From Lech the logistics for most skiers going to St. Anton is easy: the free bus to Rauz runs every 10 minutes. Not so much for me, as the Piste-to-Powder guides want you in their Cafe Anton meeting place by 8:45 before the lifts open. This requires a different bus that departs Lech only once an hour, meaning 8:06AM for me, and with the Sandhof's breakfast opening at 8AM I had to request the night before that at least the fruit, juices, cold cuts and cereals be put out by 7:40 or so. I also had a cold and Monday/Tuesday were the worst days of it.
Piste-to-Powder supplies avy gear and backpacks if needed as part of the 110 Euro per day cost. There are 4 broad level groupings and I was in a group 3 (4 is fastest) with guide Alex and 4 Brits, Al, John, Paul and Martin. It was a very compatible group in terms of speed and ski ability so the day went smoothly. Conditions were not the greatest but much better than I expected from the off-piste breakable crust in Lech/Zurs the day before. This of course is most of why you're hiring guides who know where the snow is best preserved and for skiing routes that a first timer could probably not find or know whether conditions were dangerous. The weather also presented a challenge, as there was fog layer all morning between ~1,800 and ~2,300 meters.
Our morning runs were on the Rendl side of St. Anton. First was a descent directly towards town from the Gampberg lift. The top section was through openings in the snow fences, which are ubiquitous in the Arlberg for avalanche safety. The middle section of ~1,000 vertical was decent skiing, maybe half of it in leftover powder. The next ~1,000 of so was down a narrow set of firm bumps through a gap in the forest to a catwalk leading to a piste back to the Rendl tram. Next we ascended to the top of Rendl at 2,650 meters, which was above the clouds.
But we're going off the back into this bowl.
After a traverse we start skiing down here
The snow in the bowl was skier packed but fairly soft with the shaded exposure. Lower down it was follow the skier in front of you to see where you were going. Being first is not an advantage here. Just below the clouds we're in some better snow.
Then there was another line of bumps to the same catwalk.
We went into lunch at Cafe Anton about 12:30. After lunch the mid-mountain fog had become more of a high overcast. We went off the back of Kapall. There's an enticing bowl with no tracks, but no surprise if gets cliffed out. Partway down there's a short traverse around the tracks. We're at the end of that here with a view across the valley towards Rendl.
Here's the descent through packed powder with scattered bumps.
The cliff band is to looker's right of this picture. From a bit lower down there's a smooth runout through the valley to east side of Nasserein.
We took the gondola out of there to the Zammermoos chair. By now it was 3:30 and the clouds partially lifted. I got my first view of the upper mountain Schindler Spitze far above St. Anton.
There are amazing lines in that pic but they all face due south so you need to be very lucky to find decent snow in them.
Alex took us to an interesting chute descending between St. Anton and St. Christophe.
This was the best snow of the day: settled but loose powder. I managed to come out of a ski about 2/3 of the way down. Below was a winding gully with skier packed snow.
We emerged into a short meadow that surprisingly had a few turns of untracked. From there we had a clear view of Rendl.
We then had a short walk up a road and skied down to the Underground, Piste-to-Powder's apres ski spot, arriving at 4:18PM. I just missed the bus to Lech, which leaves St. Anton at 10 past the hour, so I went down the the office at the base of the Galzig gondola to inquire about snow stats. I got an e-mail from them last night. As with Verbier in 2004 the stats were season totals only, no month by month. Top of Galzig at 2,175 meters averages 271 inches vs. 224 at similar elevation at Verbier. Of course Verbier has 3 trams ascending to over 10,000 feet while nothing in the Arlberg except the top of the Valluga is as high as 9,000.
As some of you may know St. Anton has an exposure problem and can be considered in many ways the Jackson Hole of the Alps: great terrain, high snowfall for its region but predominant southeast exposure. This is another reason to pay up for the guides. Rendl pistes face SW but the off-piste back to town faces NW. Kapall pistes face south but the off-piste we skied to Nasserein faces NE. And of course the signature terrain of the vast Valluga bowls faces mostly south while the guide-mandatory off-piste off the backside to Zurs faces N or NW.
