Silvretta Montafron AT. 1/27/25

jnelly

Member
Several years after the initial inquiry into skiing the alps and similarly several pushes and ultimately cancellations for a myriad of reasons: Conditions, Covid outbreak, flight cancellations to name a few…the time finally came. MSN-ORD-ZRH..boom… a total of 90 seconds in security, about the easiest flight you could wish for and arrived in Zürich on Sunday AM to clear skies and ~45 degrees. Window open as I drove to Vorarlberg.

Was intending on starting the day at Golm since I’m about a stones throw away from the main lift but the entire section was closed on wind. Decided, at the suggestion of my host to go to the Zamang lift that accesses the Hochjoch segment of the Silvretta complex.

Spent the first day basically getting my bearings and taking in the sights and infrastructure and learning the ropes. I covered the entire segment. I have nothing for reference to crowd size here… but TO ME, i felt it was fairly busy on the pistes for a Monday. That said there was no more than a 2 minute wait on any gondola and lifts where ski on. Snow for the most past was decent / pretty good. Far from premium but def not bad (again major relativity here) but it was fun enough. Soft on the sun soaked areas, slightly sticky in spots but not overly and surprisingly little glare ice even at the end of the day.
It’s currently a monsoon here at Golm base so who knows what tomorrow brings. Showing show but who knows. I’ll figure it out tomorrow.


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^ 2022 Beijing Olympics???



So glad this isn’t mine !
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Thanks for the report! Wow, how green is my valley.

How much of the 5,500-vert Hochjoch Totale descent (that starts here in your pic below) were you able to do?
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Thanks for the report! Wow, how green is my valley.

How much of the 5,500-vert Hochjoch Totale descent (that starts here in your pic below) were you able to do?
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I went as far as Kropfen lift. After that it was mostly WROD all the way to schruns hochjoch bahn …I saw people on it from town yesterday but it was a solid pass for me.
Snow was non existent basically from the tree line down
 
A year ago this week: Tony, Liz, and I had a week straight of high and dry at Val d'Isere so I feel your pain. We found decent scraps with a bit of exploration but not the optimal conditions that one hopes for.

Ten years ago, what Silvretta Montafon looks like with better cover:
 
A year ago this week: Tony, Liz, and I had a week straight of high and dry at Val d'Isere so I feel your pain.
James was in a lot of pain that week. :icon-evil: There were a few good off piste sectors, which I did a better job of finding than the ESF guide. :smileyvault-stirthepot:

By the way, what is James doing still being in the USA at this time of year?
 
Snow was non existent basically from the tree line down

I'm surprised the Austrian Valleys are green but have not had much snow this winter. I thought things were cold enough to preserve anything down low.

There is so much skiing in that region. I did not realize anywhere you could throw a rock, you hit a ski area. I have just been to the larger Ischgl and St. Anton resorts but made it over to Warth for part of a day.
 
There is so much skiing in that region. I did not realize anywhere you could throw a rock, you hit a ski area. I have just been to the larger Ischgl and St. Anton resorts
True about throwing a rock. I've hit a fair number of the ski areas in western Austria (click on the blue pins here); but not all of them. Many are, as Tony calls them, "James areas" -- decent-sized by U.S. standards/smallish by Euro standards but with lots of regional flair. You mainly favor the marquis resorts offering lots of top-shelf expert terrain so I don't see you skiing the locals' joints.
 
Day two here not off to the best of starts; my worst nightmares are coming to fruition.
1. An absolute slopfest…prob a foot of mashed potatoes out there. I didn’t think it could get worse than I experienced in Schweitzer a few years ago that sent me packing after three runs. Think again, jokes on me.

2. Being stuck…literally. Car and human. Tried to go about 1/4 mile missed a turn and tried to come back up hill….no dice…got towed back luckily. Now I’m basically stuck until pavement isn’t packed slush/ice. No skiing isn’t the worst thing ever but now zero exploring. Total bummer.

Did talk to a local who was coming down an access run, she said it was ridiculous on the hill. No sight, board wouldn’t move bc it was too sticky.
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All cars from Zurich airport have snow tires -- that must've been seriously slippery if you got stuck. Were you in a ditch?

Treat yourself to something good to eat in Schruns and try again tomorrow. Down days are a bummer but they're sometimes part of the Alps experience. Less expensive than a down day in Alaska, as Tony and ChrisC can attest!
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OMFG, that sucks. All cars from Zurich airport have snow tires -- that must've been seriously slippery if you got stuck. Were you in a ditch?

