Poster: A snowHead
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I have flights booked from Gatwick to Innsbruck - 24th Jan to 2nd Feb (£75 return from the BA sale).
The plan is to get a train from Innsbruck airport to Bad Hofgastein, or maybe Schladming - a journey of 3 hours or so.
Normally, I would hope to see snow by this date - but there is no guarantee. My fallback is either to book Neustift and ski the glacier or, if things are really bad, forfeit the flights and do something else.
Bad Hofgastein seems to have a good supply of 4 star hotels, some offering reasonable packages including the Amade lift pass. Innsbruck hotels also offer packages, though the lift pass is Axamer Lizum plus another small resort.
My choices are resorts with a rail station in town, that I have not skied before. St Anton, Kitzbuhel, Saalbach, Ski Welt fall outside my requirements.
How late should I leave it before sorting accommodation ?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Latchigo, on those dates I'd leave it almost as late as you like, or book a hotel with no (or minimal) up-front payment. Hoteliers understand the realities of snow as a necessity.
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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 are very close to the Zillertal valley at Innsbruck (less than 1 hour by road). Mayrhofen should fit your requirements as it also has a town centre rail station. From there you have access to the Hintertux glacier, so you could definitely guarantee skiing at that time.
Sorry that I can't help on the availability aspect, but wouldn't have thought it a problem.
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For those dates, I would leave it until a couple of days before, availability shouldn't be an problem, unless they're having a special festival or something.
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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 think Fasching's later, so you should be OK for late booking 24Jan-1Feb. Unless it's a catastrophic snow year, I can't see any of the resorts you've listed being a problem - if anything you may find Hintertux and Sportgastein a bit bleak that time of year, and would prefer to be in the trees lower down.
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As regards rail access to resorts with a glacier nearby, apart from Ray Zorro's suggestion of the Zillertal (change at Jenbach onto the Zillertalbahn narrow gauge railway), you can also get to Zell am See by rail (nearby glacier at Kaprun).
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Latchigo, Innsbruck is a not a bad ski location, there is skiing in Insbruck on the Hungerberg, you can catch a town tram to go there, there are about 5 resorts nearby, including Axamer Lizom. There might also be ski-jumping that weekend, the hill in Innsbruck is very spectacular and if you haven't been to a ski jump competition before it's worth going to one, great atmosphere.
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