Particularly with less than ideal conditions there is a fair amount of grunt work required to get to the best snow of Piste-to-Powder tours. This can involve longer-than-Alta traverses and bumpy/hard snow exits like today. It can also include hikes or long diagonal step-ups like East Castle. While I held my own on Monday, I could tell I was going to need a recovery day with my cold, so I begged off Tuesday.
Piste-to-Powder supplies avy gear and backpacks if needed as part of the 110 Euro per day cost. There are 4 broad level groupings and I was in a group 3 (4 is fastest) with guide Alex and 4 Brits, Al, John, Paul and Martin. It was a very compatible group in terms of speed and ski ability so the day went smoothly. Conditions were not the greatest but much better than I expected from the off-piste breakable crust in Lech/Zurs the day before. This of course is most of why you're hiring guides who know where the snow is best preserved and for skiing routes that a first timer could probably not find or know whether conditions were dangerous. The weather also presented a challenge, as there was fog layer all morning between ~1,800 and ~2,300 meters.
Our morning runs were on the Rendl side of St. Anton. First was a descent directly towards town from the Gampberg lift. The top section was through openings in the snow fences, which are ubiquitous in the Arlberg for avalanche safety. The middle section of ~1,000 vertical was decent skiing, maybe half of it in leftover powder. The next ~1,000 of so was down a narrow set of firm bumps through a gap in the forest to a catwalk leading to a piste back to the Rendl tram. Next we ascended to the top of Rendl at 2,650 meters, which was above the clouds.
But we're going off the back into this bowl.
After a traverse we start skiing down here
The snow in the bowl was skier packed but fairly soft with the shaded exposure. Lower down it was follow the skier in front of you to see where you were going. Being first is not an advantage here. Just below the clouds we're in some better snow.
Then there was another line of bumps to the same catwalk.
We went into lunch at Cafe Anton about 12:30. After lunch the mid-mountain fog had become more of a high overcast. We went off the back of Kapall. There's an enticing bowl with no tracks, but no surprise if gets cliffed out. Partway down there's a short traverse around the tracks. We're at the end of that here with a view across the valley towards Rendl.
Here's the descent through packed powder with scattered bumps.
The cliff band is to looker's right of this picture. From a bit lower down there's a smooth runout through the valley to east side of Nasserein.
We took the gondola out of there to the Zammermoos chair. By now it was 3:30 and the clouds partially lifted. I got my first view of the upper mountain Schindler Spitze far above St. Anton.
There are amazing lines in that pic but they all face due south so you need to be very lucky to find decent snow in them.
Alex took us to an interesting chute descending between St. Anton and St. Christophe.
This was the best snow of the day: settled but loose powder. I managed to come out of a ski about 2/3 of the way down. Below was a winding gully with skier packed snow.
We emerged into a short meadow that surprisingly had a few turns of untracked. From there we had a clear view of Rendl.
We then had a short walk up a road and skied down to the Underground, Piste-to-Powder's apres ski spot, arriving at 4:18PM. I just missed the bus to Lech, which leaves St. Anton at 10 past the hour, so I went down the the office at the base of the Galzig gondola to inquire about snow stats. I got an e-mail from them last night. As with Verbier in 2004 the stats were season totals only, no month by month. Top of Galzig at 2,175 meters averages 271 inches vs. 224 at similar elevation at Verbier. Of course Verbier has 3 trams ascending to over 10,000 feet while nothing in the Arlberg except the top of the Valluga is as high as 9,000.
As some of you may know St. Anton has an exposure problem and can be considered in many ways the Jackson Hole of the Alps: great terrain, high snowfall for its region but predominant southeast exposure. This is another reason to pay up for the guides. Rendl pistes face SW but the off-piste back to town faces NW. Kapall pistes face south but the off-piste we skied to Nasserein faces NE. And of course the signature terrain of the vast Valluga bowls faces mostly south while the guide-mandatory off-piste off the backside to Zurs faces N or NW.
Particularly with less than ideal conditions there is a fair amount of grunt work required to get to the best snow of Piste-to-Powder tours. This can involve longer-than-Alta traverses and bumpy/hard snow exits like today. It can also include hikes or long diagonal step-ups like East Castle. While I held my own on Monday, I could tell I was going to need a recovery day with my cold, so I begged off Tuesday.
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