Treat yourself to something good to eat in Schruns and try again tomorrow. Down days are a bummer but they're sometimes part of the Alps experience. Less expensive than a down day in Alaska, as Tony and ChrisC can attest!
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No ditch…just that bad. That slop is snow tire kryptonite. The tread gets packed with ice..the roads driven over enough to pack it down…ice on ice. I’d go to Schruns if I could get there, and back for that matter, one drama is good for one day. Waiting game at this point.. As u said, part of the deal…
Guess It’s coffee, beer and watch the market today.
 
Down days are a bummer but they're sometimes part of the Alps experience. Less expensive than a down day in Alaska, as Tony and ChrisC can attest!

Down days are built into the model when heli-skiing. Basically, the operators only expect to fly 60-70% of the time, so you only lose your time with a down day. However, you can still hike, visit the town (Valdez), tour the coast, and watch ski movies with everyone. Not optimal, though. Again, the potential ski day is nearly 15 hours by mid-April, extending from 6:30 am sunrise to 9:30 pm sunset. I have gone out at 4 pm once. And often insurance is required; my 'down days' in 2015, about 1.5 days, was refunded for $1-2k+. So there was no financial loss, only time. You can mitigate financial downside risk when heli-skiing, so your expense is time, not $. (We rolled the money over to ski in Valdez again in 2016).
 
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True about throwing a rock. I've hit a fair number of the ski areas in western Austria (click on pins in the link); but not all of them. Many are, as Tony calls them, "James areas" -- decent-sized by U.S. standards/smallish by Euro standards with lots of local color. You mainly favor the marquis resorts offering lots of top-shelf expert terrain so I don't see you skiing them.

It does not make sense for me to ski in the smaller areas of Europe for financial and ski experience reasons. If I wanted to do that type of trip, I would more likely go to British Columbia (one of the last values in North American skiing):
  • Generally better snow than in Europe, both amount and quality
  • Lots of equivalent 'mid-size' Alps areas (although big for North America with 2-5k verticals): Powder Highway (Red Mt, Whitewater, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Fernie, Castle Mt, Panorama), Okanagan (Silverstar, Big White, Apex, Sun Peaks) and the well-known Banff areas.
  • With the exchange rate approaching USD 1 to CAD 1.50, there is a ton of value here. British Columbia is very international due to easy immigration from Asia (Hong Kong, etc), so you can have great sushi, Thai, Indian, Alberta beef, etc. It's more sophisticated than the United States inland Northwest. Nelson, Revelstoke, Fernie, and Rossland are still semi-affordable mountain towns that have mainly disappeared in the Western US.
  • Wine is excellent, as well as beer! Many do not know BC is a great wine region, mainly because the wineries do not have to export it since so much is consumed internally. Microbreweries abound. This is somewhat akin to Swiss wine - excellent, but none gets exported. With the exchange rate, the value approaches Europe.
And if I still wanted to ski smaller, under-the-radar areas after BC, it makes more sense to go to Japan from the West Coast. After Japan's economic heyday in the 1980s, many ski areas were developed and are now underutilized. It's easy to find resorts with:
  • European lift ticket prices, with many HS ski lifts
  • Receive 300-600 inches of snow between December 1st and March 1st. It's not quite the verticals of Europe, but generally, there's much better snow.
  • Unique cultural experiences with food, onsens, etc.


Also, I like to ski in Europe because if conditions align, you can ski the equivalent of a heli and/or cat trip for a fraction of the cost. And its uniquely large mountains and alpine culture. Here are some quick reasons why Europe for me:
  • 4-7k vertical descents are common
  • low powder competition
  • lots of village-to-village skiing
  • guides can be relatively reasonable (For example, my 4-day ticket pre-purchased is $240 + one day shared guide is $120. A total of $360 is similar to a one-day US lift ticket when it's $320+tax).
  • Lift tickets
  • Lodging costs are much better
  • Food
And under-the-radar can mean different things. Most friends, even ski town friends, think I go to obscure European places, like La Grave, Andermat/Gemsstock, Engelberg, Les Contamines, Diavolezza/Lagalb. However, since they often appear in guidebooks, they might not qualify as truly 'out of the mainstream' and as 'marquee' resorts.

