As featured in the ‘Where to Ski and Board’ 2008 Guide Book!

Expert Skiing in Abundance! - OFF PISTE

Ask any good skier if they can ski a black run and they will smile, black runs are where skiing begins for experts. They are the equivalent to the nursery slope and good for a quick blast at the end of the day, Off Piste is where it is at, and although many European resorts boast large numbers of black runs their Off Piste leaves something to be desired.

The main issues when finding a good resort for experts are, 1) snow condition, 2) easy access from the top of the lifts, 3) snow stability (risk from Avalanches), and 4) how chopped up it gets (ie. the number of skiers).

1) Snow Condition:

There is a lot of confusion especially with the Brits about snow and how much a resort gets. Many people naively opt for higher French resorts thinking this means good snow, and this couldn’t be further from the truth. Often the snow clouds are lower than the really high mountains and dump before they get there. Also high mountains tend to be colder and windy so a lot of the snow gets blown off leaving hard icy pistes. One of the best conditions for deep fresh powder in a dead end high valley where the prevailing wind gets pushed up at the end of the valley and causes powder snow to be created.

Luckily this is what we have at Hinterthal and by comparison the neighboring resorts of Zell am See and Sallbach who both have the opposite shape and as a result often get half as much snow!

2) Easy Access from Lifts:

The best off piste is free off piste ie. without the expense of a Helicopter and is easily accessible from the top lifts. With any luck this is away from the lifts so that people can’t see it on the way up and steal our lines. We have several areas that can be skied directly from the top lifts without any walking and are not visible to those not in the know. The back of the Aberg area is a huge back bowl with lots of different routes down, some chutes, trees and powder bowls. It even has it’s own restaurant usually filled with mountain guides and ski instructors. Some runs even go right down the the valley base giving you 3000 ft powder runs!

For the more serious ski mountaineer there is also a huge secret valley down to Hintermoos! From the top of the Aberg lift you can skin up to the Hundstein (8000ft) and ski all the way down a huge undiscovered valley back to the Hintermoos lift (this takes about two hours and is just awsome!).

In Hinterthal there are several huge off piste secret bowls that can be accessed from the lift, some bringing you back to the lifts and others to the main road where you can catch the free ski bus back.

3) Snow stability:

Skiing off piste is an extreme sport and always carries a danger of Avalanche. When skiing in unknown terrain we always recommend using a local ski guide. They will also supply you with Avalanche transceivers, shovels and probes as well as show you the best places to ski safely. We can arrange local mountain guides for you, just ask upon arrival.

Having said that it’s no fun if the good spots are always closed, ie too dangerous, most of the time. This usually is the exposed areas where there is a lot of wind and wind slabs are formed, plus no trees to help anchor the snow pack. Fortunately our area has trees to the top of most mountains and has very little wind. This means that although we do have some times when it is very dangerous to ski off piste, a lot of the time good routes can still be found within the relative safety of the trees.

How many people?

Great snow can be ruined by skiers and boarders in a matter of minutes in crowded resorts. With most of the obvious lines skied out by 10.00 ‘o’ Clock. This is not the case here as our area is far bigger than the amount of accommodation, so even in peek week the main lifts don’t have large queues. This is also translated to the off piste with mainly locals skiing the off piste and skiing nice clean lines not wasting our valuable asset. If you know where to look fresh powder can still be found even a week or two after a snow storm.

So if you want to book a ski trip for every ability we have a lot to offer, we have perfect nursery slopes near to the Hotel, over 100 miles of intermediate red and blue tree lined cruising, plus amassing untracked off piste powder to keep any expert skier smiling for weeks!

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