://www.stantonamarlberg.com/en/st-anton/live-cam/2.html and http://www.st-antonamarlberg.co.uk/ handy too
Basics : Innsbruck is best airport as only an hour up the motorway to St Anton. Train station very doable too and similar time
Lift system : Around 85 lifts with the new Rendlbahn and Galzigbahn (2 years old now??) making a huge improvement
The terrain : I'm not quite into offpiste and that's the major attraction of the place, so I'll comment on the ski routes and pistes. Firstly the pistes around St Anton are undergraded, but I think most people know that already. Secondly they can get busy in certain sections - the main offender being Blue 1 back into village. Ironically the blacks are fine, it's the blue's that will catch some nervous early intermediates out. These can be avoided though if you know where to look. Rendl has long been a favourite part of the area and I thought the new Rendlbahn would make it busier - have to say that I noticed no increase at all (hardly queued at all to get up). The pisting tends to be better here than in Gampen or Galzig and runs graded more appropriately. We did a few of the red ski routes on Rendl and loved them.
For the first time ever we never made it to Lech/Zurs which was a great pity as the skiing is really nice over there and pisted groomed more than in St Anton.
Couple of highlights for me were the 7km run all the way to Stuben from Schindlergrat (sp?), red 2 in Stuben itself (always deserted and great undulations so you can get up some pretty decent speeds with nice twists, turns and bumps) and Rendl top to bottom.
Was also the first year we really stayed around Gampen and thought red 21 was a nice tree run and more importantly takes you to KK/Moos/Griabli and avoids the crowded blue 1/Schleissbachtal run
The snow : First 2 days the snow was the worst I've encountered at St Anton - but only low down - mainly due to high temps and less snow than normal. Did cool down significantly though and a few snow showers topped things up. Think it needed a good 50cm to get to superb conditions and think around 20cm fell on our day of departure.
Off-piste : As I said above I am not quite at that level yet but I did a fair few of the red ski routes and a few of the boys did the black ski route down from Valluga (brown pants time by the end apparently)
The resort : St Anton is biggish but personally I still think it's an attractive village. Any new buildings tend to be in a modern style that I like and the combination works for me.
Food : The new restaurant in Rendl is excellent even though self service. Further down Rendl is the Bifangalm which is table service and very rustic. Hospiz Alm in St Christoph is beautful inside but quite expensive - but worth it in my opinion. We have for years had lunch at Berghaus Stuben but seems to have new owners and to be honest would not go back, which is a right pity. I was b&b so we ate in Funky Chicken (great value and tasty chicken tikka masaala), Scotty's (decent pizza and again decent value). Ate in burger bar too which is great if your apred out 
Accommodation : Haus Angelika - probably best location in town. 50m to Galzigbahn and same again to Rendlbahn
Costs: €5 on average for beer in Moos, Griabli and Piccadilly  which is where we spent most of our time apres skiing . Lunch was typically under €10 for Gulaschsuppe and beer and €15-20 for dinner with drinks
Conclusion: Still love the place. Have not been anywhere (yet) that offers so many different things for so many people. Gunar at Piccadilly is still rocking the apres with body surfing going on etc. Griabli still serves the best pint (and good band on Mon and Wed). My only negative comment would be that they really need to prepare the blue pistes better around St Anton, and that they need to make more flights from Scotland to Innsbruck. For me the apres is just as big an attraction to the skiing, and even though I've been going since 2003, I still think I've to discover more about the place. Back next year ? Only if mrs boabski will allow me
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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boabski, have done St A from Zurich. Piece of wee wee, train is direct and fairly cheap too
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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boabski,not a Palme D,Or winner I think... That looks like it was taken at about midday 
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BA fly (usually suprisingly cheaply) Aberdeen to Munich, which is again an easy train journey to Anton, and probs easy enough by car too.
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red 27, After a good few pints of Austria's finest - Kaiser Bier and a few Heisse Witwe's and clarky999, drove Munich to Kappl at start of year with family and took over 5 hours, so not a pleasant journey. That was on a Saturday and my neighbour (who overlapped us in St Anton last week for a day) drove the route outwith Saturday's and was fine
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FAQ
) 
) Admittedly Innsbruck has never been an issue but it did highlight how ineffective it was when flights were delayed etc (too small)
