Lech Early March 2019

I’ve always been a believer in the conservation of snowfall theory. It states, simply, that the global snowfall amount at any time is constant. It’s just where it falls that is different each year. Yep, and the earth is flat ….

This winter it was clear that the Pacific Northwest’s snow from November through January was falling mainly in Europe. The Arlberg was deluged during that period. Absolutely deluged. Then, as winter arrived here suddenly in February, the sun arrived in Europe. We arrived in Lech on the last day of February, which was luckily the last day of basically 3 weeks of unabated Spring conditions.

Our first day was foggy, snowy and still tad warm. Snow fell to village level. Just. It was actually good stuff for covering the hardpack. It snowed overnight. got cooler, and Saturday was a rather decent, sunny, powder day at Warth.  The week continued with this pattern. One day sunny and Springy, the next a moderate snowy day with some fine conditions following. Overall it was a darn good week. Not epic, but with great terrain and decent snowy top ups, it is hard to complain.

It’s interesting how the Flexenbahn link to Zuers has changed skier traffic flow. On a powder day, we could comfortably ski from Lech to Zuers and be certain to have tons of freshies for at least a morning. Now, the St Anton hordes start rolling to the Seekopfbahn by soon after 10am. This dramatically changes how we ski the area. The best approach now is to jump on a bus from Lech as early as possible. We managed 5 or 6 laps before the lines built up. then it was to the Muggengrat for several more fresh lines. Luckily that lift rarely gets busy.  And has superb terrain 🙂

 

5300, 8000, 8200, 8500, 9900, 8900, 6300, 8100, 9000m vert

Season Totals: 35 days, 268,000m vert. 10 powder days

 

A wild and wonderful trip to Lech

This was the 9 days in the Arlberg that had it all climatologically. A true weather rollercoaster.

We started off with a respectable base and definite Springy freeze-thaw conditions for two days, the second with a gale force fohn wind that gradually shut down most lifts. Then it snowed more or less for 4 days, with a couple of lucky daytime clearings to allow true deep pow appreciation.

Next it rained at village level for a night but dumped just above. This deposited a lot of snow and also created very dangerous avalanche conditions. And our last day was a perfect, cold-to-cool bluebird, on perfect mid-winter pistes with a base that doubled during our stay.

Like I said, a true weather rollercoaster. We tried 3 times to make it to St Anton, but never got past the top of the Valgagehrbahn. That has never happened before. The Flexenbahn is a sweet ride though 🙂

During this crazy weather, we had some superb powder skiing. Midway through the 4 day storm, thigh deep pow was everywhere, and in classic Lech/Zurs style, hardly anyone was out skiing. Posh people just don’t ski in bad weather. Messes their fur up I guess.

Zurs

Lech

Lech – Rufikopf

Lech – saying hello to Carpaccio 🙂

 

Temperatures were a degree or two warmer than ideal all week really, so it wasn’t always super light snow. But if you picked your aspects and paid attention to the wind (and sun during the occasional clearing), there was true epicness to be found. It was a season’s worth of face shots in 3 days.

All my old favorites delivered the goods – the oddly named Furkawang, the Zuppert ski route to Zug, Osthang and Nordhang, the ‘between pistes’ area off the Trittalp chair, and all the north-facing terrain in Schrocken and Warth. The ski routes that peel off to the skier’s left on the Madloch were guaranteed 3pm fresh tracks on the way back to Lech. Hard to argue with that.

First tram up Rufikopf – 8.40am on a 50cm powder day 🙂

It was deep

Outside our hotel

Lech

Zurs

Zurs – massive avi

Serious storms

Scary avalanches and sunshine restricted off piste exploration on the last two days. The compensation was that the grooming crew exploited all the new snow and hit many of the main ski routes in Lech and Warth.

Lech

Lech – at end of day

Lech

Warth

This made for perfect mid-winter riding on respectably steep, easy to carve packed powder. With rooster tails flying up behind our skis as we made high speed turns down the fall line, it was hard to rip the smiles from our faces. A fantastic end to another crazy fabulous week in the Arlberg.

8300m, 7100m, 9100m, 10000m, 9100m, 8200m, 9400m, 10400m,  8600m vert

48 days, 401,900m vert, 14 powder days

 

12 Days in Lech

It had been a patchy season in the Arlberg, but a serious dump the week before we arrived on 19th February fixed most base issues. A week of sunshine had created some firm and fast conditions on piste, and left most off piste terrain highly avoidable until early afternoon. We still found some decent north facing snow and lines, especially in Warth and Schroeken where the conditions were holding up really well. And then, on Monday night, it started to snow ….

