Review of St Anton, Austria

Well ive just got back from my first ski trip and i have to say it was absolutely fantastic! The weather was perfect! Although we could of done with a fall or two as by Saturday the slopes were icing up a little, and it was getting patchy in places! But here is my thoughts.

PRICES: WOW!!!! i have to admit it is expensive! I live in Surrey which is one of the most expensive areas in the country and even i found it pricey! 4-5 euros per beer (not full pint), meals out expensive, ski hire pricey and lessons the same. Be prepared if you go out to be seperated with at least 100 euros at least if you have to buy dinner as well as drinking apres ski. But what i can say is that the locations and bars and quality of the food make it worthwhile! The KK and Moose were awesome to mention just two. Rainbow room in the town was awesome to with live music! Musician knew just which legendary rock songs to play and play them DAMN WELL!!!!

TOWN AND NIGHT LIFE: Awesome!!!! only word for it!!! KK highly recommended as is Moose and most other bars!! Plus underground bar is great!!!

SKI SCHOOL: As a beginner i cannot rate the school highly enough, A must for beginner to intermediate to advanced skiers! Ali P my instructor was legendary! Had us doing challenging blue runs by the end of my first week skiing! And as he expained St Anton is by far and away a tough place for beginners nad as Pisting is so individual a blue run at St anton is a red most other places.

FOR BEGINNERS: Has to be amoung the worst for beginners. Very little places to learn. No Green runs so steep learning curve required! Beginners must be prepared to struggle and wipe out often! (I wiped out on blue 23 and my knee is black and blue) As skiing is so mental if the nerve goes it will become massively hard. BUT if you ride it out the learning curve and improvement is steep and so rewarding!!! But i would of thought a resort with gentler introductions to skiing would be better! My partner is a beginner to and she found it very very hard! If i was to be honest i would not recommend St Anton to beginners at all, Build confidence at other resorts and when intermediate then go to St Anton.

FOR INTERMEDIATES AND ADVANCED: Awesome! My friends are all black run skiers and we're challenged daily massive choice of runs.

SKI HIRE: Great!!! good equipment. damaged my skis on my wipe out but they just changed the skis no questions asked, no charge and were more concerned that i was ok and was not going to stop skiing!!!

AREA: Breathtaking!!! no other words for it!!

Overall though i loved it!! am definately hooked! :D

Nice one Chris. I know you were there same week as me, and as soon as I got on the flight out, I remembered that we had agreed to meet for a beer, so apologies for forgetting to arrange that.

Yes, the weather as superb, considering by the time we left, it was almost 3 weeks since the last snow fall, notwithstanding the light dusting on Monday.

Some of the runs did ice up later in the day after serious amounts of usage, but those runs were perfect the following morning. As suggested in my report, the main runs off the mountain and the "Dentist Run" are worth doing early in the day to feel the benefit of them before they get broken up.

I think you are absolutely right about it not being a place for beginners. I would also add to that intermediates who are nervous, timid or lacking in confidence at all, as its a fast and aggressive place on the slopes most of the time. Beginners stood out like sore thumbs, and with the greatest respect, some of those who went out after ski school finished were a liability on the slopes up there.

I saw the air ambulance around the resort AT LEAST 6 times every day.

I would recommend St Anton to anyone, provided they are in the region of at least 4 week skiers with lots of confidence and ability to be honest.

Glad you enjoyed it.
Where will you go to next trip Chris?

I thought that as well Tony!! shame we didnt meet for a jar or two!! I could of picked your skiing brain at the same time!
That air ambulance was a busy little thing! We had a girl in our group in ski school who damaged her kneee on the first day vut was skied off the mountain. Although later in the day another women wiped out on the Gampen and had to be airlifted also.
I have to admit that skiing is by far and away the hardest sport to do! There is so much to learn in terms of just body position, stances, eg basic alpine position and carving, paralell sliding and thats even before having to think about the line to take down the mountain. My instructor was brilliant at that and by the end of the trip i was happpy to navigate down a blue (accompanied by one of my experienced friends though)
As a beginner i felt we did stick out. St Anton does seem to attract the most experienced skiers! But that to can be a blessing, As my friends who are all black run off pisters said they can spot a beginners group a mile off and especially if we have a teacher from the ski school with us, so than can give a wide bearth. I found that all we had to worry about was our skiing and following the instructors lines whilst in the safe knowledge that the more experienced skiers would give us the snow to learn in.
In terms of next ski resort, well i'm not yet sure. What we're after is a place that challenges my experienced friends with lots of red and black runs for them. Yet that has a large beginners area with a good ski school, gentle greens and cruisy blues so we can continue to develop. nd as my partner is a very nervous skier, allow her to gain confidence and get a run or 10 in!!!
What are your thoughts???


Ps noticed that i wrote Rainbow room in my last post, i meant piccadilly, In my drunken haze in St Anton that evening i must have read another sign!!! :shock:

I really dont know, but you would find Mayrhofen a lot easier to learn and develop in that St Anton, the blues over there are far more relaxed than St Antons crazy colour coding!

I found Sauze d'Oulx a great place to burn around and develop my own skiing, as its very cruisy and chilled out, but there isnt much of a beginners dedicated area.

I am off to Serre Che in March, which I believe offers a great deal of everything to everyone in terms of on the pistes, so I might be in a better position to advise after that trip.
As for Piccadilly Bar, we went in there but it was too busy, and later in the evening they wanted something like 8 euros just to get in, so we moved on. Scottys Bar and Bar Cuba become our regular haunts.

I found the KK better than the Mooserwirt, although we didnt spend much time in either, too busy skiing on the mountain than drinking on it. As far as when we go, its only a quick 1 or 2 at the very end of the day on the slopes and save the apres drinking until you are done for the day.
The Mooserwirt was a lot smaller than I expected for some reason, and full of Germans and Austrians chain smoking, so we didnt stop long. One didnt want to make ones ski jacket smell stale, did one?

Anyway, good to hear your experiences of the same resort at the same time we were there. I'll definitely go back again.