Mayrhofen/Hintertux

We've done France very often over the last few years and Austria would be a
nice change. We're a couple of good intermediates not put off by steep
reds or blacks, but are quite at home on cruisy reds. As age creeps on we
also appreciate regular stops for coffee or beer and admiring the view.
We're thinking of going to Mayrhofen next month but haven't been there
before and should be grateful for some comments please. Also, can we get a
bus to Hintertux for an awayday?

TIA

Rob

Personally I never quite enjoyed Mayrhofen. Maybe its because at one of the
daily Mail ski shows (20 years ago) it was termed the Torremolinos of the
Alps. The Zillertal is full of resorts and it is possible to commute between
them. Many are linked by a narrow gauge railway. There must be a postbus
going upto Hintertux - but it gets rather cold up there!

All the Austrian resorts feature loads of mountain huts. I rather enjoy some
of the offerings (both food and drink). Many feature (rather loud) techno
music which echoes around the slopes. Austrian glühwien is rather good, but
do try the jägertee.

Do consider Obertauern (my wife's favourite Austrian resort). Its snow sure,
has loads of mountain huts and has a good selection of pistes. My favourite
is Ischgl. Throughout Austria, language is seldom a problem.

As with allot of Austria, the resorts will be very crowded at weekends
because there are so many large centres of population all within a couple of
hours drive. Its not necessarily a problem: start the day early; have an
early lunch (11:00am) the if need be have a mid-afternoon snack. All the
day-trippers stop for lunch by 11:30 (on sunny days), and they will not
vacate tables before 14:00! Potential queues don't thin out at lunchtime
either.

regards
Paul

"Rob White" wrote in message
...
We've done France very often over the last few years and Austria would be
a nice change. We're a couple of good intermediates not put off by steep
reds or blacks, but are quite at home on cruisy reds. As age creeps on we
also appreciate regular stops for coffee or beer and admiring the view.
We're thinking of going to Mayrhofen next month but haven't been there
before and should be grateful for some comments please. Also, can we get
a bus to Hintertux for an awayday?

TIA

Rob

"PSmith" paulDOTsmith_UK@tiscaliDOTcoDOTuk wrote in message
...
Personally I never quite enjoyed Mayrhofen. Maybe its because at one of
the daily Mail ski shows (20 years ago) it was termed the Torremolinos of
the Alps. The Zillertal is full of resorts and it is possible to commute
between them. Many are linked by a narrow gauge railway. There must be a
postbus going upto Hintertux - but it gets rather cold up there!

All the Austrian resorts feature loads of mountain huts. I rather enjoy
some of the offerings (both food and drink). Many feature (rather loud)
techno music which echoes around the slopes. Austrian glühwien is rather
good, but do try the jägertee.

Do consider Obertauern (my wife's favourite Austrian resort). Its snow
sure, has loads of mountain huts and has a good selection of pistes. My
favourite is Ischgl. Throughout Austria, language is seldom a problem.

As with allot of Austria, the resorts will be very crowded at weekends
because there are so many large centres of population all within a couple
of hours drive. Its not necessarily a problem: start the day early; have
an early lunch (11:00am) the if need be have a mid-afternoon snack. All
the day-trippers stop for lunch by 11:30 (on sunny days), and they will
not vacate tables before 14:00! Potential queues don't thin out at
lunchtime either.

regards
Paul

"Rob White" wrote in message
...
We've done France very often over the last few years and Austria would be
a nice change. We're a couple of good intermediates not put off by
steep reds or blacks, but are quite at home on cruisy reds. As age
creeps on we also appreciate regular stops for coffee or beer and
admiring the view. We're thinking of going to Mayrhofen next month but
haven't been there before and should be grateful for some comments
please. Also, can we get a bus to Hintertux for an awayday?

TIA

Rob


I skied Mayrhofen last January (and Isgl and Galtur the year before). Winter
was late arriving last year but we were lucky that it had snowed a
reasonable amount for around 7 - 10 days before we got there and then
carried on doing it a fair bit while we were there. I agree with a lot that
Paul said. I'd add that:

Hintertux is easily reachable but you are looking at a substantial bus ride
to it (but measured in minutes not hours). Didn't do it myself 'cos most
glacier skiing is boring. M is, IMHO, mostly intermediate skiing. There were
not many blacks and those there were are not that challenging. The 17 off
the Horberg is good for cracking down. It had an awkward camber and a couple
of steepish pitches near the bottom to keep it entertaining. Didn't find
much by way of bump fields (but nor was I working hard to find them). M
makes a big deal of the Harakiri (which it claims is the steepest piste in
Austria). It might be - but only for about 100 metres! What it mostly is, is
icy. Unpleasant rather than difficult - but probably quite nice in the right
weather conditions. Looking at the piste map, you might think it's quite a
big area but we'd skied most of it in 4 days. However, we didn't do the
Ahorn or bother with Hintertux (the latter mostly because it was snowing a
lot and visibility was reported as very poor most days up on the glacier).