What followed was a classic succession of Arlberg storms and powder days. Tuesday it dumped all day, with poor viz making things tricky and scaring most people off by early afternoon. When the clouds partially lifted around 2pm, those of us left out there had infinite fresh lines of boot deep pow to explore. It was a pretty good storm cycle start.

It kept snowing through most of Wednesday but with much better visibility, and then a break in the weather delivered the first of those sublime Arlberg, cold, bluebird powder days. We lapped the Albona at Stuben top to bottom with hardly anyone else – it was incredible skiing, with fresh tracks everywhere. North facing lines on Galzig were lightly tracked and steep and bumpy, and the widest couloir on the Schindler Spitze had soft partially tracked bumps all the way down after the inevitable ‘step in’ over a few pesky rocky bits. I love that run.

More dumpage and iffy viz on Friday set up probably the best day of the trip on Saturday. Boot to knee-deep super light fluff was as easy to find as oompah music at Austrian apres bars. We slowly did the White Ring, taking deep powdery laps on every lift. There were frequent visits to the White Room under a deep blue Alpine sky. What a day.

Sunday was a mixed bag and even slightly damp low down. But Monday it deluged all day, with strong winds keeping the high lifts closed. And then once again it cleared for our last day. The wind had battered and scoured the north facing Lech slopes. Compensation was it had loaded ski routes like Sudhang and the fabulous run down to Zug from the Kriegerhorn. Hitting them early before the sun did any damage provided some of the best and deepest runs of the trip. We finished with another leisurely White Ring, picking off fluffy remnants all around the mountain.

It was with great emotional pain that I removed the skis at 3pm in Lech village and trudged back to the hotel. The compelling mix of terrain quality, expanse, snow quantity and lack of pow competition is really hard to beat.

Trip Totals – 12 days, 108,800m vert, 6 powder days

(Lech 9600m, St Anton/Zuers 9000m, Warth/Lech 8300m, Lech/Zuers 8700m, Lech/Zuers 12,300, Lech 7400m, Stuben/Zuers 8600m, Lech Zuers 7700m, Lech Zuers 9600m, St Anton/Zuers/Lech 10,400, Lech 8100m, Lech/Zuers 9100m vert)

Season totals: 38 days, 302,000m vert, 12 powder days

Lech am Arlberg, Early March 2014

Context: A somewhat below average snow year, topped up with about 50cm just before we arrive. The remnants of deep pow are everywhere as we arrive at the station at Landeck. And so is the deep blue sky and sun that will dominant for the foreseeable future. Here’s our ski diary:

Day 1: Warth/Schroecken: Sunny, warm and new terrain waiting to be explored. I guess a Friday at the end of a holiday week always meant it was going to be busy, not unbearably, but some lift lines got to the 5-10 minute range. After a long day of traveling and with jet lag, a pleasant cruisey exploration was in order anyway, noting new terrain, aspects, and where might be good on a powder day. This is the snowiest place in Europe after all, so with fingers tightly crossed, this information might be put to good use someday.  There’s certainly plenty of fine-looking off piste  should such an occasion occur. 8400m vert.

Day 2: St Anton : Crowds-wise, Saturday always seems a good bet in St Anton. And on the early evidence of the snow on the north-ish facing slopes of Galzig, it was a good skiing bet too. We lapped the Zammermoosbahn many times, thriving on excellent steep black groomed and various lines of bumps and lightly used fresh off Galzig’s various flanks.  Then it was Rendl for lunch, where a cool breeze amazingly kept the higher slopes quite firm despite the blazing sun. The run down was great though, as was the descent from the top of the Schindlergratbahn to our bus back to Zuers. A couple of lifts and delightful slide down the Madloch and we were back at the Laerchenhof (our hotel) for a beer and sauna. Great day. 9500m vert

Day 3: Lech:   A local day, when timing was everything. The higher groomers were primo early, and some tests on Nordhang revealed quality snow on north-facing slopes. By late morning, Sudhang and its steep bumpy descent was lap-able – 3 times in fact. Huge dollops of corn were served up in the afternoon off the Steinmaehler chair – Spring skiing at its best with endless lines to rip. 8800m

Day 4 Lech/Zurs: On a beautiful sunny morning, it’s a no-brainer to head up the gondola from Lech, rip a short run down to the poma lift below, and indulge in the perfect steep groomed of the Langerzug (37) run. It’s scenic, holds good snow, and in the morning you’re guaranteed a fast run out to the village. Soon we were back up the gondola, enjoying an improvised White Ring type day, and even finding some untracked leftover pow off the north-facing edges of the runs in Zuers. Not bad for 5 days after a storm.  10,200m

