Oberstdorf trip report

Trip report!on Oberstdorf a smallish German ski area on the
Austrian border.

The drive down from Frankfurt on Friday night took about 5.5
hours including a short McStop. Town not geared towards skiers
at all from what we saw (i.e. all the shops shut at 18h00) and
hotel filled with OAPs taking in the mountain air.

First impressions, loads of snow for a resort starting at a
mere ~750 metres. Great mounds of the stuff piled up in the
street.

On Saturday, drove a few km out of town to the Fellhorn area.
Complete nightmare. Car park filled with coaches bringing
day-skiers from all over Germany. Queued for nearly two
f*&%ing hours to get the Gondola off the valley floor. Once up,
it was busy but not a real problem. Terrain and snow pretty
good. Closed-in heavily mid-afternoon and runs back to valley
floor utter chaos and icy. Saturday afternoon onwards it snowed
pretty much non-stop 'til we left Sunday evening.

Sunday we walked 5 minutes from our hotel to the Nebelhorn area.
Why oh why didn't we do this on Saturday! No crowds and utterly
fantastic snow. Shame about the visibility, but I guess you can't
have everything. Only let down was again the lift system. The
backbone consists gondolas. On the Fellhorn this means that
customers simply cannot not be shifted up quick enough and
phenomenal queues develop. On the Nebelhorn side it just means you
spend a lot of your day standing around waiting for the gondola to
take you back up the hill. Second let down was that the run back
into town ends five minutes walk from the Gondola requiring a short
walk.

So in brief, though the snow was great, unless they make some serious
improvements to the lift system we won't be returning.

Cheers.
Iain.

In message . com,
Memascii writes
Trip report!on Oberstdorf a smallish German ski area on the
Austrian border.

Very very interesting. Always been on my list to try - but not now.
Thank you for writing.
--
Paul Kelly

Trip report!on Oberstdorf a smallish German ski area on the
Austrian border.


On Saturday, drove a few km out of town to the Fellhorn area.
Complete nightmare. Car park filled with coaches bringing
day-skiers from all over Germany. Queued for nearly two
f*&%ing hours to get the Gondola off the valley floor. Once up,
it was busy but not a real problem. Terrain and snow pretty
good.

Sunday we walked 5 minutes from our hotel to the Nebelhorn area.
Why oh why didn't we do this on Saturday! No crowds and utterly
fantastic snow.

Only let down was again the lift system.

So in brief, though the snow was great, unless they make some serious
improvements to the lift system we won't be returning.


I skiied there 3 weeks ago, and I endorse everything you say. The only way
to get up the Felhorn was to be in the queue by 8am...... by 8.30 the place
was getting mobbed. Crazy thing was that the gondola staff were all in place
at 8am but they simply stood by until dead on 8.30 - in that 30 minutes
they could have had 2 or 3 gondolas full, and away up the mountain. Mind
you, that's the German mentality - zero flexibility. If you arrived after
9am it was a minimum wait of 1.5 to 2 hours - yuk.

Same here, tried it, shan't rush there again!

Roy

Hi Roy and others,

there are decent ski areas near that location, much better in size and
lift layout/capacity. Use them. I was in Oberstdorf some years ago,
and would not want to go back since I figured exactly the same as you
guys.

you, that's the German mentality - zero flexibility. If you arrived after
9am it was a minimum wait of 1.5 to 2 hours - yuk.

Well, come on, don't extrapolate from underpaied lift operators to
every German. PLEASE! With respect to wait times, same in Montafon. I
had a much better experience in Wilder Kaiser in Austria, even the
week of Feb 5 (THE main vac week this winter here) there was
practically no wait the whole day. However, the friendlyness of the
stuff at the car park was remarkable. Even the worst british hooligan
is a nice friendly lady compared to them!
--

Ciao,
Holger (GUS-KOTAL, GUS#1100)

90-92 Honda CB400 10 Mm | 93-95 Yamaha TDM 850 26 Mm
95-97 KTM 620 LC4 13 Mm | seit 97 BMW R1100GS 50 Mm (Die Renndrecksau!)

cu @ http://www.issle.de