We thought the hutten were not bad but it was best to avoid the ones near
the top of the Penkenbahn and the little cluster of them on the Penkenjoch.
Also to be avoided (except in bad weather) were the various hutten in valley
bottoms - for no other reason that they were usually in shadow. We found
ourselves heading back a few times to the hutte at the mittelstation of the
Finkerberger lift. It didn't get too busy, the food was fine (for that kind
of thing) and it had a nice terrace with good views.

The village (quite a big one) is quite pleasant - if you like Austrian
villages. You also need to like a) the Dutch, who seem in large quantities
to like M and b) Russians (OK - maybe not like!) who we found in small but
very noticeable quantities usually paralytically drunk! A number of the bars
targetted the Dutch contigent but they were fine for Brits too. Several nice
Konditorei (sp?) in the main drag and you could have a pleasant coffee and
cake in the sunshine if you picked your time and the right cafe.

Other little details. One main lift out of the village centre (the
Penkenbahn), a modern gondola (IIRC). Got pretty crowded for around 1/2 hour
at 9ish but otherwise fine. There is a bus service around the village but we
rarely bothered with it after we discovered a) that it took such a
roundabout route, you could beat it on foot, b) especially if you weren't in
ski boots carrying skis which we weren't once we discovered the storage
facilities in the ski shop under the Penkenbahn lift. Charged a modest daily
fee which was definitely worth it.

That's about as much as I remember - hope it is of some help.

Paul

Hi,

I've been to Vorderlanersbach (town located in the valley of Hintertux) a
couple of times.
It is a great skiing area. I went there at the beginning of january. The
slopes were really
nice, Eggalm and the area above Finkenberg (Rastkogel?) were great. I myself
am a cruiser
as well on reds (up to the steeper ones). From Vorderlanersbach there goes a
bus to the
glacier but I personally do no like skiing on a glacier that much. It takes
some time to get to
Hintertux. I've never went to Mayerhofen ski area in the winter but I can
imagine that it is
crowded with people, since we a lot of people call it in the Netherlands
"Little Netherlands" ;-)
because of complete Dutch tribes going to Mayerhofen....

Another option migth be Montafon where I've been also a couple of times. The
last years
I've went to Serfaus-Fiss_Ladis which really has good cruising pistes. Have
a look at
those areas as well.. Montafon being the less crowded ones but as a negative
side not all
areas can be reached by skis, you have to get a bus for some other areas.

Cheers,
Roland


"Rob White" wrote in message
...
We've done France very often over the last few years and Austria would be
a nice change. We're a couple of good intermediates not put off by steep
reds or blacks, but are quite at home on cruisy reds. As age creeps on we
also appreciate regular stops for coffee or beer and admiring the view.
We're thinking of going to Mayrhofen next month but haven't been there
before and should be grateful for some comments please. Also, can we get
a bus to Hintertux for an awayday?

TIA

Rob

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 19:56:16 -0000, "Rob White"
wrote:
We've done France very often over the last few years and Austria would be a
nice change. We're a couple of good intermediates not put off by steep
reds or blacks, but are quite at home on cruisy reds. As age creeps on we
also appreciate regular stops for coffee or beer and admiring the view.
We're thinking of going to Mayrhofen next month but haven't been there
before and should be grateful for some comments please. Also, can we get a
bus to Hintertux for an awayday?

Yes, there are regular ski buses to Hintertux. The journey takes about
half an hour. If you buy a ski pass for 4 days or more, it's valid for
the whole valley including the railway linking the resorts.

Mayrhofen has, as others have said, fairly easy terrain. I'm not
particularly confident on reds but didn't have any problems with the
ones there.

If you have a car (even if you don't, there are regular buses) it's
better to get the Horberg lift rather than the Penken. They both go to
the same ski area, but the Penken lift is in the middle of the village
with no parking and can have long queues at the ends of the day. The
3-man chair at the top of the Penken gondola is also very slow and
busy - drop down just a little to the left and take the 4-man instead.

The Ahorn side of the mountain is really for beginners only - consists
mainly of a wide, easy blue run.

Elsewhere in the valley, Kaltenbach/Hochfuegen is another largish area
with a number of easy reds (watch number 8 though, as it turns to
black for a short way without warning!). On a clear day the Kristal
Hutte has fantastic views. The Zell am Ziller/Gerlos area consists
mainly of red runs, but I haven't done that area myself.

HTH
David