Day 5 Stuben/Zuers: I’d never traversed from the top of Albonagratbahn II and dropped into the incredible looking terrain that lies beneath the ridge line. Until today. When I did it 3 times. The advantages of Spring skiing and high, north facing slopes is (right now anyway) stability and perfect, mid-winter like snow. A 40 degree pitch at the top levels off a little into superb high-speed off groomed terrain. Just watch the rock bands.  The groomers at Stuben were pretty fine and fast too, and we topped the day off with some sloppy fun off the Seekopfbahn at Zuers before an 8 minute top-to-bottom bump-a-thon down the Madloch to our hotel front door. 8900m

Day 6 Warth/Schroecken:  Much of Warth faces north, and hence is an excellent destination on warm Spring-like days. This was a serious exploration of the area, and the results were excellent.  The 6-pack Salober-Jet an Jaegeralp chairs serve some superb terrain, both on and off piste. The former is ringed by blacks that aren’t terrifying, but hold good snow and are perfect for ripping, In-between and around the edges lies chalky bumps that will keep most people happy all day. The terrain off the Jaegeralp is more serious, including one ski route that held some of the best snow of the week.  With more off-piste runs to the skier’s right of the chair, dropping through a cliff band, this was truly great skiing. Warth might not be the snowiest place in Europe this year (it statistically is), but the skiing is still excellent. Oh to be here on a snowy year ….9100m

Day 7 Zuers/Lech:  A regulation Weisse Ringe with options. We got to the Muggengrat as early as possible, and the first time it was  a dream run down on perfect soft ‘roid, surely good enough to repeat. There can be few more scenic runs anywhere, and when the piste is carvable butter, with a couple of north facing bumps fields as options, it’s a wonderful place to be. 9100m

Day 8 Stuben/Zuers: Back to the Albona. Laps from the top of the lift-served ridge. Traversing into the bowl and shredding  fast fall-line turns on a 40 degrees slope, watching your slough race past you and the feeling the light wind blowing your spray from the previous turn in your face. This is epic skiing and epic terrain, and there’s so much of it in this area. It’s why we come to the Arlberg. 9200m

Day 9 St Anton:  A tad of cloud in the morning, and distinctly cooler. The forecast weather system was starting to announce its imminent arrival. Galzig was yet again the place to be early, with the steep bumps running down the north side skiing beautifully. We did a run down to Nasserein, which (with help from snow guns I suspect), was actually quite deserted and quite fun. Rendl was skiing well apart from a still frozen higher slopes. And then about 2pm the wind arrived. We got to the top of the Galzigbahn, only do discover virtually every other lift was closed. It was time for a bumpy ski down and a bus back to Lech. 8800m

Day 10 Lech/Warth:   About 2 inches of snow-like substance fell over night, and so we headed to Lech to get some carvable mung before it warmed up and turned to less desirable substances. Although the viz was grim high, the early skiing on groomed was fun. Who knows what had happened the night before, but off groomed even the north-facing terrain had turned to heinous icebergs. Suddenly about 2pm, the clouds lifted and the great glue maker in the sky came out. Up high, this created great creamy corn, worthy of 9 minute laps of the deserted Steinmaehler chair.  But down low, progress was sticky. leg-burning slow. Beer was definitely earned by 3.30pm. 9500m

Day 11 Lech/Zuers: A perfect, sunny last day. Headed high and south facing in the morning for more corn gorging. Then up the gondola for lunch and over to Zuers, where the skiing, both on and off-piste around the Hexanboden chair was darn fun. On the other side of the valley, there was even first tracks to be had on the softening breakable crust that yesterday’s weather had deposited. It was surprisingly good fun. Then down the Madloch one more time, where a long traverse brought more untracked crusty fun in the late afternoon sunshine. A really wonderful Spring ski day. 10,000m

11 day total 101,500m vert

Season Totals: 47 days, 389,900m vert

6 powder days

2012 Lech video – finally

As usual, snow falling in the Cascades is motivation for processing last season’s footage.

