I just returned back from a great trip to the Ski Amade region of Austria on Monday night. Even though no new snow had fallen for over a week, we were still able to have some off-piste fun and even find some stashes of untouched, albeit old, powder. The weather was sunny and the winds were calm all three days we were there but it was a bit cold both Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday we skied Alpendorf, Wagrain and Flachau. These are fairly tame areas but they do have some great tree skiing if you know where to look. The addition of the new gondola at Alpendorf opened up a lot of new expert off-piste terrain also.
At the beginning of the day, we really didn't know where to head to. The snow was very solid everywhere we went and was rough going for my friend and his snowboard.
Later in the morning, I left my friends to go explore some areas on my own. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I figured the snow in the trees would be completely crusted over and difficult going, but it was actually quite soft and fun to ski. It was for the most part tracked out in this area, but I later did find some more in fairly inaccesible areas with fresh lines between some tight trees.
I didn't take the camera out much the first day as temps were around 0F and my fingers were cold. I spent a lot of time in the trees and in the shade so I never really did warm up.
Day 2 - Zauchensee
I had never skied this resort before. I really, really liked it. There is no reason to go to Alpendorf when in the area as this place is closeby to where we stay. It blows Alpendorf/Wagrain/Flachau away. Much bigger and varied terrain and way better off-piste potential.
For the first hour I stuck with my friends and their wives. After doing a couple of long groomers with them, I struck out on my own. On the other side of the valley I had eyed a tree area that looked virtually untouched and easy to get to from the top lift. I immediately headed for this after parting from my friends. You can see the trail I followed in this picture to the peak to access the untouched snow in the trees.
Below is the top of the area I skied through. I took this from the other side of the valley while eating lunch. While at lunch, I hooked up with another friend who is an excellent skier. I told him about this area and we immediately headed back over.
This is the view from the top of the tree area I hiked to. Lots of potential on the other side of the valley too.
My buddy works as a reporter for Stars and Stripes and was doing a story on the tour company we often use and the Ski Amade area. He was carrying his camera with him and snapped a few pictures of me coming through the trees and over a little drop off.
Later in the day, he and I skied some lines under one of the older gondolas that turned out to be pretty crazy. The area was closed (we later found out) and riddled with avi fences. It was an interesting run. The below pic isn't from this run, but it's in the same section of the resort. This is towards the bottom of the gondola served area (it's quite large - this is just a little portion)
Day 3 - back to Alpendorf
We only had 5 hours to ski on Monday as we had to be in Salzburg by 4 to drop two people off at the train station. One of my friends and I decided to head back to the same tree area we had found on Saturday. We were pretty surprised that nobody else had been back there since us. The tracks in the picture are ours from two days earlier. This wasn't a long run - maybe 750 vertical feet - but plenty of fun with knee-deep powder that hadn't become crusty.
View of St Veit (the town we stay in) from the Gernkogel section of Alpendorf. The sunny sides of the valleys are really hurting for snow!
After three days of skiing very hard and virtually non-stop, I could have gone for another 3. I'm really getting in to good ski shape this season and feel great! I'm looking forward to more adventures in the next two months. Now, if only winter would return to Europe............. You guys/gals in North America - please send some snow our way!
Luckily, the presence of patrol over here is really lacking compared to the US and we just continued on with what we were doing. Some other skiers noticed us later in the day and followed suit - our secret was out.
