Basics : Lech is part of the massive Arlberg ski region, in Western Austria, lift linked with Zuers and a short free bus ride from St Anton and Stuben. It’s an upmarket joint, where you can spend a fortune with the rich and famous if you want. But you don’t have to …
The skiing: Extensive and varied, with much more than you can ever ski in a week. The lift system is absolutely superb, especially in Lech and Zuers where virtually every chair is a covered 4/6/8-pack, many with heated seats! Lift lines are very rare indeed. St Anton is busier, but apart from a couple of avoidable bottlenecks, you rarely wait for more than a couple of minutes.
While St Anton has the deservedly gnarly reputation, it also gets less snow, has more folks and much of the terrain gets plenty of sun. There’s pistes and ski routes to keep all standards happy, but the sun and traffic mean that especially the lower runs get pretty firm. The Rendl area across the valley is comparably quiet and seems to hold better snow. We skied 3 days in St Anton, and apart from the odd short ‘glacial’ pitch above the village, the snow was excellent. It’s a truly great ski area.
While the on-piste skiing is tamer, we stay in Lech for three basic reasons. It gets more snow (especially at Zuers – a lot more snow), crowds are virtually unheard of, and snowy weather means the affluent, well-dressed clientele stay in bed. This leads to some magnificent powder days. On this trip, we had two 30-40cm storms, where I was scoring first tracks down ski routes at 11am, and timed a Madloch run (by sheer chance) perfectly for 2nd chair over the ridge and about 20cm of untracked groomer freshies! It was simply powtastic
Venture a little in between pistes, and there’s so much terrain to choose from, its unreal, meaning there’s still heaps of powder left to be mopped up the next day. At St Anton, pow gets eaten in minutes by the huckster crowd, and the best snow requires a guide and avi gear.
In between the storms that bookended our week, we had unseasonably warm weather, more spring than winter. The sun-drenched areas got firm and scraped later in the day, and a lot of the off-piste was baked, crunchy and loaded with death cookies. A real bonus though was the wind, which on 2 or 3 days transported in light blower pow to refresh areas and create some great off-piste lines.
Off-piste : We didn’t venture too far off piste, but you really don’t have to in order to find really fine skiing. Some of the marked ski routes are fun, ungroomed things especially on a snowy day. But if you look around, there’s ‘just-off-piste’ options everywhere.
The resort : A picture-postcard pretty Austrian village. The après is more restrained and cultured than most Austrian places, but still fun, and with highly amusing people-watching. See the video above for examples
Food : We ate in several of the restaurants in town, most of which serve good hearty Austrian fare at not-too-bad prices, ie 12-20€ for a really good dinner. We managed to get a table at Haus Nr 8, which was very good, and enjoyed the food at Schindlers, Cafe Olympia and Ilga’s up in Oberlech. Fux is a very fine restaurant. Expensive, but IMHO worth it. We went twice.
Hotel: Lech is a pretty upmarket joint, with half board hotels that cost an arm and leg. We avoid that scene and stay in reasonable priced B&B 3 star places, at around 130€ a night for two. I’d highly recommend Laerchenhof, excellent rooms, killer breakfast, spacious well-equipped spa area. Only downside is approx. 500m walk to lifts. You can ski some of this, and can ski back to the hotel from Zuers on the Madloch run. On this trip we also stayed in Kristall. A great location 250m from lifts and middle of town, good bedrooms and a pretty decent breakfast. Downside is the cramped spa area – not exactly relaxing. Kristall’s slightly cheaper and more convenient than the Laerchenhof, but I’d lean towards the latter. It’s worth the extra exercise
Costs: Beer €4-5 fro 0.5L wheat beer, €3-4 for a house wine, food €12-whatever you can afford. 9 day lift pass was about €280. Overall, more expensive than your average Austrian resort, but very comparable with Colorado and mainstream North American destination resorts. The rest of Europe, I know not
Conclusion: 3rd visit, and it only cemented my thoughts that the Arlberg is the best place I’ve ever skied. So far anyway.
gortonator, Thanks for that, reminds me of how much I loved the puddings from the restaurant on blue 34...
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?
gortonator, good report! We were in Lech for a week from 31 Jan this year. Really liked the area and would love to go back there. The prices in restaurants/bars are definitely much more expensive than elsewhere in Austria, more on a par with French prices.
