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  4 of 5, "A short bus ride, but a world away from St Anton" 30/03/2008 @ 21:53:15 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 30/03/2008 @ 22:41:46) |
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| Price Paid |
| 114€ - 3 days |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Self |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
A bus ride from the town of St Anton gets you to Lech via St Christoph and Zurs. The bus system was efficient and transported me and the board, which was loaded to the back for the princely sum of €5.50.
Lech, like St Anton is full of poncy little boutique shops and little for the real boarder to browse or buy. The town is split across the road into two distinct areas of the Stubenbach and the Kreigerhorn. I stayed on the Kreigerhorn / Oberlech side as there seemed to be more to do in a day than come down and head back up again.
The runs in Lech were great, in terms of length, and bashing quality. They offered a lot of variety of terrain and gradient - especially those served by the Rotschrofen and Steimhader although you had to be careful due to the wind and lifts closing. Pistes do cross over a lot, so navigation can be interesting at times.
Ideal resort for all levels as there is something for everyone. There is also a park, to the right of the Schlegelkopf chairs. If using this lift system, don't take the 2 man as it's slow.
Rating below is for the runs and riding - town is definitely a 2 for facilities! |
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| Strengths |
Pistes and choice of runs
Upper slope bashing quality - bashing during the day too.
Glorious slopes to ride down switch on all day.
No queues on lifts |
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| Hot Spots |
Anything above Oberlech
Heated lift seats from Petersboden
Speed test - 62.5 km/h!! |
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| Weaknesses |
Home run (34a) - very steep, rutted to buggery and littered with tennis ball sized chunks of iced
Town is a bit posh! - fur coats, small dogs and white skin tight all in ones. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| St Anton, Le Praz, Courchevel |
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| Reviews: 6 |
| Buckinghamshire |
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 4.5 of 5, "Lech 08" 05/02/2008 @ 08:52:13 |
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| 2 members have given this review an average rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| 800 inc liftpass (single room) |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Iglu/Totalski |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Chalet Alexandra.
I stayed at Chalet Alexandra (3*) catered chalet. A great chalet, a little out of the way, with a real 70's feel to the decor but very clean and all that you need.
The staff were very friendly, they remembered the names of all 20 of us by night 2! Couldn't have done more to make the trips work for everyone. There were guided
tours every single day if you wanted them. Food was excellent, wine was free at dinner and pretty good too. Bar tab was kept all week and was reasonable when paid up.
They have a Wellness Centre. Included a hot-tub, sauna, steam-room, full power showers and a table tennis table. Every room had a telly but not all could get BBC or CNN.
Mine couldn't:(
Lech village/nightlife:
Full-on Euro poppy. I must confess I was in bed early most nights to make sure I was up for 1st lift. A few decent bars but I had to leave them when they played
Simply Red or the Collins. Not my style but I didn't go there to party. The village itself is picturesque but looks pretty much like every village that you pass
heading up the mountains from Innsbruck airport. It has 2 supermarkets, one being a ubiquitous Spar. The other one sells English newspapers. There is very little
Internet access, that I could see, so I spent the week completely out of touch. Austrians are generally very friendly and all speak a commercial-English.
Lech snow area:
I didn't tour all of the area but the lift pass gives you access to several (6?) village areas over quite a large amount of terrain. Most of the blues I went on
had parts that might be reds in other country classifications but that made me try harder. A bus service covers all the areas on the liftpass and is frequent, reliable and free.
They had 1m of snowbase when I was there and in one day it dropped 1 ft of fresh snow. The off-piste ranged from the easy to the absurd but was absolutely incredible in good
conditions. There were a number of drag lifts but they were legacy as opposed to integral to getting round the mountains. There were also a few creaky old 2-man chairs. They
have been replaced by faster 4 and 6 man chairs but still run also.
There is a lack of very tricky (blacks) terrain but quite a lot of the red runs have steep sections and though others mention a lot of flat sections, I didn't come across that many
and if I did, avoided those runs. The piste-bashing set up is brilliant. Rough runs happen but they don't stay that way for long. Some days the bashers were out in the middle of the
day having been bashed the night before. They really do care about their reputation.
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| Strengths |
Very friendly and picturesque place with easy access to the slopes
Off-piste is easy on fresh snow days. Especially in Zurs.
Quite a few good runs that were worth revisiting.
Sun shone brightly 6/7 days
Easy to get around the villages. |
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| Hot Spots |
Two outdoor bars in the village opposite each other for a wind-down beer watching the one-piece fashion disasters and skiiers slipping in their boots.
34b, was one of my favourite runs of the week.
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| Weaknesses |
Mildly expensive but not extortinate.
Some blues had tricky sections for the beginner. Particularly the end of 62.
Skiier/Boarder ratio 80/20 with some staggering fluo one-piece/moustache combos.
Saw half a dozen fur-clad harridans. Grrr. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Val D, Morzine/Avoriaz |
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| 4 of 5, "Lech/ Zurs/ Zug" 21/03/2007 @ 12:49:35 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Revision #6 (Last edited: 28/10/2007 @ 00:40:47) |
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| Price Paid |
| £650 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Iglu - Ski World |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Actually stayed in Chalet Prieml in Zug (just up the road) but covered Lech and Zurs whilst out there.
