Ski Arlberg

[RootDKJ]

The other side of the lift cable.

[eaf]

3 minutes ago, RootDKJ said:

The other side of the lift cable.

Which, as we all know, just circles the Globe.

[RootDKJ]

Just now, eaf said:

Which, as we all know, just circles the Globe.

Exactly.  The lift load/unload are just out frame.

[toast21602]

Oh, I get it. It doesn’t look like a normal lift here so there must be something wrong with it.


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[eaf]

Anyway, about today...

It's been a perfect day. Infinite visibility, fresh snow all over, perfectly groomed trails, just a little bit cold, around -10C.

While I absolutely love my current Atomics 72/172 GS, I couldn't stop looking for what other people were at, and what do ya know, the scoop has changed! There were powder skis, 100% rocketed skis, I've spotted Monsters as wide as 88, there were Volkls around at least a hundred mm, and overall a lot of people clearly came to the mountain for the freeride. More boarders too this time, probably 10-15%.

We realized a few days back that lifts actually open earlier than the official 9am, sometimes as early as 8:30, and we've exploited this to our advantage.

Too bad the lifts on the upper part weren't as ready as those coming from the road, so we couldn't move to Lech right away and had to ski locally a couple of runs. The upper lift initially didn't even have any chairs on it, and that's how the picture above was shot.

Groomers were perfect until about 2pm, but after that they went to hell, I guess because the snow was fresh, and crowds were higher.

We'll ski one more time tomorrow morning when snow is forecast again, and that will be the end of it.

Oh, one of the pictures below features a tunnel for skiers to cross the road to get from the slope to the lift on the other side. Sometimes these can be bridges too.

[Shadows]

loving these pics. 

[eaf]

16 minutes ago, RootDKJ said:

Exactly.  The lift load/unload are just out frame.

You've got to be kidding me. The chairs are on only one cable.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 hour ago, saltyant said:

You're welcome to come heli skiing at Verbier with me and Matt Edge next year. Do you know if Verbier has a singles line or VIP line for the helicopter?

Yes they have heli skiing. I'll come to Verbier but I don't want to be the third wheel and I want my own bed.  You two can share the other bed. 

 

http://www.heliskiing-switzerland.com/en/heli-skiing/private-verbier-arolla.html

Edited February 2, 2018 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

7 minutes ago, eaf said:

You've got to be kidding me. The chairs are on only one cable.

Because they are stored overnight..duh just like they do with some gondolas.  We aren't retarded. 

 

[JFskiDan]

4 hours ago, eaf said:

100% rocketed skis, 

 

 

 

 

 

Gonna check out the "rocketed skis".  i thought they were only in the movie "ski patrol:.

Those trees look delish.  Should have been merderin the perder in there.  

[momskeeztoo]

There is a tunnel you ski thru at Wildcat in New Hampshire 😝  Anyway great pictures. 

[eaf]

Alright, to sum it up...

We liked skiing and staying in the Warth area a lot. Actually, we didn't stay literally in Warth, we chose to live about 25 minutes east of it, in Bach, and while initially we questioned this decision, it all worked out OK. It wasn't just a hotel, it was a huge apartment with kitchen, two bedrooms and bathrooms, and the convenience and savings of being able to prepare quick breakfasts and dinners just outweighed the inconveniences of a morning drive to the mountain. The drive itself wasn't too bad. Even during snow storm the road was very passable, and the difference in altitude between Warth and Bach is just 400m: Warth is at 1400m, and Bach is at 1000m. While the road is not a straight highway, it's not a mind-blowing serpentine either.

We've quickly discovered that though the mountain's official hours are 9am-4:30pm, the lifts open as early as 8:30am, and so by the end of the week we've been abusing this a a lot. Even on our departure date we just skied for two hours in the morning, returned the skis, and still were able to get everywhere we wanted during the rest of the day, including the airport.

The pros of staying around Warth are better snow, thinner crowds, quieter area and cheaper prices.

Warth is not without cons though. By the middle of the week we've realized that we can't physically cover the entire Arberg area if we're stationed in Warth. It takes 30-40 minutes to get out of Warth zone to Lech, and if you want to go south of Lech, e.g. to Zurs or St Anton, you need to get on the double gondola lift to Rufikopf, and from there the only way back would be via that White Ring route, which takes 3 hours to finish. This means that the moment you cross road in Lech and go up, you commit to 4-5 hours of skiing just so that you'd be able to go back to Warth in time. In the middle of the White Ring you can "get off" and take a detour to St. Anton, but it seemed from the map that it would take another 30 minutes to reach St. Anton, and so that would leave us with less than an hour of skiing there, and that's provided that we skied non-stop, w/o breaking for lunch. So in the end we chose not to go to St. Anton at all.

Lech would be a better place to live in strategically. It's centrally located, and would allow one to either migrate to Warth or St. Anton or stay locally. It also has plenty of ski to door lodging, and livelier village, so if someone fancies that kind of stuff, Lech all the way. The problem with Lech is that this area is busy, so good snow lasts less.

I think we got lucky with the weather, 3 first days were sunny, and that allowed us to explore the area safely. The snowstorm day was a complete disaster. While we skied till 3pm anyway, it was very challenging due to extremely poor visibility in snow and cloudy weather, and variable snow conditions. You just can't go with reasonable speed on a slope with a thick cover of fresh or displaced snow w/o seeing what's in front of you. I've seen lots of people falling, some managed to go off the trail because they didn't see or understand the markers, and all in all, it was a tough day of skiing. Pure cloudy days can be a challenge too because of visibility, but to a lesser extent because at least in the morning the piste is decent, and you can generally (but hardly) see grooming bands.

For those people who'd rather explore the ungroomed terrain, there are a lot of opportunities too, and I'll just attach a few pictures of a brochure I found in a hotel nearby.

[eaf]

[sibhusky]

I'm thrilled you posted this trip report, it's been very helpful.

Athough one might thinking skiing at Whitefish might have me prepared for fog, I know the resort and we do have trees, so I'm hoping for less snowy days than you had. 

My daughter and I are booked for March 2022 in Lech. I plan to stay on piste and at this point I'm planning to pack my old skis which are K2 AMP Rictor 82xti's with an 82mm waist. I have newer replacement I'm also considering, but they are stiffer and make me have to be on them more aggressively. I'll decide right before we go, I guess. My daughter's sole skinny skis are her OLD race skis. Hopefully she buys herself a new pair by then as she really doesn't enjoy her normal skis on groomers. (I have the same skis almost as my powder skis and agree with her.) So I found the discussion about what people were on to be helpful. She also wants to go touring and off piste, so she has a big dilemma.

I don't want to derail your thread about my trip, so will start a new thread.