Hmm...we have just returned from Lech after 1 week at Hotel Omesberg. The hotel was terrific and not expensive (Crystal arranged);unhesitatingly recommended for food, spacious rooms and service. The hotel owner saw my interest in some old pictures on the wall and insisted I took one of his illustrated books on the Arlberg of the early years
My reservations about the resort are based upon my experience as an intermediate skier. The scenery was staggering but I found the blue runs challenging for my standard and my wife found them excessively so. The long and multi-routed blue34 was good in parts but steepened and narrowed at some points. Similarly blue62 was fine in sections but suffered by becoming difficult. No way would I regard these runs as "easy" taken in their entirety although to the accomplished and confident skier they would hold no problems
A distinct disadvantage is the shortage of restaurants on the mountain (we skied on the Oberlech part) but the same applies elsewhere. For instance on middle section blue62 where classes and beginners would gather there were no toilet facilities or restaurant. To reach these one had either to descend several 100 m to Oberlech and face a couple of tricky sections or take a chair lift to the top of the mountain to a small restaurant and face a similar return to the practice area.
I would agree the area is superb and we did not exploit the vast area on offer but the the runs were more difficult in comparison with other resorts in Austria I have recently visited and certainly more expensive (ct Obergurgl, Ischgl).
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
lordjohn,
Quote:
but I found the blue runs challenging for my standard and my wife found them excessively so. The long and multi-routed blue34 was good in parts but steepened and narrowed at some points. Similarly blue62 was fine in sections but suffered by becoming difficult. No way would I regard these runs as "easy"
Should have skied more of St Anton then. Slopes there are much easier than gnarly Lech, and grading more accurate
Would agree on the mountain restaurant thing though. All seem to be based around Oberlech in the main so don't know whether there's an Oberlech mafia stopping this or purely a planning issue
After all it is free
After all it is free
boabski, perhaps. What we did do in fact was to bus over to St Anton (as my wife had had enough of the skiing by the Friday) and go to the top of the Valluga, enjoying the fabulous view. Earlier from the main gondola I was also able to point out the scene of my "accident" in '79 on the blue below Galzig where I twisted a knee due to slow release of the left binding. Nothing too serious but I was unable to ski again for the remaining 3 days of a 2 week holiday.
A guy in our hotel (from East Kilbride of all places ) who had been to Lech several times informed us that the town was "owned" by several families who controlled developments which might explain certain deficiencies if they wished to retain a traditional element. I have no problem with this other than it leads to difficulties for some. I guess I would not return on this basis of deficient amenities on the mountain.
Oh and gortonator, great video..brings it all back, recognising some of the runs you did.
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lordjohn wrote:
A distinct disadvantage is the shortage of restaurants on the mountain (we skied on the Oberlech part) but the same applies elsewhere. For instance on middle section blue62 where classes and beginners would gather there were no toilet facilities or restaurant. To reach these one had either to descend several 100 m to Oberlech and face a couple of tricky sections or take a chair lift to the top of the mountain to a small restaurant and face a similar return to the practice area.
We tend to be 'fly thru' lunchers (there to ski, not eat), but did actually frequent 2 restaurants by the T-Bar in Oberlech. As you ride up the T-Bar there's a self-service (we like that!) near the bottom, and another sit-down one at the top, both on the right of lift. Is this the area you meant? There's also toilets at the bottom of the double chair. We tended to hit the self-service one as it always seemed to be always quiet, and soups were darn tasty.
It is interesting you found Lech's blues tricky. It's normally criticized for being too tame. Pistes in comparison to St Anton are tame, but I don't find the pistes overly cruisy either. And there's great skiing on ski routes and off-piste. So much pow, so few people
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:
€3-4 for a house wine
a glass? That's a lot, compared to France (unless the "house" runs to a particularly fine wine). If it's a bottle, then that's very good value, unless the house runs to a particularly dire plonk. I've always fancied Lech, but will probably never get there now I have an apartment in France.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
gortonator, I'm not seeing these marked on the piste map but I am assuming the T-bar lift you refer to is the blue 62 area (Ubungslift) well to the right of the Petersboden chairlift which we used to get to the mid area we frequented (Weibermahd). Bottom line though is we are not much good and need wide open spaces and few people around us! My wife has issued the following information.."I just haven't got it and I am too old to get any better" which is rather ominous in terms of future trips.
Certainly if you have the ability then I am sure Lech is great.
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.
pam w, 3-4 euros for 1/4 litre house wine in a bar/restaurant - decent stuff. In supermarket bottles of wine from 4 euros upwards. What's a glass of wine with dinner in france?
Wine is nowhere as ingrained in Austrian culture as it is in France, but there are some very fine drops. Lech is I'd imagine the most expensive Austrian resort too.
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
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
pam w wrote:
Quote:
€3-4 for a house wine
a glass? That's a lot, compared to France (unless the "house" runs to a particularly fine wine).
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
) who had been to Lech several times informed us that the town was "owned" by several families who controlled developments which might explain certain deficiencies if they wished to retain a traditional element. I have no problem with this other than it leads to difficulties for some. I guess I would not return on this basis of deficient amenities on the mountain.
