 Poster: A snowHead
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Please could you help me with our January dilemma.
This year for our early 2012 snowboarding/skiing trip we are trying to choose between Schladming, Bad Gastein and Selva. Knowing little about these places, apart from that they look like what we’re after and that I’ve not come across any negative reviews of them I’d appreciate it if any snowheads out there can give any opinions on either of the three places and their pros and cons?
The people travelling on the trip have all skied and boarded for many years and would rather have quality of terrain than quantity, I’d say they’re happier working on and improving technique rather than just gobbling up the miles on piste. In good snow conditions, opportunity for some half decent off piste riding is always a bonus and as for après ski; some good bars would make everybody happy.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Will
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 21-09-11 9:10; 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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Been to Selva a couple of times, its great. Never been to the others.
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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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Thank you jbob, but we decided last night it's going to be Austria in January so it's between Schladming and Bad Gastein now.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Well I'm biased towards schladders as I live here. I've skied Bad Gastein a couple of times and not to dissimilar to Schladming. I'd say Schladming is a board friendly area, mostly modern chairs, a few cat tracks between mountain links but not too bad. 4 linked mountains, plus loads more resorts covered on ski amade pass, including Bad Gastein, about 90min drive away, so you could do both though many other resorts much closer. There's certainly good off piste when there's powder around, despite what most resort reviews I've read say, I live for powder, I wouldn't be here if there wasn't untracked to be had. There's a local shop / board school called blue tomato http://snowboardschule.blue-tomato.com/Home.html?newLanguage=en If you are out for 24 Jan it's the schladming night race, world championship mens slalom. Even if you're not into skiing it's an event not to be missed. It's a lovely town, good selection of apres ski bars and cafes, not as wild as say st anton but still good, can drink up on the hill in several huts. Just been out for an early morning walk in the autumn snow and sun, wonderful, look out on the ski amade snow report thread as I'll post some photos of today later.
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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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Bad Gastein is a proper town (or large village) rather than a ski town. It is set on a very steep hill so unless you stay near the main lift you have a tricky walk up and down the hill. Most hotels run coutesy buses.
The ski area is pretty good though although there was no off piste available when I was there last Christmas due to the lack of snow.
Buses to the other Gastein areas are efficient and easy to find/catch.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I've skied Schladming and friends have skied Bad Gastein. Based on what you have said I'd say both will be good for your group but Bad Gastein would be better - heard it has more offpiste. In Austria quality terrain = St Anton.
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=21272
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| DB wrote: |
| In Austria quality terrain = St Anton. |
If there's a mountain and it's got powder on it and if feeling lazy some uplift then it's quality terrain. It's a question of how many people know about it that determines how good it is.
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| waynos wrote: |
| DB wrote: |
| In Austria quality terrain = St Anton. |
If there's a mountain and it's got powder on it and if feeling lazy some uplift then it's quality terrain. It's a question of how many people know about it that determines how good it is. |
Yes a smaller local hill that doesn't get tracked out can be better than a major resort with thousands of powder hounds. You need local knowledge to get to the parts that other skiers/boarders don't reach. IMHO hiring a great guide in St Anton and getting off the beaten track is hard to beat within Austria. I've had great days at Schladming skiing through the trees in powder without a guide. For someone who doesn't want to pay out guide costs (circa €100 a day) Schladming is a great resort to explore yourself and it's significantly cheaper than St Anton too.
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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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DB, Agree with your summary, I've done quite a few trips over the years to St Anton and been with a guide on many trips. I do miss the extensive above tree line off piste and steeper slopes but on the other hand I love the tree line off piste and powder meadows and exploring all the nearby resorts. The Dachstein does offer some exciting high alpine off piste, which I really need to explore more of this season. Like anywhere It is a case of knowing where to go.
