Austrian Misadventures, Part II

Previously on Wasatch Weather Weenies, the ski plans of my son and I in Austria were marred by a dislocated shoulder and we began to travel around Tyrol and environs using Innsbruck as a base.    

After going to Sölden (see Austrian Misadventures, Part I) where I was able to do some skiing, the weather deteriorated and we elected to shift back to more traditional sightseeing for a couple of days.

Salzburg and Innsbruck

My son had never been to Salzburg, so we grabbed an early morning train, consumed pastries on the way, and went for a visit.  On one of the OBB railjet trains, that reach speeds of up to about 145 miles per hour, it's less than a 2 hour trip (one doesn't go that fast the whole way, but it's nice to fly along in sections).  Many people who visit Salzburg do the Sound of Music tour.  I have been to Salzburg several times and am proud to say that I've yet to do it.  Instead, we visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a medieval monster that sits on a hill above town.  

Construction on the fortress began in 1077 with various additions over the years.  It must have been imposing back in the day (it still is) and quite a seat of power.  We enjoyed a bit of time walking through town and visiting a few other sights like the Mirabell Palace gardens, which were just starting to wake up from their winter slumber.

After four days with a good deal of travel, we then spent a day in Innsbruck.  I attended a seminar in the Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences and we had dinner with several friends from the Department. 

This was also the day when Erik said that he wanted to go skiing, even if it was in a sling and sticking to pistes.  

I confess I had some trepidation about Erik skiing.  I didn't want to see him fall on that shoulder again.  On the other hand, it costs almost as much to buy a pedestrian pass to ride a cable car once as it does to buy a lift ticket.  Why not ski conservatively and make a day of it?  

Ski Arlberg

The next morning we traveled to St. Anton to give Erik the experience of village to village skiing in the Alps.  St. Anton is part of the largest interconnected ski area in Austria, known as Ski Arlberg or simply The Arlberg.  The Arlberg is one of the snowier locations in the Alps and it is possible to ski, without using anything but lifts, through several villages including St. Anton, St. Christoph, Stuben, Zürs, Lech, Warth, and Schröcken, which are located in the Stanzer, Klöster, Lech, and Krumbach Valleys.  

Ski Arlberg is also one of the busiest ski areas in the Alps, so this is industrial-scale skiing on everything from cable cars to t-bars.  In some areas, a small number of pistes (sometimes one) are serviced by one or more high-capacity lifts, and on-piste skier density is terrifyingly high. This added to my trepidation.

To get to St. Anton, we took the train from Innsbruck.  You are there in about an hour and 10 minutes.  The train station sits right on the edge of the village, about a five minute walk from the lifts (photo below actually from our departure that afternoon).  Talk about convenience!

For our first run, we took an easy run from the top of the Galzigbahn cable car down to the village of St. Christoph on the Arlberg pass.  The trail wasn't crowded, so this was a good situation for Erik to get used to the sling and one-pole skiing.  Clouds were still lingering over the Arlberg pass, but blue skies prevailed to the west where we were heading.  

After riding two chairlifts, we then had to do one of the most terrifying descents of the day from the Ulmer Hütte down the one groomed piste in the Valfagehrbach valley to the Flexenbahn cable car near Stuben.  It's a beautiful descent. 

However, it is the only groomed piste to connect from St. Anton to Stuben and it is quite crowded (I had nightmares of skiing this run from when I lived in Innsbruck in 2019).  Further, on the day we were there, a few cm of fresh snow sat on top of a rock hard melt-freeze crust, which quickly resulted in a hard ice/soft mogul situation that tortured the many skiers of limited abilities.  We slowly picked our way down this to ensure no surprise collisions.

What a relief to get down.  We then rode the flexenbahn cable car and skied down to Zürs, pictured in the valley to the right in the photo below (to the left is the Klöster valley). 

We did some skiing in the Zürs area before ascending the Madlochbahn to ski down to Zug.  The descent to Zug is long and quite spectacular.  I've had my eye on some of the freeride terrain in this area since I first skied this route in 2019, but alas it would need to wait for another day.  

We stuck to the pistes as we descended to Zug with views of Lech and the Lech Valley. 

Eventually we found our way to Lech.  Under normal circumstances, I suspect we would have already gotten to Warth at the northern end of Ski Arlberg, but we were skiing cautiously and puttering along and decided to head back to St. Anton from after pounding a schnitzel semmel at the local grocery store. 

Lech

The section from Lech back to Zürs is one of my favorites, not because the skiing is great (it's pretty low angle), but because the views are so spectacular.  From Lech, one rides the Rüfikopfbahn about 3000 vertical feet to a high shelf above Zürs.  You just meander on beginner runs along his shelf, gaping at the surrounding scenery.  

Eventually one reaches the Trittalpbahn chairlift and rides it to gain a bit more vertical before descending to Zürs.  From here, you ascend one gondola and then descend another to get back to near Stuben (there are no marked descent routes to get back down to near Stuben).  

There's still one more lift to go, the Valfagehr to near Ulmer Hütte from where you can descend all the way back to St. Anton.  But on such a nice day, there is another option, and that is to catch the Schlepp Lift and then ski down to the Vallugabahn I cable car and take it up to 2600 meters.  From here, you can take a small, 6 passenger cable car to the top of the Valluga and gape at the Arlberg.  No skis are allowed (without guide) on the latter, so it's purely a scenic ride. 

After riding back down the small cable car, you can finally ski down to a T-bar, ride it back up a few hundred vertical feet, and then do the very long descent to St. Anton.  We did this late in the day with hoards of other skiers also trying to get back to St. Anton, resulting in our second terrifying descent of the day.  In this case, not only was the trail packed, but half of the skiers are also inebriated.  Eastern skiers will recognize the "loose and frozen granular" snow condition.  

St. Anton is famous for après and the run back to town eventually takes you past some of the more popular bars including the Sennhütte, Heustadl, and Mooserwirt. 

Our circuit covered 18 runs, 39 km, and 7750 meters of vertical.  It was a pretty good day given the limitations (missing in the route below is the initial ride up the Galzigbahn from St. Anton). 

St. Anton's full "Run of Fame", advertised as the longest ski cruicuit in the Alps, allegedly covers 85 km and 18,000 m of vertical.  We skipped Rendl (south of St. Anton), Stuben, and the extension up to Warth and Schröcken. That will need to wait for two arms.  I suspect if I were ever to attempt it, I'd rather start in Zürs (probably bussing from the train station) as St. Anton is a much larger village and it produces quite a pulse of skiers all attempting the same circuit.  Alternatively, we could do what one of my Austrian friend recommends and that is to forget the Run of Fame and focus on good terrain.  That's probably good advice.

We didn't linger in St. Anton for après.  Instead, caught the train back to Innsbruck because we were thinking about getting some sleep, getting up early, and going to another mega resort.  That will be the subject of part III.