 Poster: A snowHead
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Heard a few reports that St Antons slopes are dominated by moguls ( the snow bump not Simon Cowell type) how true is this?
Any insights would be great as I am off at the end of the month and only taking 1 pair, and whilst the SV's will cope with a few moguls ill be taking something else if its as bad as reports say
But then again i did read it on the internet 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A few of the main runs get pretty choppy after lunch - nothing drastic though. Rendl is pretty much bump free (best grooming in region as far as I'm concerned), as are the runs on Albona (Stuben). Lech and Zurs are usually 'ohne' moguls, apart from the lower part of the main run back to Lech.
I hate moguls but I've never been put off by them in the Arlberg. Think a cautious beginner/intermediate may be put off some sections.
The red ski routes get pisted occasionaly but to my knowledge the black ones don't and are therefore mogul central.
You'll also find the run from the Mooserwirt down the village extremely bumpy after 6pm, but this is only the beer kicking in....and skiing over some dead folk 
Enjoy - best resort/area I've been to
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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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All of the pistes are pisted every night. Therefore they may get mogulled during the day and they will be flat in the morning.
The runs that aren't pisted and therefore will stay mogulled are the "Itinerary Routes". These are marked with dotted lines on the piste map and red or orange? diamond shaped markers on the run. The diamond shaped markers are not located on each side like the normal pistes. There are single markers down the "middle" of the route. In a white out be very careful skiing itinerary routes because if you can't see the next marker you could easily get lost and be in danger.
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kruked, no. There's one run from Schindlerkar down into happy valley which gets some fearsome moguls, but that a 'ski route' and not a normal piste. Elsewhere it's really not a big problem. Not more than in other resorts that is.
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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 believe that Karakorum was Mogul city... no wait, thats the Mongol city.
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| Steilhang wrote: |
| kruked, no. There's one run from Schindlerkar down into happy valley which gets some fearsome moguls, but that a 'ski route' and not a normal piste. Elsewhere it's really not a big problem. Not more than in other resorts that is. |
Agreed; Fang does not get pisted every night so can have the odd larger bump on it; but get to ski it just after it has been bashed and it is a whole heap of fun!
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As others have said, it's the ski routes that get really bumpy, most of the blue and red pistes are OK. The home run gets bumpy at the end of the day but it's wide enough and easy angled enough to be able to make big turns on fat skis, no need for mogul skis in St Anton as far as I am concerned. That said, there are some pistes that do get very bumpy and are steep, so if you want moguls you can certainly find them, especially in the afternoon... the lower pitches of the black run down to the Zammermoosbahn (run no. 2, I always called it black Osthang but I'm not sure if thats correct) are steep and bumpy most of the time.
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| Quote: |
Zammermoosbahn (run no. 2, I always called it black Osthang but I'm not sure if thats correct) are steep and bumpy most of the time.
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It's often called Kandahar.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
| Quote: |
Zammermoosbahn (run no. 2, I always called it black Osthang but I'm not sure if thats correct) are steep and bumpy most of the time.
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It's often called Kandahar. |
Ah, yes, of course. I think Black Osthang is a ski route now, if it exists at all, to the skiers right of Kandahar.
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sah, the run's Kandahar, gets mogully quite quickly as a lot of people use it. Nice when you can get it reasonably quiet and flat tho.
But yeah, in general the runs aren't really mogully, just the odd sections that tend to get bumpy by the end of the day.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Great, thanks for the responses, glad to hear that they groom the runs for the money you pay, not like Whistler where it seemed a lot of the runs get groomed once a week whether they need it or not
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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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| kruked wrote: |
| Great, thanks for the responses, glad to hear that they groom the runs for the money you pay, not like Whistler where it seemed a lot of the runs get groomed once a week whether they need it or not |
They groom every night at Whistler and Blackcomb, but they only do a few of the runs... They post the list of freshly groomed runs on a notice board at the base of the main lifts, but it's not obvious.
I would add though, even though they do groom runs in St Anton I would say it is not a place for people looking for piste cruising (I know this was not the point of the thread, but I'm mentioning it in case people get thr wrong idea...). If you really want to ski/ride on lots of wide well groomed pistes I'd suggest St Anton would not be your first choice; the main attraction of St Anton is the off piste and the ungroomed (and unpatrolled) ski routes.
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It really p****s me of that some resorts groom every run in the resort, how is a black run supposed to be challenging if it's completely smooth?. I wish they would leave just one or two runs to go "Au naturale"
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You know it makes sense.
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| kruked wrote: |
| Great, thanks for the responses, glad to hear that they groom the runs for the money you pay, not like Whistler where it seemed a lot of the runs get groomed once a week whether they need it or not |
Probably a deliberate and sensible decision, grooming ruins the skiing.
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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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| clarky999 wrote: |
| kruked wrote: |
| Great, thanks for the responses, glad to hear that they groom the runs for the money you pay, not like Whistler where it seemed a lot of the runs get groomed once a week whether they need it or not |
Probably a deliberate and sensible decision, grooming ruins the skiing. |
I agree to some extent but main routes need maintaining, especially when you are dealing with the slush of Disneyland Whistler
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Poster: A snowHead
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We just had a fresh dump of snow, but as somebody mentioned earlier, many of the runs will be skied into bumps at the end of the day, as all the marked piste are getting groomed at night.
