From: mueller@delta.fsu.edu (Frank Mueller)
Newsgroups: rec.skiing
Subject: Re: Austria/Switzerland Ski Area Questions
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:36:24 GMT
Organization: Florida State University Computer Science

In article <18AUG199213211901@arecibo.aero.org>, terwill@arecibo.aero.org (Bill who?) writes:
> Can you tell me what resorts will have the best snow in Austria and
> Switzerland on Wednesday, February 10, 1993 at 10:22 pm PST?

If you have a car, there's virtually no limit to your options. If you want to
travel by train (and this might not be as expensive as renting a car) you can
still reach numerous resorts.

I am mainly familiar with the Austrian resorts. Coming from Vienna, the first
reasonable resorts are in the Dachstein region. But go a little further west
and you can ski in Obertauern (~30 lifts) or Zauchensee (I belive this was the
name, right next to Flachau but much better! ~20 lifts + ~10 lifts in two other
valleys). You will find that a lot of ski resorts are connected and can be skied
the same day, valley-hopping so to say.

There are some other big resorts in the middle of the country, e.g. the
Saalback-Hinterglemm ski circus (60+ lifts) but don't go to Kitzbuehl as
it is too crowded and the snow often sucks. The rule of thumb is, the more
remote from Munich you are, the smaller the crowd.

My favorite resort will always be St. Anton. You'll find quite a few Americans
out there. The slopes are more demanding than in most other resorts, and the
ski ticket includes another area (Lech/Zuers) with less interesting slopes but
lots of great scenry. The prices are higher than average, but you get more out
of it. (~60 lifts in St. Anton, another ~60 in Lech/Zuers, next to the Bodensee
in Vorarlberg).

I cannot comment on some smaller resorts (I forgot some names), but you
might want to take a look at a "Ski Atlas" in a public library, either
here or in Vienna. They include complete trail maps which should give
you a much better idea.

You will encounter waiting lines no matter where you go, in average 10 min.
at the bottom of any lift and up to 1 hours if you try to get on the first
lift from the valley at peak time (around 10 a.m.). You better get up early.
(Fortunately, it's not X-mas time or Eastern :-) The Dachstein region and
St. Anton can be reached via train.

Switzerland is about  10-30% more expensive overall (all goods and services).
Most notably, Davos (30+ lifts) and St. Moritz (40+ lifts) 
re the Vails and Aspens of Switzerland.
You pay and you get pretty descent skiing under normally more sun than in
Austria. (But this should not be a problem in February, it's the best time
weather-wise.) But there are more challenging resorts, such as the Jungfrau
region and, closer to Geneva, Saas Fee (30+ lifts), Zermat (~40 lifts plus
connected to Bruil-Cervinia in Italy with ~40 lifts), and Verbier (~60 lifts).
The first two are also pretty expensive bigger towns in the most butiful setting
around several 4000m peaks (such as the Matterhorn). The latter is the hot-spot
for experts in the region, but often crowded. All these resorts have convenient
train access.

There are also some interesting resorts south of Lake Geneva in France but
I haven't skied them.

Keep in mind that Vienna and Geneva are about two days of long driving apart.
You might therefore want to select one resort and spent all your time there
instead of wasting time on the road.

Frank
mueller@cs.fsu.edu