Galtür + Ischgl, AT 01/27/13

Day 1: Galtür
After seven years of making plans and then scuttling them -- a few times for logistical reasons, but more often due to a lack of discretionary income -- I've finally made it back to the Alps. This time, I'm trying out a new-to-me region: "Silvretta" in western Austria. Like many Euro ski regions, Silvretta includes several ski areas, some that are connected by lifts, others that are separated by a short drive. The most well known, and by far the largest, is Ischgl, and that's usually what people usually call this region.

Whereas Mad River Glen's tagline is "Ski It If You Can," Ischgl's in English is "Relax If You Can." They're apparently referring not only to the ski area, which is huge, but also to the extensive après-ski, restaurant, and nightlife options in the village. But instead of headquartering myself there, I decided to stay at a much quieter and far less expensive place 15 minutes away, Galtür, which has its own separate ski area. Funny how people refer to Galtür as "a small, family ski area" -- and it is compared to Ischgl. But with 2,100 legit verts and a lot of skiable acreage, East Coast skiers would laugh at this mountain as being referred to as small.




My hotel is ski-in, but not quite ski-out -- you need to walk 50 yards to one of the base lifts:



Express Lane For Kids (so they can skip the lines during peak periods/nice idea):



Rockin' it old school: no helmets or hats on a 17F degree morning



If you've never skied in the Alps, the first thing you'll notice at most of the ski areas is that people LOVE groomers. Whenever you ask someone on a lift about his/her opinion on the ski area, the response is usually something along the lines of "die Pisten hier sind sehr gut gepflegt!" ("the trails are very nicely groomed here!"). Which isn't to say that no one skis off-piste, but the vast majority of holiday punters don't. Take a quick traverse:



And this is what you find, even many days after the last decent snowfall:





Choose the right aspects (anything north facing or the recipient of wind sift) and there was plenty of nice, calf-deep powder like this line:



Choose the wrong aspect and it was stiff and wind-impacted. Since I'm alone on this trip and due to the fact that you can sit forever waiting for someone to ski an off-piste shot, I didn't get much in the way of in-action shots today, sorry.



Austrian ski areas are known for converting cow barns into on-mountain restaurants or bars. Here's one at Galtür:



Skiing into the hotel:





Tomorrow, I'll spend the day at Ischgl.

from the pix , the skiing doesn't look very challenging.  it does look like it has a very mellow and a relaxing vibe.

Great shots of wide open skiing. It looks a little like Zurs. I love the barn/bar conversion. I can't wait to see more.

Looks awesome!  

Nothing better than a place where it snows and people like the groomers.  James are you using any fat(ter) skis?

I remember the on mountain food in Switz to be (surprisingly?) excellent.

How old are the kids that can do the cut line?

Nice report.

Day 2: Ischgl
A final word about Galtür. In 1999, it was the scene of what was called the worst Alpine avalanche in 40 years, in which 31 people died and many buildings in the village were destroyed.

Yesterday afternoon, I headed over to the Big Show: Ischgl. Not sure how many acres it covers (they only measure it in trail length: 256 kms/160 miles), but it's huge.



While the groomed runs were crammed with people, it was incredibly easy to find untracked/lightly tracked snow just a few yards off-piste. Around 3:30, on what was going to be my final run of the day, I found a beautiful knee-deep line that I followed for about 500 vertical feet, then got greedy and skied past an obvious exit point, and missed one of these:



I ran into a boarder who informed me that we had both followed sucker tracks right into a cliff. Alps resorts don't make a habit of warning you about every possible danger like in the States, so when they do, it's usually for a good reason. We both bootpacked all the way back to the bailout: a lousy way to end a great day.

This morning, they were calling for several inches of fresh snow, and by the time I got to the upper mountain, it was coming down pretty hard. Conditions were really nice, but with everything above the treeline, visibility was pretty poor: seriously flat light. At one point, I had to sit down for about 40 minutes to get my head to stop spinning from the vertigo:



Finally, around 12:30, the snow stopped with about seven inches and the sun came out. The groomed trails were sweetened up nicely and the off-piste was fantastic: calf- to knee-deep:





I finished up the day with a beautiful 1,500-vert run through the trees and continued down to the village:





Back in Ischgl, I got a look at its renowned post-skiing festivities including Der Kuhstall (The Cow's Barn):





Miss Russia:



And rewarded myself with this hard-earned beer:

Couple of questions..
Do you need to speak German to really enjoy the experience.
The slopes look empty but the town appears to be busy. I bet there apres ski scene is full tilt boogie.

nice ashtray

JasonWx wrote

Do you need to speak German to really enjoy the experience.

You went on a big Euro jaunt with the family; you tell me. Like everywhere else, English is the defacto language if you don't speak the native one. Yes, you're missing a lot of the cultural insider stuff by not speaking German, but is it a dealbreaker to having a good time? Absolutely not.

JasonWx wrote

The slopes look empty but the town appears to be busy. I bet their apres ski scene is full tilt boogie. nice ashtray

Not true. The groomed runs were like the Cross-Bronx Expressway during rush hour, as were the on-mountain eateries, and that's where they all stayed. Everywhere else (off-piste) was desolate.

I really should go out in Ischgl one of these nights, just to see what it's like to be a middle-aged Euro hipster.