Remember though that we have a lot of what is called a ski route which is marked but typically not groomed, so here you have a lot of bumps, also much easily accessible off-piste in between runs are turned in to bump runs, so here are plenty of opportunity to practice your bump skiing.
Enjoy your week out here and bring a pair of all mountain skis, then you will be fine, should we get a huge dump, you can always rent a pair of powder skis. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| kruked wrote: |
| clarky999 wrote: |
| kruked wrote: |
| Great, thanks for the responses, glad to hear that they groom the runs for the money you pay, not like Whistler where it seemed a lot of the runs get groomed once a week whether they need it or not |
Probably a deliberate and sensible decision, grooming ruins the skiing. |
I agree to some extent but main routes need maintaining, especially when you are dealing with the slush of Disneyland Whistler |
Slush is fun to ski on.
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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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| Quote: |
we have a lot of what is called a ski route which is marked but typically not groomed
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I was thinking of what torbs said when I saw someone mentioning leaving slopes
Places which seem to be prone to moguls in my experience are Kandahar (black 2), bottom of Fang (black 25) and stretches of the homeward run at the end of the day (Zammermoos (blue 1)) particularly the stretch above Senn Hutte and the final stretch down from Taps and the Mooserwirt, though particularly with Zammermoos if you go wide you can normally avoid them. Obviously more so at the end of the day if there has been heavy snow or spring snow. Worth adding that if you wait drinking in the apres bars till it is dark and the moguls are starting to refreeze then it can make skiing them more challenging... 
This can mean that if a lot of the upper runs are closed due to weather and everyone is forced on to the lower runs (and most of these would be open in those circumstances) this can be exacerbated (not only does it seem like a higher proportion of the open runs have moguls, but they probably do because of the traffic). Later in the season (spring) as the avalanche risk can increase, Happy Valley can be closed for short periods which can sometimes again increase traffic on Kandahar (and mean people who would not normally choose to ski down it find themselves drawn to it at the end of the day... as the moguls will have increased)...
Moguls can of course be fun too!
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I went last March and it was VERY WARM.
Consequently the Happy Valley blue run was shut all week due to avalanches on either side of the valley.
Serious design fault in the piste planning IMHO as the only way back down to St Anton for intermediates was to down load or tackle a tricky black.
Not a problem for me or my group but if i had the wife and kids in tow i would have been P###SED OFF as opposed to just P###SED.
Due to the spring conditions everywere was soft slushy moguls, though nothing much you can do about that.
I felt the piste grooming was much better over in LECH and ZURS.
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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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Happy Valley was closed for longer than that, they did reopen it for Easter tho, but only a piste basher width. Meant that when it was busy it was even worse than normal.
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As hedley says there is a lovely lift (Galzigbahn) which can whisk down those who don't fancy the ski through Kandahar when Happy Valley is closed...
And yes as befits Lech and Zurs smoother more refined style they do have very good piste grooming, heated chair lifts and champagne bars...
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| Quote: |
Due to the spring conditions everywere was soft slushy moguls, though nothing much you can do about that
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 That's about as fun as piste skiing gets!!
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Serious design fault in the piste planning IMHO as the only way back down to St Anton for intermediates was to down load or tackle a tricky black.
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Funnily enough the mountain was that shape well before anyone was thinking about how to tame it...
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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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clarky999, of course I am well aware of the lie of the land and it's natural restrictions.
As I was typing I thought to myself 'i am leaving myself open to ridicule here'.
But my point is still a valid one.
St Anton has invested millions on new lift infrastructure but does not have enough pistes,particularly in the run out.
Resorts need to think of the consequences of increasing beds and lift capacity to the point where the mountain cannot cope especially the only run home.
I suppose if there was a solution it would have been tried by now?
There is an interesting article in this years Where to Ski & Snowboard which says they have received a literal avalanche of complaints about the overcrowded pistes.
As I sad in my original post it is not a concern for me but the mix of beginners / intermediates and Fast Carving speed merchants all trying to queeze down a gunbarrel home run is a recipe for many bad accidents IMO.
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Tom W, It was 4a, up Tanzboden and either down Kandahar or the Galzigbahn from what I remember, and not too bad a ski route. I never did it myself, kept to Rendl and Kapall/Gampen a lot of the time when Happy Valley was shut, just cruising around/messing with it being towards the end of the season.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| boabski wrote: |
| The red ski routes get pisted occasionaly but to my knowledge the black ones don't and are therefore mogul central. |
Not quite true - the top half of black ski route 18 under Valfargehrbahn was groomed one day when I was there over Christmas. The bottom half, though was blissfully, deep, soft, silk-like powder, as I found the run within a few hours of it opening for the season.
There's no doubt that you can avoid the moguls in St Anton, as there's no shortage of groomed pistes and, despite the often-criticised crowds that can be found on a few bottlenecks trails, there are plenty of quiet runs around, too. But, IMV, to get the most our of the resort, you need to learn to love the bumps. Runs 3, 15, 16, 18, 33, and R8(I think) were very definitely my favourite spots on the mountain, and none of these are likely to be groomed. In most cases, there are smooth alternatives - but why go to St Anton, if that's what you want?
Don't take this the wrong way, but perhaps the answer is some fitness training before you go and some bump-specific lessons (3x1.5hour private lessons shoul;d be sufficient) when you're there. If you're fit and you have good technique, you'll never again choose a boring groomer over a joyous bump run.
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