Ski Trips - St. Anton am Arlberg

Not long ago, a friend of mine from Northwestern University moved to Hamburg with her husband and two daughters.  One of their first vacations was to St. Anton in Austria for skiing.  That reminded me of my trip there. 

St. Anton is a skiing mecca - 2700 km of runs!  It's only a couple hours from Munich (she and family had to drive perhaps 8 hours from Hamburg). 

St. Anton is a specific town, but also references the general area with all of those ski slopes.  Below is the skiing map for the area, and you can see the neighboring villages of Lech, Zuers, Stuben, etc..

The practical area is also larger, because the towns just outside of the above map have more affordable lodging, with the drawback that you have to drive (or take the convenient ski bus) 30 minutes each way.  I stayed in Flirsch, a ways down the main road (east).  Each town has small hotels or houses to rent.

I mentioned affordable lodging because St. Anton is definitely an upscale ski area.  Lots of BMWs to be seen!  The ski lifts seemed to be pretty modern and attention given to upgrades, whereas other older/less posh areas will still simply maintain more T-bars and 2-person lifts. 

 

 Once you get up -- and the highest points are pretty high -- you can see what the fuss is all about.  Some of the views are dramatic, with trails running past peaks jutting through pure white snow:

The weather for my trip was great, and there were some places where the trails ran above the clouds.  You would overlook the valley covered by a blanket.  Very cool.

In the next photo, the trail actually disappears into the clouds below, with gorgeous peaks in the distance. 

Hopefully we can arrange to meet my friend next season and get some more shots (and video).  Until then, we have to start moving on to hiking & vacation season while waiting for the snow to return!

Comments

[ian in hamburg]

I see you did the route via the Fernpass to get to St Anton - very beautiful! We did it for the very first time a month ago on the way to Ischgl via Munich. I wish we'd taken more time to stop and look around.
We've been going to St Anton as a family for a number of years, though this past trip - we did the second week at St Anton, staying in Pettneu - was Zürs and Lech. If you get a chance to ski Der Weisse Ring, do so. It's a circle tour taking you from the town of Zürs to the top (via two lifts) and then down a long, long run to Zug, up a lift to Lech, then from the top of Lech down to the town, and then onto an aerial tramway which takes you up to the other side of Zürs, from where you make your way back to your starting point.
Still undecided about next year whether to stay the whole time at Ischgl. It's got great terrain.

[Frau A]

Hi Ian. We will definitely put Der Weisse Ring on the list of things to do -- thanks for the tip. Sounds great! Zug and Lech are smaller than St Anton, and I think that's almost nicer. Can't wait to get back.