Luc Desroches wrote:

This will be my first trip to St-Anton starting Jan 22. We are a group
of strong intermediate and expert skiers.

In that case I can almost guarentee you will have a great time in St Anton!

Which are the best areas for
off- piste, where are the most challenging runs?

Just about everywhere has great off-piste when the conditions are right.
It's well worth picking up the local guide book, on sale in the bookshop
on the main street (opposite the Alte Post Hotel) - it has tons of
useful info. Can't remember the name or author, but it's a blue book and
it's very obvious - called something like "St Anton Off-Piste".

Stuben is famous for great powder, and the Valluga is another obvious
choice. The run down to Langen (get the train back) is a famous trip,
sadly I've yet to do it myself:-(

Do we need a guide?

No, you don't *need*, but you might want to hire one. I've skied a lot
in St Anton and I probably know about 10% of the good off-piste, a guide
will not only find the good stuff but also find stuff that is less
tracked out - there are so many strong skiers in St Anton it gets
tracked out in no time after a storm. A friend of mine who had lived
there for 5 years went on an off-piste course with the ski school and he
skied new runs every day for a week - a lot of it was accessed by short
hikes or skins and they found great snow days after the main areas had
been tracked out. I don't think there is any glacier skiing so you can
just hire an instructor, they don't need to be a full mountain guide to
take you off piste.

Can we ski to Lech and Zurs or do we have to take a shuttle?

You can with a guide (you are not allowed on the lift without one), but
otherwise take the bus from St Anton. There is a lot of great off-piste
in Zurs too!

Any do's and don'ts? All info appreciated.

Get up early if there's new snow, and get in line for the cable car.

Also info on restaurants and night life also appreciated.

There are so many places to go I wouldn't know where to begin, but I
always seem to end up in the Platzl at the end of an evening. It's a
small place that often has live music. There are loads of others though
- probably worth hiring a guide for this too:-)

We are staying at the Montjolla Hotel....can we ski back to hotel?

Sorry, not sure about that. You can't ski back to all that many hotels
in St Anton, but that's not a problem because you can ski to loads of
bars and worry about getting home a bit later... usually far too much
later in my case. Struggling down the street at midnight with your ski
boots still on and your skis over your shoulder is all part of the St
Anton experience and you'll end up doing at least once on you holiday.