St Anton resort information
Whisper “St Anton” in the ear of an advanced skier and watch his/her pulse quicken. For many advanced skiers and strong intermediates, in Austria at least, nowhere else will do!
Its one of these must ski resorts for the better skiers. But that said, we book skiers of all levels here each year and all seem to enjoy themselves. The beginners ski area is at the foot of the slopes in St Anton.
The Village is divided into three parts, St Anton centre which has a car free centre, with an attractive domed Church, at one end and lined with hotels bars, restaurants and night clubs. This is where many of the hotels are located and the heart of the end of the day parties. Hotels serve schnapps under heated covers whilst playing Euro pop or more traditional Austrian um pa pa music.
Nasserein, is to the right as you face the ski hill, it’s the original village with many older style buildings where many of our chalets are located. The high speed lift in Nasserein connects nicely at the mid station of Gampen.
Finally Oberdof at the opposite end of the valley to Nasserein, we also have a few chalets and apartments here.
In all these area’s and you have good access to the slopes via a series of lifts along the valley floor and a bus service connects outlining chalets with the lift system too.
The skiing is across serveral valleys including Lech and Zurs, but the connection to these is limited to bus. It’s not possible to ski (other than with a guide) between Lech/Zurs and St Anton. You can either catch the bus from St Anton or ski over to St Christoph or Rauz and catch the bus from here. The bus is free with your lift pass and skiing in Lech is included.
Another smaller mountain, Rendl, much improved since the lift was moved closer to the centre of St Anton is well worth a half day. The highest point on Rendl is 2650m
St Anton for beginners skiers
St Anton and Val d’Isere may have had there runs graded by the same person! Who must have been a “Great skier” as he/she classified some blue runs that we think would make a challenging red and some reds that deserve a black rating. This is partly why we don’t think St Anton makes the best choice for beginners (see below) .
The nursery slopes in Nasserein are more gentle then the ones between the lifts in St Anton. But progression from here is limited, a few runs around Gampen and a short blue on Rendl, apart from that it’s a bus to Lech where the slopes and wide and gentle, well the blues are anyway!
St Anton for intermediate skiers
It’s simple as far as intermediate skiers go! If you are brave and fit you will love it here. If on the other hand you are a timid skier, we think you might find that the blue runs would be Reds elsewhere and after snow these become bumpy. The few cruising runs tend to get crowded. Covered on the same lift pass is Lech and Zurs which will please all lower levels of skiers and boarders.
St Anton for advanced skiers
If you ever skied in Chamonix or Val d’Isere and didn’t come to St Anton yet, we think you should. These three resorts and a few others in Europe vie for the attention of the advanced skiers and rightly so. There is so much off piste skiing here; even the smaller mountain at Rendl has plenty to offer away from the groomers reaches. On red and black pistes you might not spot the difference on some of them!
St Anton for off piste skiers
From Nasserien, which is a great base for better skiers wanting to get off piste as quickly as possible, (less queues) the gondola connects with the bottom of the Kapall chair at the top turn left to the gates of “heaven” the very heart of what makes St Anton’s off piste world famous. In St Anton Gampen connects to the same but normally a little slower.
Galzigbahn is the main cable car up from St Anton linking to the Valluga cable rising to 2850 and the areas highest point.
Night Life in St Anton
From 3 pm to 3 am its non stop in St Anton. The Après ski starts in the bars on the slopes as you descend to St Anton at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Popular après ski bars include the Krazy Kangaroo and the Mooserwirt.
Best dining in St Anton
Some very good dining on the mountain at lunch time, Verwallstude on Galzig is certainly one of these. In St Christoph the Hospiz Alm famous for its ‘slide’ down to the WC is good too.
In the evening many of the 4* hotels offer fine food as well as many restaurants in the pedestrian zone.
Child care in St Anton
We have serveral chalets here with in house crèches as well as some luxury chalets offering private nannies. Please ask for more details.