See, AT 02/01/13

Day 6: See

Today was the beginning of a multi-day storm cycle for the region and with snow and flat light in the forecast, I didn't see any urgent reason to return to Ischgl. I decided to hit the final lift-served mountain in the Silvretta ski region: See (pronounced "Zay" -- German for "lake"). I'm not sure why the village and ski area are called See given that there's no nearby lake.




Just like Kappl, you take a gondola a couple thousand feet about the village, then a chairlift another 1,800 feet, I'm guessing. The upper mountain has a Grand Targhee feel about it: a very consistent double-blue pitch. This pic makes it look a lot narrower than it is:



By the time I arrived, four inches had already fallen and it continued coming down through closing bell. It was already bootcuff-deep by 10:30:





The most impressive terrain at See is the Mediggrat area on the looker's left. I only sampled a bit of it due to visibility issues and the fact that I didn't want to get cliffed out for a third time on this trip. You start by skiing along this ledge from where you look down into a very deep valley:



There are all sorts of interesting lines through the trees and if you wanted to be really ambitious, you could take the Mediggrat all the way down to the village, 4,000 vertical feet below:



In another similarity to Kappl, there were no more than 100 people on the hill today, all of them locals, it seemed:



See really did feel like a Tirolean Plattekill and that carried over to the cafeteria:





Today's Lunch: Beer and Salad Bar ($9)



Even during a snowstorm, Austrians like to drink outdoors:



Finally, around 3:30, soaking wet, it was time to head back to the village via the very long #1 trail. Another successful Euro trip now in the can:

Thanks for posting. Looks like you had great snow. The hanging helmets is a great idea. It is amazing that these places stay in business.

Thanks for the great trip reports. Pictures were inspiring. I enjoyed the whole series.