Here’s our Lech trip, from early March 2012

Posh people don’t ski pow – a week at Lech

It’s early March, the village is covered in snow so deep it looks like someone has been spraying a foam fire-extinguisher on it for weeks. Yep, the abundant Arlberg snowfall this year had dragged us back to our old Lech haunts, hoping for a dump or 3 in the 9 days we had to roam. As we hauled our bags to the hotel, dripping with sweat in the blazing afternoon sunshine, new snow didn’t seem likely anytime soon. Spring has sprung, and for 3 days we had classic freeze-thaw conditions, solid in the mornings, and fabulous corn snow in the afternoons. The sun even brought the crowds out on the weekend mornings. Mini lift lines at Zuers. Unheard off. Waiting for 3 minutes is a disgrace 😉

Winter though had only been resting. In the next 6 days we had two deep snowfalls, which effectively kept the well-heeled patrons in their luxurious half-board establishments. The first snow fall had some work to do to bind with the hardpack underneath, but if you chose carefully, there were fine turns to be had. Thursday’s storm restored the Arlberg to it’s magnificent best, creating enough freshies to last us all the way through Saturday. Friday was one of those majestic Lech days. Massive mountains caked in boot deep, dry pow, cold bluebird weather and the majority of folks skiing pistes. It’s really hard to ask for more sometimes.

9 days: 8500, 7600, 8000, 8700, 8000, 9300, 9400, 9200, 7600m vert

Season Totals: 49 days, 397,600m vert, 24 powder days

Annual Arlberg Ski-and-strudel-a-thon

Trip report format from Snowheads. Read on …

Date: February 26 March 5, 2011

Our mob: 8 of us

Website : here

Basics : Lech is part of the massive Arlberg ski region, in Western Austria, lift linked with Zuers and a short free bus ride from St Anton and Stuben. It’s an upmarket joint, where you can spend a fortune with the rich and famous if you want. But you don’t have to …

The skiing: Extensive and varied, with much more than you can ever ski in a week. The lift system is absolutely superb, especially in Lech and Zuers where virtually every chair is a covered 4/6/8-pack, many with heated seats! Lift lines are very rare indeed. St Anton is busier, but apart from a couple of avoidable bottlenecks, you rarely wait for more than a couple of minutes.

While St Anton has the deservedly gnarly reputation, it also gets less snow, has more folks and much of the terrain gets plenty of sun. There’s pistes and ski routes to keep all standards happy, but the sun and traffic mean that especially the lower runs get pretty firm. The Rendl area across the valley is comparably quiet and seems to hold better snow. We skied 2 days in St Anton, and one day the wind and fog  drove us back to Lech, where it was sunny and calm!  Quite a difference between 2 neighboring valleys. It’s a truly great ski area.

While the on-piste skiing is tamer, we stay in Lech for three basic reasons. It gets more snow (especially at Zuers – a lot more snow), crowds are virtually unheard of, and snowy weather means the affluent, well-dressed clientele stay in bed. This leads to some magnificent powder days. On this trip, we had one 40cm+ storms on the Sunday, which set up 3 great powder days. After that, a high pressure moved in, giving sunny and slightly too warm conditions.

Off-piste : We didn’t venture too far off piste, but you really don’t have to in order to find really fine skiing. Some of the marked ski routes are fun, ungroomed things especially on a snowy day. But if you look around, there’s ‘just-off-piste’ options everywhere. The north facing slopes held snow well, and there was still boot deep turns to be had late in the week if you picked your aspects carefully.

The resort : A picture-postcard pretty Austrian village. The après is more restrained and cultured than most Austrian places, but still fun, and with highly amusing people-watching.

Food : We ate in several of the restaurants in town, most of which serve good hearty Austrian fare at not-too-bad prices, ie 14-20€ for a really good dinner.  Haus Nr 8, a previous year favorite, was fully booked, and Schindlers, a perennial staple,  had become a watch shop. Still, the food at  Cafe Olympia, Der Italianer in Rufiplatz and Ilga’s up in Oberlech is good stuff indeed. We also did the annual Fux visit, which remains a very fine restaurant. Expensive, but IMHO worth it.

Hotel: We stayed at our usual haunt, the Laerchenhof, with excellent rooms, killer breakfast, and spacious, super relaxing and well-equipped spa area. Only downside is approx. 500m walk to lifts. You can ski about half of this, and can ski back to the hotel from Zuers on the Madloch run.

Costs: Beer €4-5 for 0.5L wheat beer, €3-4 for a house wine, food €14-whatever you can afford. 8 day lift pass was about €260. Overall, more expensive than your average Austrian resort, but very comparable with Colorado and mainstream North American destination resorts. The rest of Europe, I know not 😉

Pics : see below

Conclusion: 4th visit, still a real fave.

Skiing stats:

8 days (vertical metres): 10,600, 7800, 8400, 8200, 8300, 10100, 9300, 9100 (total 71800)

Season totals:

42 days, 14 powder days, 346,600m vertical