Diedamskopf, AT 01/30/15

Instead of going to one of the huge, interconnected European ski regions as I've done in the past, this season, I decided to hit up a part of the Alps that's barely known among North Americans, but is a bit of an inside tip amongst Europeans -- the Bregenzerwald, located in the far western edge of Austria bordered by Germany to the north and Switzerland to the west.

After a 9 pm departure out of JFK, I arrived in Zurich at 10:30 am, grabbed a rental car and drove east, alongside beautiful Lake Constance. You can see the very western edge of the Alps in the background:



90 minutes later, I arrived in the Bregenzer Forest region for a couple hours of arrival-day turns:



Day 1: Diedamskopf
For Europeans, this would be considered a tiny "local's hill" and I was told by someone at the hotel that I'd only need a few hours to ski it out, but for us northeasterners, Diedamskopf felt pretty roomy. I could've easily spent a couple days here. Like most ski areas in Austria, you take a gondola from an unassuming wooded base and ascend a couple thousand vertical feet above the treeline to mid-mountain and then another couple thousand feet to the summit, so more than 4,000 vertical feet:



From there, you have a pretty wide open bit of terrain to choose from. They'd received a quick top-off the night before, but the previous big snow was three days earlier, so without hiking, there was plenty of soft sloppy seconds:





You can walk a couple minutes from the top lift to the actual summit -- which has a cross, a feature at virtually every Austrian mountain -- and nail a few turns:





By 3 pm, I saw what looked like my best shot given the short time frame I had to work with: a ridgeline along the far skier's right that you traverse for about five minutes:



At little bit further:



And then drop in wherever:



This was the cleanest line I could find without a more extensive search: knee-deep and really soft:



Reverse shot, my tracks in the middle:



By 4 pm, clouds had moved in ahead of precipitation tonight:



In short, a nice warm-up for the next week and these may be my only photos with clear sightlines for a few days. After a slow start (as was the case across the entire Alps), snow has been falling steadily and they're now at avy level 3. Yesterday at the Damüls ski area, where I'll be on Monday, two people were buried in a side-country slide with one death, so obviously, I'm not going to be going far afield on this trip without a guide.


I'm staying at the really pleasant Hotel Krone in the village of Au:



The owners, the Lingg family, are major francophiles and have created an ambiance and level of cuisine that's become a big favorite with French visitors:



The convivial Herr Lingg stops by at every table to greet guests and chat for a few minutes: a very cool extra feature:



Sorry for the food porn, but hey, it's my trip report so you'll have to deal:





Tomorrow, the snowiest ski area in the Alps.

So nice.. Thanks James.

Wow - and just a 'small' area. Nice food shots, too.

What can you say? It doesn't get any better..
Can't wait to see more!!

WTH! You certainly live " deluxe " James.

Keep the envy stoke going....more !

Such a sweet report James. Great context and Lake Constance FTW.

The Alps are going off the hook, so this is going to be good!