Mountain wise it's good. Zurs has the better runs and terrain and there is plenty of off-piste on offer if the conditions are right. Was there last week and it was spring like everyday. Good only for skiers in the morning and then good for boarders in the afternoon. The terrain has plenty of steep runs but also alot of flat and up-hill bits, so if you can't keep your speed up be prepared for more than usual amount of walking. The tree's are off limits so you won't be spending anytime n the woods.
Not overly keen on the Madloch run which ended up like an ice rink at the end of the day so was one to avoid, especially on tired legs.
There's a small park in Lech which like most European parks is a bit pathetic in comparison to those across the pond.
The place is predominantly occupied by German skiers, most in their late 50's. Whom are rather affluent, wear their original 80's one piece suits (saw some absolute crackers, and even chased after one guy just to photograph his suit !!) and like to push in when queing for a lift. But they only tend to be out on the slopes from 10-2:30pm which is good.
Apres is pretty useful, the Germans love a beer and their dodgy euro-pop !! If Bony-M plays they're all up dancing !! And try to find somewhere to have a game of Nails - a good larf !!
Also give the tobogan run at oberlech a go, we had 16 of us racing down it but I'd suggest you wear all your protective gear as it can be full on and bumpy.
The actual resort is formed around a proper town and must admit to preferring the Austrian ambience to that in France. There's a good bus service that operates round Lech, Zurs, Zug, and St.Anton and as you'd expect the buses run dot on time. A nice place that I would go back too... |
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| Strengths |
Good off piste in right conditions
Plenty of terrain to explore
Great Tobogan run in Oberlech |
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| Hot Spots |
For an apres beer head to Lech main street.
Zurs best on a board. |
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| Weaknesses |
Park is poor
Not the easiest of places to navigate around/ between resorts. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Nothing else in Austria but done France & US |
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 5 of 5, "Picturesque and pretty challenging" 13/03/2007 @ 13:47:24 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 5 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| £700 1 week B&B |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Lech is a very pretty town - the resort offers pretty something for everyone. It's not as expensive as you'd think (I went last week - March 3rd and it was pretty reasonable to eat out etc).
The snow I'm told is very reliable. It snowed before I arrived and then snowed a couple of days during the week - very civilised. Lovely powdery dry stuff. HOWEVER - it quickly got carved into nasty 'orrible moguls which I found pretty tricky - the worst bit was on the run into the town so even if you're a mogul hot-shot you've got every learner-skier blocking your way totally terrified at what is a pretty difficult 100yds. I thought the runs were a bit harder than they made out. The blues were stop/start affairs for boarders making me longing for a pair of ski poles.
WHATEVER YOU DO be careful of the Weibermahd lift. I went up on it twice and twice nearly killed myself and several others. It's quick and quite a jump down onto a fairly steep slope without a flat bit to stop on.
Lech has great website info - check out the interactive piste map : http://ski.intermaps.com/skiarlberg/en_west.html
Your pass covers Zurs (which I prefered - keep to the Seekopf side for best runs for boarders) and St Anton (didnt go but am told it's a bit more challenging).
All in all you cannot fail to have a good time - a safe bet for most abilities and difficult to get bored as the area is huge. |
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| Strengths |
Quaint
Good variety of runs
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| Hot Spots |
| Most places do good food and drink |
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| Weaknesses |
| Bloody Germans! Do they not understand the concept of personal space? |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Zell am See (which is much smaller)
Obergurgl (ditto) |
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| Reviews: 3 |
| West Glamorgan |
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 3 of 5, "lech weekend" 20/01/2007 @ 23:56:23 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| £150 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| ryan air,hertz,etc |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Visited lech last weekend,12-15th Jan.Snow conditions quite spring like,wet on the lower runs packed powder upper runs,piste's were in fairly good condition.The locals i spoke to said there was no where near as much snow as normal for January and up until Jan 3rd had been green pastures on the lower runs!!
I'm into riding as fast as i can from top to bottom and although there were plenty of runs in Lech they seemed to be a little short,you'd hit a flat spot or sharp corner soon after exiting the lift(nothing like a top to bottom run at Tignes or Val thorens).
Zurs on the other hand(on the same lift circuit) was excellent,runs were much longer and loads of powder around at the top,not much of a hike required either.
The resort is not that crowded so lift queues fairly short,it is however fairly expensive,plenty of fur coats and private banks around too.
To sum it up, i visit the alps 5 -6 times every winter as i work for an airline and to be honest i don't think i'd go back to Lech.Plenty of better places out there. |
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| Strengths |
No lift queues.
Easily accessible off piste.(Zurs)
Very Pretty(my wife's comment!)
If you have a few million quid to deposit can do it here!
Locals very friendly.
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| Hot Spots |
Zurs,both sides of the resort.
Good park above lech. |
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| Weaknesses |
Runs to short.
Expensive.
Not the highest resort.
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Ischgl,obergurgl,Tignes,Val Thorens,Whistler etc |
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