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Thanks everybody, some great replies already.
waynos, I ski and board to a reasonable level, of the other members of the party one skis and the other boards. We'll be out around 14th Jan so depending on how long we stay, watching the night race could well be an option. If Schladming gets the nod I may well be asking you for some well located accommodation recommendations if that's ok?
Tiger2, I keep reading about the steep streets of Bad Gastein but they're certainly not putting me off and I'd rather walk to the lifts than jump on a courtesy bus. I think the choice will come solely down to ski area in the end and as stated before from looking at pictures of the places both the villages and ski areas of Schladming and Bad Gastein look pretty nice.
DB, have done St Anton a few times now and we've always enjoyed the terrain and apres there but we do enjoy going to and experiencing new places. Also this year having a few trips in the pipe line means value for money plays a significant factor in resort choice and I'm hoping both of these Austrian resorts will offer this..........
I know you're lucky or unlucky with snow conditions but I can honestly say I've not been away in the mountains during summer or winter and not enjoyed it, so I don't think we'll make a bad decision. I'm just hoping with the collective help of snowheads that the decision becomes easier!
Thanks
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Will77, before I start i'd better add the same caveat at waynos - i've got a place in Bad Gastein so i'm slightly bias.
I've not been over to Schladming yet (waynos keeps trying to get me there!  ) but they're similar from what I can gather. There is plenty of off piste to be going at in Bad Gastein. It's true that the town is on the side of a hill and it certainly makes you fit walking round the place, but to be honest, i've never had too many problems walking to the lift / apres ski etc while i've been in the resort.
If you choose to go to Bad Gastein, drop me a line and i'll give you some tips!
Cheers
Kersh
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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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The answer = Bad Gastein or Schladming but get waynos or Kersh to show you around.
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I've been in both Schladming and Bad Gastein several times. The Gastein valley is much better for off piste skiing than Schladming. At the end of the valley (15 min per skibus from Bad Gastein) you will find the Kreuzkogel (Sportgastein) with a maximum altitude of 2600 m and a vertical of 1000m with plenty of off piste terrain. In addition there is some off piste terrain at the Jungholz lift at the Stubnerkogel. At the Schlossalm section you have the Hohe Scharte slope which is a 8km long piste and a vertical of 1400 one of the most beautiful slopes in the Eastern Alpes.
Schladming is usually not a good lcoation for off piste skiing, because of low precipitation (inneralpin location) combined with low altitude (max slope height 2000m). The Gastein valley also accumulate less precipitation than the Arlberg region but average altitude of the slopes is much higher with a number of pistes at 2000 m and higher.
The main disadvantage of Bad Gastein is that there is little snowmaking on the slope back to the valley. It's great for intermediate skiers with a lot of red runs but very few black one (except Kreuzkogel/Sportgastein where you have some blacks). Bad Gastein is a picturesque old town and there are lot of bars and there are more international visitors (from UK, SE, etc). I recommend to stay close at the Stubnerkogelbahn.
Schladming has the best snowmaking facilities in Austria. And there are a lot of red runs but again very few blacks. And you should know there are a lot of locals and Austrians because it's easy accessable from Eastern Austria. However, given the low altitude of the Schladming valley of 780 metres It could be the case that you stay in a green valley with little winter feeling. However, there are some hotels and alpine huts directly on the slope at an altitude of 1500 an more which are also quite cheap and where I usually stay.
martin writing from Vienna/AT
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
martin over generalising from Vienna/AT
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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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mfa, one less person to avoid off piste then. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Schladming for me every time.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Kersh, & waynos, it's nice to hear from you both, you both clearly like the places you have based yourselves and there's no doubt when you base yourselves somewhere full time you really get to find resorts hidden gems.
DB, I'm clearly thinking what you're thinking.
downhillalltheway, why do you say that? I'd be interested to hear your opinion.
