European ski safari - Lech and Zurs
Nat ended up being bussed to Lech for her lesson the previous day, and she raved about it. So I decided that as the temperatures were now rising and the off-piste was turning a bit crusty/slushy/crappy.. it was time to get back on-piste and spend more time with the missus. Plus it helps get me in the marriage good books.
We collected our stuff from the Galzigbahn in St Anton to begin with. The ski storage and heated boot lockers here are fantastic.
This is the view from the Galzigbahn. The St Anton village is surrounded everywhere by steep mountains. There is no easy way down. It really is a ski-bum town, the average age on-hill is about 25-30. Most people wear helmets, big fat skis are everywhere and the standard of skiing on the hill is pretty good.
We caught a taxi to Lech, as a) We just missed the hourly bus, and b) there were four of us, the taxi wasn't that much more expensive.
Although we only travelled about 20 minutes, once we arrived at Lech it felt like we had gone back in time about 20 years.
Ok, so they did have cars in the Village as well as horses, but the average age on snow here is about 50. Grey haired cruisers flying about in rear-entry boots in snowsuits are everywhere. The standard of skiing is mostly.. ordinary. No wonder paedde comes here on a powder day, I would imagine that it takes a little bit longer to ski out all the powder bowls.
Lech is another world away from St Anton. Think of a 'Florida', except in the snow. I would imagine that loads of Austrians have their retirement units here. Bogner/Killy bling bling ski suits are easy to spot.
The terrain is, quite frankly... pretty great. You may not have the loads of steeps that St Anton has but there is fantastic wide-open fall-line freeways perfect for crusing and for high speed carving. Having said that, the steeper sections look fantastic as well.
Some of the wide open crusing available on the Roter Schrofen (right).
Lech Village, with the Rufikopf peak in the background (right). This peak is serviced by two cable cars.
We had lunch at a mountain-side wood-log restaurant to the skiers right of the Schlegelkopf. Lech might be the place for millionaires and royalty, but the price and quality of the food at this place had to be seen to be believed. Bruce paid about 14 Euros for a fanastic garlic chilli prawn dish with biggest, juiciest prawns I had seen in over a year. We ordered four dishes and we struggled to finish them all. Eating on mountain in the Arlbeg is cheaper, and better than eating in my (old) hometown in Oxfordshire.
After lunch my wife and her friend took the bus back to have a massage, so Bruce and I headed up the Rufikopf to ski part of the 'White Ring' to Zurs.
Looking towards Zurs from the top of the Rufikopf (left). Pistes 38 and 39 are in the foreground. Some of the off-piste in Zurs, above the Trittkopf cable car unload (right). Some hiking required!
I only skied one side of Zurs, and from an on-piste point of view, I found that several of the runs cut across the fall-line. A lot of the runs were just big cat tracks. The other side of the valley looked a different story though.
Funny story with the Trittkopf cable car. Bruce and I arrived at the end of the queue, so we were well prepared to take the next one. Everyone squeezes into the cable car.. its chockers... and just Bruce and I are left on the platform. The skiers in the cable car turn to us and say ..
"Come on.. you can squeeze in".
"Its OK, we'll take the next one."
"Come on."
By this time even the towie is urging us to jump on, so we relent to peer-group pressure and squeeze our way in.
Now, the Trittkopfbahn isn't the newest bit of kit I've seen on the hill. So when it comes to a shudderring halt after about five minutes.. and we are gently swaying about 100 metres above the mountain, I'm not too worried. The cable car starts moving again...
..and then comes to a shuddering halt about 30 seconds later. Even the locals start mutting amongst themselves.. and its at this point I begin to get a bit worried, and think that maybe I should have stuck to my guns and waited for the next car.
Luckily it started up again after five or so minutes and all was well.
This pic is taken from the bottom of piste #7, looking back to Zurs. Unlike the other pistes we had skied, this one offerred wide open high speed carving fun... and the video footage would have been great if Bruce wasn't the world's most imcompetant cameraman.
We collected our stuff from the Galzigbahn in St Anton to begin with. The ski storage and heated boot lockers here are fantastic.
This is the view from the Galzigbahn. The St Anton village is surrounded everywhere by steep mountains. There is no easy way down. It really is a ski-bum town, the average age on-hill is about 25-30. Most people wear helmets, big fat skis are everywhere and the standard of skiing on the hill is pretty good.
We caught a taxi to Lech, as a) We just missed the hourly bus, and b) there were four of us, the taxi wasn't that much more expensive.
Although we only travelled about 20 minutes, once we arrived at Lech it felt like we had gone back in time about 20 years.
Ok, so they did have cars in the Village as well as horses, but the average age on snow here is about 50. Grey haired cruisers flying about in rear-entry boots in snowsuits are everywhere. The standard of skiing is mostly.. ordinary. No wonder paedde comes here on a powder day, I would imagine that it takes a little bit longer to ski out all the powder bowls.
Lech is another world away from St Anton. Think of a 'Florida', except in the snow. I would imagine that loads of Austrians have their retirement units here. Bogner/Killy bling bling ski suits are easy to spot.
The terrain is, quite frankly... pretty great. You may not have the loads of steeps that St Anton has but there is fantastic wide-open fall-line freeways perfect for crusing and for high speed carving. Having said that, the steeper sections look fantastic as well.
Some of the wide open crusing available on the Roter Schrofen (right).
Lech Village, with the Rufikopf peak in the background (right). This peak is serviced by two cable cars.
We had lunch at a mountain-side wood-log restaurant to the skiers right of the Schlegelkopf. Lech might be the place for millionaires and royalty, but the price and quality of the food at this place had to be seen to be believed. Bruce paid about 14 Euros for a fanastic garlic chilli prawn dish with biggest, juiciest prawns I had seen in over a year. We ordered four dishes and we struggled to finish them all. Eating on mountain in the Arlbeg is cheaper, and better than eating in my (old) hometown in Oxfordshire.
After lunch my wife and her friend took the bus back to have a massage, so Bruce and I headed up the Rufikopf to ski part of the 'White Ring' to Zurs.
Looking towards Zurs from the top of the Rufikopf (left). Pistes 38 and 39 are in the foreground. Some of the off-piste in Zurs, above the Trittkopf cable car unload (right). Some hiking required!
I only skied one side of Zurs, and from an on-piste point of view, I found that several of the runs cut across the fall-line. A lot of the runs were just big cat tracks. The other side of the valley looked a different story though.
Funny story with the Trittkopf cable car. Bruce and I arrived at the end of the queue, so we were well prepared to take the next one. Everyone squeezes into the cable car.. its chockers... and just Bruce and I are left on the platform. The skiers in the cable car turn to us and say ..
"Come on.. you can squeeze in".
"Its OK, we'll take the next one."
"Come on."
By this time even the towie is urging us to jump on, so we relent to peer-group pressure and squeeze our way in.
Now, the Trittkopfbahn isn't the newest bit of kit I've seen on the hill. So when it comes to a shudderring halt after about five minutes.. and we are gently swaying about 100 metres above the mountain, I'm not too worried. The cable car starts moving again...
..and then comes to a shuddering halt about 30 seconds later. Even the locals start mutting amongst themselves.. and its at this point I begin to get a bit worried, and think that maybe I should have stuck to my guns and waited for the next car.
Luckily it started up again after five or so minutes and all was well.
This pic is taken from the bottom of piste #7, looking back to Zurs. Unlike the other pistes we had skied, this one offerred wide open high speed carving fun... and the video footage would have been great if Bruce wasn't the world's most imcompetant cameraman.
posted by PG at 10:22 PM
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