Here's an interesting geographic anomaly surrounding Austria's Kleinwalsertal -- so named because it was allegedly settled by people from the Valais region of Switzerland, where I was a month ago.
The valley is part of Vorarlberg's six vacation regions; however, due to its location in the Allgäu (pronounced "Ahl Goy") Alps surrounded by huge mountains to the south, it's physically disconnected from the rest of the state. Thus, for practical purposes it's an exclave and the only way to reach Kleinwalsertal by car from where I was the previous four days is via a 70-minute up-and-around drive into Germany through Oberstdorf and then back south across the border into Austria. Wikipedia notes that before joining the European Union, it had tax-free status. Interestingly, Fraser from @Weathertoski mentioned that this region is not on the radar of 99% of British skiers. I'm curious to know why, as it's two hours from Munich airport and has a huge amount of ski tourism infrastructure.
I arrived around 9:30, got my ski pass (they required proof of three vaccines), and sized up what I can cover in the two days I'm spending here. There are basically five unconnected sectors across two countries so the extensive bus system is a better idea than driving your car:
I decided to start with Walmendingerhorn:
Already on my first two runs, it was clear that the primarily ESE-facing terrain had already transitioned into spring skiing mode:
I traversed into the village of Mittelberg to pick up the tram to the top:
The line was only ten-minutes long; however, I heard some Germans behind me making comments about the age of the tram, which reminded me of the one at Snowbird. As I witnessed at Damüls, Europeans at large resorts are accustomed to a high level of uphill transport and don't like it when their expectations are dashed. Check out the Longines advert featuring Mikaela Shiffrin -- that's how American movie and sports stars make piles of money without tarnishing their image stateside.
A pic from halfway up:
2,800 verts later, snow in the direct sun was a beautiful mixture of sugar and fully ripened corn:
On-piste or off, it was soft and light:
After two hours of laps up here, I headed down to the base on the valley run:
Past a cute hut where I would've loved to stop for a break; however, I had to move on to the next sector:
I ended up at the Parsennbahn to catch a shuttle to a mountain that has been mentioned many times on Alpinforum, Ifen (pronounced Eeh Fenn) -- you can see its huge stone outcropping in the upper left:
Ifen's terrain reminded me a lot of Snowbasin, with many gullies and interesting offramps across its mile-wide expanse:
On this mellow autobahn along the skier's left, you can get a feel for how much elbow room there is:
I'm definitely not a fan of big bumps; however, the spring snow was so forgiving, I did this line twice along with one run when I joined a couple locals on the off-piste butte in the background:
Here's an amuse-bouche for lift fans, the Ifen II mid-station installed in 2017:
It alternates cars that go down to the base and cars that go back to the summit -- similar to what I saw at Lech/Warth in 2015. Has anybody seen something like this in North America?
At 3:30, I headed back to the base through increasingly heavier snow:
To no surprise, everyone had already gotten started with après-ski:
The valley is part of Vorarlberg's six vacation regions; however, due to its location in the Allgäu (pronounced "Ahl Goy") Alps surrounded by huge mountains to the south, it's physically disconnected from the rest of the state. Thus, for practical purposes it's an exclave and the only way to reach Kleinwalsertal by car from where I was the previous four days is via a 70-minute up-and-around drive into Germany through Oberstdorf and then back south across the border into Austria. Wikipedia notes that before joining the European Union, it had tax-free status. Interestingly, Fraser from @Weathertoski mentioned that this region is not on the radar of 99% of British skiers. I'm curious to know why, as it's two hours from Munich airport and has a huge amount of ski tourism infrastructure.
I arrived around 9:30, got my ski pass (they required proof of three vaccines), and sized up what I can cover in the two days I'm spending here. There are basically five unconnected sectors across two countries so the extensive bus system is a better idea than driving your car:
I decided to start with Walmendingerhorn:
Already on my first two runs, it was clear that the primarily ESE-facing terrain had already transitioned into spring skiing mode:
I traversed into the village of Mittelberg to pick up the tram to the top:
The line was only ten-minutes long; however, I heard some Germans behind me making comments about the age of the tram, which reminded me of the one at Snowbird. As I witnessed at Damüls, Europeans at large resorts are accustomed to a high level of uphill transport and don't like it when their expectations are dashed. Check out the Longines advert featuring Mikaela Shiffrin -- that's how American movie and sports stars make piles of money without tarnishing their image stateside.
A pic from halfway up:
2,800 verts later, snow in the direct sun was a beautiful mixture of sugar and fully ripened corn:
On-piste or off, it was soft and light:
After two hours of laps up here, I headed down to the base on the valley run:
Past a cute hut where I would've loved to stop for a break; however, I had to move on to the next sector:
I ended up at the Parsennbahn to catch a shuttle to a mountain that has been mentioned many times on Alpinforum, Ifen (pronounced Eeh Fenn) -- you can see its huge stone outcropping in the upper left:
Ifen's terrain reminded me a lot of Snowbasin, with many gullies and interesting offramps across its mile-wide expanse:
On this mellow autobahn along the skier's left, you can get a feel for how much elbow room there is:
I'm definitely not a fan of big bumps; however, the spring snow was so forgiving, I did this line twice along with one run when I joined a couple locals on the off-piste butte in the background:
Here's an amuse-bouche for lift fans, the Ifen II mid-station installed in 2017:
It alternates cars that go down to the base and cars that go back to the summit -- similar to what I saw at Lech/Warth in 2015. Has anybody seen something like this in North America?
At 3:30, I headed back to the base through increasingly heavier snow:
To no surprise, everyone had already gotten started with après-ski:
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