Also, why bother with a small area with 2-3 lifts? Yes, you can have a great time at smaller hills, but you could get skunked due to their smaller footprints unless you know conditions, such as snow, wind, and visibility, are good. With the larger resorts, you simply open live 15-30 webcams and head to the sector with nice conditions (i.e., Snow squall in Zurs, then head to Warth with new snow and sun breaks). Again, you can mitigate the downside risk. Also, there are sectors at all the marquee resorts that function as small resorts.

For example, Crevacol - a smaller mountain with 2 lifts - has received a meter of new snow. However, it faces south. I will not go there if I see south-facing exposures starting to melt or freeze. No desire to ski the place then, despite just two lifts, $30/day, and no crowds. I would much rather explore Thuile-Rosiere and find good snow on the north-facing areas near San Bernardo Pass.

Finally, I have no language skills outside of some Spanish proficiency. I can painfully speak to Italians, but that's it. I basically cannot pronounce French or German names correctly. :oops: So, I do not want to go to some small hill where language becomes a barrier and there are few English speakers.

Yes, I would ski some smaller Alps resorts, but they are an addition to the larger areas, not a priority.

Also, I have no idea how you find out about half the places you visit. I do not possess that type of European knowledge.
 
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2. Being stuck…literally. Car and human. Tried to go about 1/4 mile missed a turn and tried to come back up hill….no dice…got towed back luckily. Now I’m basically stuck until pavement isn’t packed slush/ice. No skiing isn’t the worst thing ever but now zero exploring. Total bummer.

Are there buses to the surrounding ski mountains? Generally, there are regional bus systems.
 
ChrisC hit the nail on the head about interior B.C. being the capital of quality but under the radar skiing. I started those trips in 1997 and they are still going strong.

Part of this is logistics since ChrisC and I are on the West Coast while James is in the East. Eventually James should get to interior B.C. and I don’t think he’ll regret it.

So what’s unique in the Alps?
1) Scale and big verticals
2) Less powder competition. You don’t need to be at a smaller place. Big areas popular with intermediates are equally easy pickings, Cervinia, Davos Parsenn and Via Lattea come to mind.
3) The dining and amenities.
4) Cheap lift tickets ease day to day flexibility.
5) The ease of bailing out to interesting non-ski attractions if the weather/conditions suck. You’re not holed up in a hotel like in Alaska or Las Lenas.

We have never had jnelly’s experience of not being able to drive out of a Euro resort. That’s a really bad break. Can you take a train daytrip to Innsbruck for example? People who live there daytrip the other way to ski.

I’m still impressed ChrisC got weather insurance for an Alaska heli week. I’d be astounded if that is still possible.
 
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what’s unique in the Alps?
All good points and also an obvious one: you're in a different culture/language than North America. Depending on where you are and your affinity for that culture/language, that can be a big draw or a non-starter as ChrisC mentions above.
 
Depending on where you are and your affinity for that culture/language, that can be a big draw or a non-starter as ChrisC mentions above.

I like the culture of France, Germany, Austria, etc., and enjoy the differences. However, communication is essential. At Andermatt, I was the only non-German speaker, and most guides had just rudimentary English. It's critical to know the following: cliff, couloir, waterfall, chasm. This has nothing to do with cultural affinity. Typically, a Swiss girl would translate a bit, or I could speak to the Swiss Italians in Spanish.

Pre-Covid, I spent about 10% of my time in Europe (2 weeks in early winter and early summer)- specifically Helsinki, Finland - since we sold our fintech company. If I did not enjoy working in Europe, I could have walked out the door upon sale, but I wanted to stick around and see how they did things in the Nordic countries and prevent them screwing our products and sales up. Also, enjoyed tacking on some European summer or winter ski travel at the end of trips.
 
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@jnelly: standing by for more reports!
Inbound. I promise. I pretty much wrapped it up today skiing wise…i honestly didn’t do as much as planned but I’ll use the Iron Mike Tyson quote to sum it up: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. But here in a new / good way.

100% get TRs going…it’s been kinda of a lot to take in to get to and fro in one piece, not bang up the car or myself and then return. TRs went to the back burner if I’m being honest. But I’ll have em indeed.

However I am REALLY glad to hear @skiandgolfnut and party is okay…man that freaky to read. Glad everyone is safe and I hope the rest of the trip is awesome. Prob a few brews put down that night. Wow. 😳
 
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