So long Chamonix...hello St. Anton

Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general this
week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing and
boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system (minimal
queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when it gets
really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski bars.

I am sold. If you've never been, give it a go! Off to Laax in a few
weeks time for my 3rd fix of the season. Will let you all know how it
compares.

Cheers
Michael

Never been to Cham, but St Anton is good. Did you go to Lech while you were
there?

Rob
"Michael Bartlett" wrote in message
news:1109163563.493343@shiraz...
Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general this
week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing and
boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system (minimal
queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when it gets
really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski bars.

I am sold. If you've never been, give it a go! Off to Laax in a few
weeks time for my 3rd fix of the season. Will let you all know how it
compares.

Cheers
Michael

Rob White wrote:
Never been to Cham, but St Anton is good. Did you go to Lech while you were
there?

Oh yes, we spent the first two days around St Anton as many of the other
lifts were closed due to some-reason-or-another.

We then discovered Zurs, and spent the rest of our time doing Zurs, and
then taking that dotted 23 (or was it 32?) run down the back, then up to
the top of some mountain (bar with palm-tree outside?!) and then down
that incredibly wide run at Lech and through the snowboard park as well.

I've done Chamonix 3 times now, and not once has it come close to what I
experienced last week. The conditions had a lot to do with it - we had
more white powder than Naomi Campbell could shake a straw at! But I
found the runs, their linkage and the lift system to be far superiour to
Chamonix - especially the width of the runs, great for us nasty
snowboard types!

Michael Bartlett wrote:
Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general this
week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing and
boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system (minimal
queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when it gets
really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski bars.


Chamonix is a great place for many reasons, but for a great holiday I
would also choose St Anton everytime - I still go back to Cham but
prefer St Anton (but a bit of variety is essential I think). When it
comes down to it I can't really put my finger on why I prefer it - there
are lots of reasons but no single item stands out - skiing is great, but
then it's great in Cham, Val, Whistler, etc. Apres Ski is great but then
it's pretty good in Cham, great in Val and fabulous at Whistler... I
dunno why but in my list of favourite places to ski St Anton has been at
the top ever since my first visit. I guess you just have to put it down
to the "gemutlichheit".

Glad you had a great time, very jealous I'm not going there this year.
Glad to hear you avoided the queues, it's not always great on that
front, it can get very busy but perhaps it depends more on Austrain &
German holidays than English and French ones.

BTW, did anyone see the Sunday Times article on St Anton. Worth checking
out on line if you missed it (I *think* they keep the Sunday articles
for a week, so still time to check it, it was in the travel section).

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 21:13:38 GMT, Steve Haigh
allegedly wrote:

BTW, did anyone see the Sunday Times article on St Anton. Worth checking
out on line if you missed it (I *think* they keep the Sunday articles
for a week, so still time to check it, it was in the travel section).

Found it: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...491083,00.html

- Dave.

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow -
Securing your e-mail

Michael Bartlett wrote:
Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general this
week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing and
boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system (minimal
queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when it gets
really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski bars.

I am sold. If you've never been, give it a go! Off to Laax in a few
weeks time for my 3rd fix of the season. Will let you all know how it
compares.

Cheers
Michael
Glad you enjoyed St. Anton. The slopes are fantastic, but they really
need to invest some money in the lifts. We were there ealy Jan.
(normally the quietest of the year) and it was heaving. Average lift
queue out of Nasserain was over half an hour, Zermoos, once again over
1/2 an hour, and elsewhere about 10 minutes plus. I loved the skiing,
but I doubt I will go back until they improve the lifts and expand the
ski area. We never made it to Zurs or Lech but we were told they had far
less queues.

I cannot really compare it to Cham. We were there only for a few days
last Easter and never queued once.

John

John Elgy wrote:
Michael Bartlett wrote:

Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general this
week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing and
boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system (minimal
queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when it gets
really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski bars.

I am sold. If you've never been, give it a go! Off to Laax in a few
weeks time for my 3rd fix of the season. Will let you all know how it
compares.

Cheers
Michael

Glad you enjoyed St. Anton. The slopes are fantastic, but they really
need to invest some money in the lifts. We were there ealy Jan.
(normally the quietest of the year) and it was heaving. Average lift
queue out of Nasserain was over half an hour, Zermoos, once again over
1/2 an hour, and elsewhere about 10 minutes plus. I loved the skiing,
but I doubt I will go back until they improve the lifts and expand the
ski area. We never made it to Zurs or Lech but we were told they had far
less queues.

