St. Anton, Austria

Nestled in the Austrian alps just a few hours away from Innsbruck, St. Anton is the most famous ski resort in Austria and home of some of the best skiing in the alps.

The town is composed of a few areas with Galzig (Moos, Dengert, Stadle, Gastig, and Oberdorf) to the far East with Fang (Dorf, and Sonnenwiese) in the middle and Nasseriein (including Seiche) to the West and a number of smaller areas further west as the town spreads along the bottom of the valley (St. Jakob).

I visited St. Anton in the spring of 2001 quite late in the season. This year had been pretty bad for skiing in the area with higher than average temperatures with a LOT of rain (which we experienced during our visit, thankfully only bad one day – the second from last).

St. Anton is a charming, if a bit busy during ski season, town. Eating out and drinking is a way of life for those that are here and there are many places to indulge this pass-time. A good idea is to pick up the “Ortsplan” Village map which is available from the tourist information office near the Galzig lift on the east side of town but also from other businesses throughout the town.

Arriving in St. Anton can either be by car/coach, or train in the local train station which was moved from right near the slopes to opposite the road that runs through the town for the FIS Alpine Ski championships held hear in 2001. It is a very modern and convienient station. Buses run throughout the town in a few basic loops of the main areas of the town. For those with money to burn taxis are plentiful.

Of course, the main reason people visit St. Anton is to ski and the town is well and truly geared up for this. Lifts operate at many locations throughout the town along the base of the mountains. Many lifts offer rental facilities and most have places to eat and drink nearby. The lifts from the town are mostly gondolas with a few smaller chairs allowing skiers onto the lower parts of the slopes near the town.

Ski pistes are blue (easy), red (moderate) and black (difficult) with the addition of orange diamonds and black edged orange diamonds indicating EXTREME slopes (they wait at the bottom with the doctor – just kidding!). Though the runs are marked like this, as is often the case, use this as a GUIDELINE rather than the law since many blues we were on should have been reds and similarly many reds could have been black.

Skiing in St. Anton is not for the beginner with few facilities in place for them. Many skiers thrive in the vast off-piste areas available here but on- piste poses many challenges as well.

Ski school is available with a few english instructors. The ski area is vast so this is a good way to have a “guided tour” of the area.

The Arlberg ski pass allows skiing in the Stuben, St. Anton, St. Christoph, Lech, Zurs and St. Jakob areas. The Lech and Zurs areas are not quite as challenging as St. Anton and are the home of the wealthy and famous (people, hotels and shops!).

Most pistes are wide but VERY steep offering tremendous views of the surrounding mountains. There are restaurants throughout the ski area though during meal times they will be very busy. If you are looking for a place to eat it is a good idea to do so well in advance as you may have some distance to travel to get there… Some of the best places to eat in the St. Anton area are just above the Galzig lift on the Zammermoos run.

For further information, please see:

• St Anton am Arlberg - Ski area information