This was a last minute call for the day we checked out of the Bergland hotel in Sölden. These areas are two valleys west from the Otztal (upper Inn Valley), not that far up so about 1.5 hour drive. We arrived Fiss’ farthest west parking at the Waldbahn at 10AM.
We knew the base areas would be a slushfest as they face mostly south and temps warmed up to 50+ at base elevations around 4,500 feet. We rode the yellow bubble Sattlebahn to 7,600 feet.
Much of the south facing off piste has melted off in the sustained sunny weather. A closer view at the top of Sattlebahn of a recent wet slide:
We skied to the main Fiss base and rode the Schönjochbahn gondola so we could ski off the north facing backside. Snow was moderately firm but not frozen as hard as yesterday at Hochgurgl and much more popular than the slushy frontside.
This is what James calls “industrial skiing.” The pic is of the 6-pack we are about to board, and at far looker’s right are a gondola and a 12-pack(!). Yes we wanted to check out that perhaps unique lift, but we had one day to survey the whole complex and I had higher priorities.
I guessed that the wandering 3,700 vertical pistes 7 and 8 down to Ladis would have less traffic and thus a more corn-like surface than the runs to Fiss and Serfaus.
The Fendels ski area is in left center background across the valley.
There was a sculpture garden at the top of #7.
From Ladis we were done with base elevation skiing until the end of the day. We rode a transport gondola to Fiss then another gondola and Sattlebahn. From there we headed west into a vast sprawl of terrain with better exposures and gradual gain in elevation. This Google map shows the actual extent of sprawl vs. the compressed ski trail map.
We skied the mostly catwalk #80 piste to Planseggbahn. From the top of that we get a good overview of the Scheidbahn lifts and pistes.
Note the Sahara dust is quite evident between the pistes. The farther west you go in the Tyrol this week the more dust there is.
We took a couple of Scheidbahn laps in good conditions.
From the back of Scheidbahn, here’s the view to the next valley west served by the Pezidbahn gondola.
We skied the piste near that gondola on the way back. But we’re not done yet.
Behind PezidBahn is this view south into wilderness.
Farther west the Messnerkopfbahn chair rises to 9,200 feet. The black piste #160 in this pic had slick chalky snow and I saw 3 snowboarders take long slides.
Riding Messnerkopfbahn here’s a view of accessible off piste, glazed in current conditions.
But it would take a long time to track out fresh snow in these western valleys.
We worked our way back and rode the Lazidbahn just to check out a sector we had bypassed. We did not ski down to Lawensbahn due to the late hour and its south exposure. The #129 piste we did ski had granular snow cone consistency.
We had two low elevation pistes #90 and #72 to return to the car. #90 was as clumpy as one can imagine at the end of the day. #72 was smoother as there is only one hotel plus a parking lot at the Waldbahn base.
The town of Fiss is in the background. We skied 28,400 vertical and were quite exhausted at the end of the day. Spring skiing can require more effort, but to me it’s a lot more enjoyable than the hardpack/frozen granular most of us (perhaps Austrians excepted!) have to ski defensively.
Serfaus/Fiss is about the same size ski area as Sölden, and in both cases we skied about 80% of the pistes in a full day. Even though we decided to ski here only a day in advance, we figured it out well enough to stay in decent snow most of the day.
We knew the base areas would be a slushfest as they face mostly south and temps warmed up to 50+ at base elevations around 4,500 feet. We rode the yellow bubble Sattlebahn to 7,600 feet.
Much of the south facing off piste has melted off in the sustained sunny weather. A closer view at the top of Sattlebahn of a recent wet slide:
We skied to the main Fiss base and rode the Schönjochbahn gondola so we could ski off the north facing backside. Snow was moderately firm but not frozen as hard as yesterday at Hochgurgl and much more popular than the slushy frontside.
This is what James calls “industrial skiing.” The pic is of the 6-pack we are about to board, and at far looker’s right are a gondola and a 12-pack(!). Yes we wanted to check out that perhaps unique lift, but we had one day to survey the whole complex and I had higher priorities.
I guessed that the wandering 3,700 vertical pistes 7 and 8 down to Ladis would have less traffic and thus a more corn-like surface than the runs to Fiss and Serfaus.
The Fendels ski area is in left center background across the valley.
There was a sculpture garden at the top of #7.
From Ladis we were done with base elevation skiing until the end of the day. We rode a transport gondola to Fiss then another gondola and Sattlebahn. From there we headed west into a vast sprawl of terrain with better exposures and gradual gain in elevation. This Google map shows the actual extent of sprawl vs. the compressed ski trail map.
We skied the mostly catwalk #80 piste to Planseggbahn. From the top of that we get a good overview of the Scheidbahn lifts and pistes.
Note the Sahara dust is quite evident between the pistes. The farther west you go in the Tyrol this week the more dust there is.
We took a couple of Scheidbahn laps in good conditions.
From the back of Scheidbahn, here’s the view to the next valley west served by the Pezidbahn gondola.
We skied the piste near that gondola on the way back. But we’re not done yet.
Behind PezidBahn is this view south into wilderness.
Farther west the Messnerkopfbahn chair rises to 9,200 feet. The black piste #160 in this pic had slick chalky snow and I saw 3 snowboarders take long slides.
Riding Messnerkopfbahn here’s a view of accessible off piste, glazed in current conditions.
But it would take a long time to track out fresh snow in these western valleys.
We worked our way back and rode the Lazidbahn just to check out a sector we had bypassed. We did not ski down to Lawensbahn due to the late hour and its south exposure. The #129 piste we did ski had granular snow cone consistency.
We had two low elevation pistes #90 and #72 to return to the car. #90 was as clumpy as one can imagine at the end of the day. #72 was smoother as there is only one hotel plus a parking lot at the Waldbahn base.
The town of Fiss is in the background. We skied 28,400 vertical and were quite exhausted at the end of the day. Spring skiing can require more effort, but to me it’s a lot more enjoyable than the hardpack/frozen granular most of us (perhaps Austrians excepted!) have to ski defensively.
Serfaus/Fiss is about the same size ski area as Sölden, and in both cases we skied about 80% of the pistes in a full day. Even though we decided to ski here only a day in advance, we figured it out well enough to stay in decent snow most of the day.
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I'd like to see how they load that chair.