Bezau/Niedere, AT: 03/06/22

[jamesdeluxe]

It's been three years since I was last in Austria, so I decided to make a return visit to the Vorarlberg and ski some areas that I either missed last time or didn't get to see due to poor visibility. It's a region that couldn't be better placed, about 90 minutes east of Zürich airport via the Swiss autobahn, with atmospheric villages and a wide variety of ski areas (more than 40), so no surprise that it's finally gaining the attention of long-distance destination visitors.

Day 1
Following an overnight flight from Philadelphia, I landed in Zurich at 9 am and was skiing by early afternoon at Bezau, where you take a tram from the valley floor and climb 3,250 feet to the ski terrain. Once at elevation, all of the lifts are old-school: a handful of t-bars and a double chair.

A view of the upper tram station, which almost appears to be suspended in mid-air:

Photo: Seilbahn Bezau

To the west is a vista of Lake Constance that looks very similar to what you see from Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho:

Photo by Michael Meusburger

 

[jasonwx]

It's been three years since I was last in Austria, so I decided to make a return visit to the Vorarlberg and ski some areas that I either missed last time or didn't get to see due to poor visibility. It's a region that couldn't be better placed, about 90 minutes east of Zürich airport via the Swiss autobahn, with atmospheric villages and a wide variety of ski areas (more than 40), so no surprise that it's finally gaining the attention of long-distance destination visitors.

Following an overnight flight from Philadelphia, I landed at 9 am and was skiing by early afternoon at Bezau, a local ski area with a stunning view of Lake Constance to the west. I left my camera in the car, so here's a pic (by a photographer from the region) that looks almost identical to what you see from Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho:

Photo by Michael Meusburger

A few hours of turns at Bezau were enough to ward off jet lag, allow me to get on local time, and be ready for Day 2 at Warth-Schröcken, which is widely regarded as the snowiest ski area in the Alps with well north of 400 inches every season. You may recall that the first time I skied there was during a fierce snowstorm where I spent most of the day brailling around the above-treeline terrain; thus, I was looking forward to today's forecast of clear skies and mid-winter temps.

As you can see in this map, Warth-Schröcken is connected to Lech/Zürs via the Auenfeldjet gondola in the upper right-hand corner, which creates Austria's largest ski area with 305km/190 miles of marked runs. Still, Warth-Schröcken on its own is sizable, spanning 3.5 miles across with a lot more off-piste acreage than the condensed trail map indicates, and satisfying long runs with up to 2,000 verts:

I arrived at 9:45 to the Salober Jet lift, one of the ski area's five high-speed lifts. You can see that the map these skiers are checking out is for the entire Arlberg circuit:

The same recognisable signage as at Lech/St. Anton/Zurs:

It's been mostly sunny for the past two weeks so while the groomed trails could've used a refresher in spots, the north-facing off-piste (2/3 of the terrain), tracked up as it was, stayed pleasantly chalky. I spent most of the afternoon doing laps in low-angle chop:

Lech in the upper left:

Heading into the village of Warth:

Mid-afternoon, I went to the same cute chalet (the Auenfeld hut) that I did seven years ago for coffee and apple strudel and just like then, I was sitting across from a pair of British skiers and we got into a long interesting chat.

My final run at 3:45 back to the base:

A relaxing day in the sun and I'm looking forward to another ski area tomorrow that I visited in 2015 and likewise saw very little of due to a whiteout.

Looks wonderful
No strudel ?

 

[jamesdeluxe]

No strudel ?

 

[jamesdeluxe]

As usual, I'm always on the lookout for interesting or creative advertisements while travelling. This one has a fun bit of wordplay -- Bürgermeister in German means "mayor;" however, when you take away the umlaut over the u, it means "burger master."

It's always fascinating to see how American expressions make their way around the world:

I finished out yesterday with dinner at a very pleasant restaurant, Komot, a couple minutes away from my lodging in Bezau. I had fresh pasta tossed with walnuts and spinach as well as the de rigueur Weizenbier. It never occurs to me to use walnuts in my cooking but after this excellent dish, I'll make a point of doing so.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Amazing, JD. Just amazing!

As always thanks for sharing.

 

[Warp daddy]

Spectacular !

 

[gorgonzola]

great report even without strudel pics!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

great report even without strudel pics!

 

[jasonwx]

View attachment 13674

Now we’re talking

 

[tirolski]

Nice JD! Attaboy