Incidentally as always seems to be the case when you're organising things, one member of the group is trying to throw Kitzbuhel into the reckoning. Now it's a long time since I've been to Kitzbuhel, I think it's nearly 20 years and I can't really remember anything about the place apart from standing in the Londener as a 16 year old trying to make sense of it all! I'm still of the thinking thought that both Schaldming and Bad Gastein would offer better value for money than Kitzbuhel, is this correct?
Again when choosing Bad Gastein as an option I chose it because it seems to be linked to the most piste as opposed to Sportgastein and Bad Hofgastein, now looking at things it seems to be a pretty close call between Gastein and Hofgastein, any thoughts on this.
Thanks again
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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 just prefer the village of Schladming as against Bad Gastein. Neither are in the league of St Anton in terms of off piste but there's some good fun to be had given good conditions off the back of number 9 in Schladming as well as through the trees on both the Planai and Hauser Kaibling. Apres Ski is OK, the mountain huts are really excellent and the resort is one of the cheapest places to ski in non-Eastern European Europe. Lifts are excellent, snow making as good as anywhere. I live about an hour and a half away and have skied there since the age of 4. Last year I took a group of English friends (14 of us). We are going to Ischgl this year for a change but every one of them would have gone back to Schladming without a thought.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Will77, I've also been to and really liked both though actually stayed in Hofgastein rather than Bad. I think if you're looking for value though I'd probably err towards Schladming - I think its the best value resort I've been to thus far in Europe. Eating and drinking in Austria is generally better value than France or Switzerland, can't personally compare to Italy, and think it's the cheapest I've found in Austria (but still good).
Other thoughts are that while I really liked the Gastein valley and would definitely go back using the bus to explore the different non piste linked resorts is more time consuming and hassle than exploring the more lift linked mountains in Schladming. Bad Gastein is probably slightly better in terms of Apres but both have excellent moutain huts. What's not to like!
Either would be a great choice but I'd favour Schladming just slightly!
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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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Since there is a lively debate it would be a good to summarize some stylized facts.
Schladming. Allmost all slopes are north facing with little sun in mid-January. There is little variety. Most slopes are surrounded by woods with little rocky terrain. You will find excellently prepared slopes. The lift system is impressive with a very share of fast chairlifts much better than the linked Schlossalm-Stubnerkogel section (linking Bad Gastein and Hofgastein) although the latter ski area invested heavily in new lifts in the last years. However, almost all lifts and slopes are below the tree line. Furthermore, the slopes connecting two of the four mountains (Schladming-Hochwurzen and Hochwurzen-Reiterkogel) are at a very low altitude (800m) and it’s a long way to change to other sections an even more importantly it’s quite boring (similar to parts of the sella ronda circuit).
Bad Gastein
The section Schlossalm-Stubnerkogel is smaller than the lift linked Schladming area (of about 80 km as compared to 115km) but offer more variety and you will find some pistes above the tree line. And more importantly the snow lasts longer at high altitudes. Also there other sections of the Gastein Valley that are easy accessible (Sportgastein 20km and the Dorfgastein-Grossarl lift linked section of 100km). The end of Gastein valley is a quite remote area.
It’s a matter of taste.
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Will77, Bad Gastein is linked to Bad Hofgastein, they are one and the same place really. You can take the lift out of Bad Gastein and be above Hofgastein 20 mins later if you head there direct. The piste above Bad Gastein is more challenging than Hofgastein, both areas have some great huts - I can send you some recommendations.
Don't overlook Sportgastein which is a great place!! Search for it on here and you'll see it gets some good reviews. It's not as small as it looks on the map with some nice long reds. Graukogel is also great and Dorfgastein is worth the bus ride!!
Regarding the snow making, the home run back to Bad Gastein has none but they're sorting this out over the next few years. Snow making on the rest of the mountains (except the Graukogel) is all fine.
Cheers
Kersh
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remember schlad has the world cup event late jan so accommdation in schlad will be a no no over those few days some use as it as base for kitzbuhl on the weekend as transport links quite good. i tried booking it last march and anywhere reasonably priced already booked out.
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