The Nasserein lift is pretty new, so it's all the more annoying that it
has such bad queues. I was there at New Year when the lift was first
opened (2001/2 I think it was) and there were queues of up to 30
minutes. It was much better in late March. Compared to the big French
and N. American resorts there is much less investment in the lifts in St
Anton. I have read that they have upgraded a few this year and re-jigged
the pistes a little in the Alpe Rauz area I think. I'd be interested to
know if this helps the queues at all. It won't make any difference to
the queues out of Nasserein but maybe it's better once you are up
there?? Unlike John I'll put up with St Anton's faults but I can see his
point. I skied New Year in Flaine last year and there was barely any
queuing at all (maybe 5 minutes at the most getting out of the resort),
except for a couple of occassions when we hit post-lunch rush hour at
Molliets. I'd say Flaine and St Anton were comparable (roughly) in terms
of area and skier numbers so how come Flaine has it sorted but St Anton
hasn't?

If you do find youself battling long queues in St Anton there are
alternatives to heading up to Galzig or Gampen (the main areas) - you
can ski Rendl, catch the bus to Alpe Rauz or St Christophe and ski from
there, or even head to Zurs & Lech. The down side to the bus option is
that it does require you getting out of bed a bit earlier, which isn't
always feasible if you fully indulge in St Anton's apres ski.

Steve Haigh wrote:
John Elgy wrote:

Michael Bartlett wrote:

Hi all,

Had my first visit to St. Anton and the Arlberg region in general
this week just gone - all I can say is WOW!

The slopes are incredible. Fantastic both on- and off-piste skiing
and boarding to be had. Wide, long runs, excellent lift system
(minimal queues even during half-term!, covered chair lifts for when
it gets really cold). Incredible atmosphere in the on-slope apres ski
bars.

I am sold. If you've never been, give it a go! Off to Laax in a few
weeks time for my 3rd fix of the season. Will let you all know how it
compares.

Cheers
Michael


Glad you enjoyed St. Anton. The slopes are fantastic, but they really
need to invest some money in the lifts. We were there ealy Jan.
(normally the quietest of the year) and it was heaving. Average lift
queue out of Nasserain was over half an hour, Zermoos, once again over
1/2 an hour, and elsewhere about 10 minutes plus. I loved the skiing,
but I doubt I will go back until they improve the lifts and expand the
ski area. We never made it to Zurs or Lech but we were told they had
far less queues.


The Nasserein lift is pretty new, so it's all the more annoying that it
has such bad queues. I was there at New Year when the lift was first
opened (2001/2 I think it was) and there were queues of up to 30
minutes. It was much better in late March. Compared to the big French
and N. American resorts there is much less investment in the lifts in St
Anton. I have read that they have upgraded a few this year and re-jigged
the pistes a little in the Alpe Rauz area I think. I'd be interested to
know if this helps the queues at all. It won't make any difference to
the queues out of Nasserein but maybe it's better once you are up
there?? Unlike John I'll put up with St Anton's faults but I can see his
point. I skied New Year in Flaine last year and there was barely any
queuing at all (maybe 5 minutes at the most getting out of the resort),
except for a couple of occassions when we hit post-lunch rush hour at
Molliets. I'd say Flaine and St Anton were comparable (roughly) in terms
of area and skier numbers so how come Flaine has it sorted but St Anton
hasn't?

If you do find youself battling long queues in St Anton there are
alternatives to heading up to Galzig or Gampen (the main areas) - you
can ski Rendl, catch the bus to Alpe Rauz or St Christophe and ski from
there, or even head to Zurs & Lech. The down side to the bus option is
that it does require you getting out of bed a bit earlier, which isn't
always feasible if you fully indulge in St Anton's apres ski.


You are right about the Rendl. From Nasserain it was a bus ride into
town and onward. The queues were a lot less and the pistes were much
quieter; the skiing was pretty good. The other place with less crowds
was Stuben. The valfagehrbahn from Rauz had smaller queues, typically 10
minutes.

I trust someone will correct me, but St. Anton strikes me as a much
bigger town than Flaine with many more beds

Aplogies for my earlier posting, zermoos should of course read
zammermoos. IIRC Zermoos is just up the inn valley from innsbruck.

John

nati-spam wrote:
Steve Haigh wrote:

I trust someone will correct me, but St. Anton strikes me as a much
bigger town than Flaine with many more beds

No correction, you are right, but when you add all the resorts which
link into Flaine (Samoens, Les Carroz, Sixt, etc) I'd say it was
*roughly* on the same scale as St Anton. My point wasn't really that the
resorts had anything much in common, I was just emphasising that Flaine
has a very modern (for the most part) lift system which manages to cut
down and even prevent queues even at peak times, where as St Anton
(which probably has more beds and hence more income and more crowds) has
a less advanced lift system.