Brandnertal, AT 02/03/15

After two days of storm skiing at places that I'm sure are gorgeous when sightlines are clear, today was payback. I went to Brandnertal -- a Vorarlberg ski area geographically located between the two large regions I'm visiting: Bregenzerwald and Montafon -- on a beautiful sunny day with plenty of off-piste powder from the past 48 hours.




In 2009, the Panoramabahn tram was completed, joining two separate ski areas, Brand and Bürserberg, in this gorgeous valley just a few minutes from the city of Bludenz. From an infrastructure point of view, they couldn't be any different. Bürserberg's lifts are all older fixed-grip chairs (which are becoming more and more rare in Austria), while Brand has mostly high-speed lifts. I started the day on a Bürserberg chair that screamed "early 1970s" and got me right in the mood for a family place that can be described as hiding in plain sight.



After a few quick runs, I took the Panoramabahn across a treed valley to the Brand side:



There, I met the delightful Nina Wilhelmer, who's worked at Brandnertal for years and completely embodies its unpretentious, family-friendly, all-about-the-nature, we're-not-a-resort vibe: my kind of people! She pointed out how the thousand pines that the ski area planted 20 years ago had matured into big beautiful trees (see photo below). And, by the way, Nina can ski -- exactly the way we expect Austrians to do it after watching them on TV for decades -- fast and smooth with completely clean racing technique. On every trail, within a few turns, it seemed like she would be a couple hundred yards ahead of me without even trying:



We eventually made it to the top lift and saw a nice entrance to the looker's right that ski patrol had just opened. The top part was mostly tracked, but thigh-deep:



We both dove in. I'm the tiny dot at the top:





Then we traversed further and all you had to do was stay left to make trenches -- pix don't do it justice:







After lapping that twice, it was time for lunch at yet another cute mountain hut from my Austrian dreams:



We were joined by a Swiss couple we'd met earlier on the lift:



To make things interesting (at least for me), the next table over was a group of Italians who looked like they'd just left a fashion photo shoot. Don't ask how they skied and managed not to have a hair out of place:



A couple sinful desserts:



Including my personal favorite, Kaiserschmarrn with applesauce:



Nina brought back some fantastic schnapps in, what else, deer antlers.



I saluted the Vorarlberg flag on the way back to my skis:



And at 3 pm, headed back to the car. Another great one at a small-to-them/not-to-us Alps ski area:

imagine living there..
another great day in paradise..

I just love the civility of it all..
so much less pressure, all about enjoying the experience..

Yep. I rode chairs with several locals who live five minutes or less from the ski area. Must be nice.

Living LARGE. JAmes

Now that's a powder day.  NICE!!

Thanks for the updates. It is so different from the US.

Amazing

thanks for sharing

Question for you Alp hounds.... Why is so much of Alp skiing above the treeline ? Is it because they're so southern ? Or is it because they're base elevation is high to begin with ?

Most of the Alps have a latitude around 47 deg. That's equal to southern Canada.. Quite a bit further north than Colo or Utah..

oddly enough most of the alps ski areas are at relatively low altitude..The base of Zermatt is around 6500ft. The upper most lift tops out at 12.5 or so..That's equal to A Basin in Colo.