After those first couple of days in a crowded city, we were more than happy to move on and head deep into the Alps. Our route to Austria would take about three hours where we would eventually land at St. Anton, part of the Arlberg region, and also what inspired this trip as a whole. The train station was somewhat easy to navigate once we figured out those video boards and we hopped aboard the first leg of our journey to Innsbruck.
The ride was incredibly comfortable and it was a beautiful day making for some amazing sightseeing right from the train window. I can honestly say that I’m really impressed with Europe’s whole train situation. Oh, how I long I wish we had that here! The thought of being able to hop on a train and end up somewhere in the mountains is quite romantic to me.
Once arrived in Innsbruck, we got off to wait for our next train, about a 20 minute wait in which we were able to soak in the sights of the towering mountains around. It was at that point that my heart was won over by the Alps! Another 1.5 hour train ride passing through mountain towns and villages surrounded by stunning snow-covered peaks had me swooning. Soon enough we were in St. Anton.
A village just shy of the size of what you would find in Whistler awaited us. We checked into our guest hourse, Hotel Kirchplatz early in the afternoon and were able to spend the rest of the day relaxing (thanks to our hosts for the free champagne!). Dinner was traditional Tyrolean fare and we instantly fell in love with the bacon dumpling soup. (While I’ve since been able to replicate the dumpling back home I’m still not sure how they make such yummy broth!) We ended up spending that night at a Mexican restaurant called Bobo’s that had a DJ and dancing late into the evening. We made friends with a guy named Oliver who was from England and chatted about traveling, skiing, and of course the ultimate question of why Smirnoff Ice was so popular at this particular establishment.
The next day was or first day of riding in St. Anton. The place is just as enormous as it looks on the maze of a trail map, with pistes connecting nearby towns and miles and miles of amazing skiable terrain. While the conditions weren’t ideal, we had an amazing time soaking up the endless views of the snowy mountains and valleys that seem to go on forever. We finished up our day of riding with food and beer at The Krazy Kangaruh, what is typically a crazy happening après ski scene. Unfortunately at that time of year, there wasn’t enough snow to ski right in, thus resulting in an empty restaurant in a place that typically has people hanging off the railings.
The second day of riding in St. Anton resembled much of what we had the disdain of riding last season in the Northwest. Rain at the bottom, snow at the top with some insanely heavy and wet conditions. You couldn’t make one run without feeling like you needed windshield wipers on your goggles. We did end up discovering one somewhat lame piste that took us to one really amazing little spot called St. Cristoph. While there isn’t really much to St. Christoph, maybe a couple of hotels and a hospital, there was Hospiz Alm. The dark little oasis was filled with cozy tables, firepits, and some of the best gluhwein I had the entire trip. We ended up socializing with a group of guys who were there for some sort of brotherhood meeting which was pretty entertaining. After we had enough gluhwein we headed back up the chairlift to make our way back to St. Anton for yet another stop at the Krazy Kangaruh. Not sure if it was the sweet Scottish waitress that kept us going back (refreshing to find someone consistently speaking English!) or the amazing Kasespatzle (like a German mac and cheese), but it definitely was a great little hangout spot.
The final day of riding was back to blue skies! We were pleasantly surprised to find some spectacular snow off of the Schindlergrat chairlift, a little two-seater that creaks its way all the way to the top of a craggy peak. We finally got our first taste of the off-piste riding and took a super soft run down the bowl off of the top. The rest of the day the snow got pretty heavy but the views were seriously hard to beat!
That night was our last night in St. Anton and we finished it off with small appetizers and wine at a little wine bar. This of course was preceded by some time in the sauna that was provided at our guest house. What a great finish to four days in an amazing place we had been dreaming of for years.
Tips on St. Anton:
- December is too early for great snow. Most of the locals told us the best snow is February-March.
- If you go off piste (aka off of the groomed runs), bring your avalanche gear! It seems as if nothing ever gets controlled by the ski patrol there so riding off of the groomed runs is kind of fair game for avalanches. They don’t really have boundaries and gates like we do here in the US. While there wasn’t even enough snow on the ground for avalanches to really exist when we were there, this is definitely something we will keep in mind when we return.
- Always order the bacon dumpling (semmelknoedel) in the beef broth. You will not be disappointed ☺
Here are a few more images I took pre-snowboarding one morning:
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