The classic stations of St. Anton, Lech and Zürs, located around the port of Arlberg that connects the Austrian states of Vorarlberg and Tyrol, belong to that elite of white sport that every passionate skier must have visited at least once in their life.
The vast expanse of the ski area, which includes several valleys and massifs and abundant snow, as well as the welcoming atmosphere and hospitality of the Tyrolean villages, are the main ingredients of the region. All of this seasoned with a mix of tradition, international jet-set and nostalgia for the golden age of alpine skiing.
Already in 1961 the different municipalities, with their respective valleys and mountains, came together and created the common ski pass to form one of the largest ski areas in Europe, the Arlberg region. But the tradition of skiing in the Arlberg goes back to the very origins of alpine skiing. On January 3, 1901, one hundred years ago, a group of enthusiastic skiers, who had gone on an excursion from St. Anton, founded the Arlberg Ski Club during a stop at the St. Christoph hospice. Today this club, whose ranks produced great ski champions such as Karl Schranz, with 5,300 members, is the largest in all of Austria.
And in 1928, at the initiative of the local ski pioneer, Hannes Schneider, and the great promoter of ski, the British Sir Arnold Lunn, The club organized the Kandahar competition for the first time on the slopes of St. Anton. This season, with the celebration of the Ski World Championships in St. Anton from January 28 to February 10, 2001, the white sport races have returned to their origins, also coinciding with the 100 anniversary of one of the ski clubs with the greatest tradition in the world.
The ski area
The ski area of the Arlberg region has 260 km of prepared slopes, spread over an area of about 50 km2: a massif or a resort for each day, or skiing a whole day without having to go down any slopes times, depending on what you prefer.
The largest and best-known municipality is St. Anton, located at an altitude of 1,300 m east of the Arlberg tunnel. Its fame and good geographical location meant that this Tyrolean town soon attracted visitors from all over the world. Hence someone coined, not without a touch of irony, the people from a lot of world. The municipalities of St. Christoph and Stuben, located on the Arlberg port road, with their respective tracks or substations, also belong to the St. Anton station.
St. Anton-St. Christoph-Stuben has kilometers of groomed pistes, half of which are for intermediate level skiers (red), while the other half is divided equally between pistes for experts (black) and easy tracks (blue). Its ski lifts explore an entire snowy universe: Galzig, Valluga, Kapall, Rendl and Albonagrat, in which it is practically impossible not to find the slope we exactly dream of.
Easy and long slopes to enjoy the landscape and let the mind wander as we go down, steep slopes dotted with impressive bathtubs that demand all our concentration, endless virgin slopes waiting for someone to draw their footprints on them and then contemplate them, exhausted but satisfied, from below.
The nerve center of the St. Anton ski area is the Galzig (2,185 m). Numerous slopes run along its wide slopes and it is the gateway to the highest part of the region, Valluga and Schindlergrat. The Galzig cable car leaves us at 2,085 m high and once there, we can warm up on the easy and wide Osthang slope or go down the also easy slope that takes us to St. Christoph and then go back up on one of the chairlifts. .
From the Galzig cable car station, another cable car takes us closer, making a dizzying journey over the Steissbachtal valley, to Valluga Grat (2,660 m) where we have to make a new transfer, if we want to climb the last bit that separates us from the highest point in the region, which can be reached with mechanical help, Valluga (2,811 m).
But the track starts from Valluga Grat. The comprehensive descent through Ulmer Hütte and the Steissbachtal to St. Anton, with its more than 10 km, is the longest in the region. A no less advisable option is to continue going down, once we have passed the Ulmer Hütte, towards Alpe Rauz, located next to St. Christoph, and then continue to Stuben, where we can connect with the Albonagrat station.
From Alpe Rauz you can also go up again with the Valfagehr chairlift, where for experts there is a variant that runs just below the aforementioned chairlift. But the queen of difficult slopes is undoubtedly the Schindlerkar: from the Schindlerspitze (2,660 m) to where we reach with a chairlift from Galzig, we turn to the right to enter this circus full of bathtubs that flows into the Steissbachtal and that tests our skill and physical preparation.
An entrance variant that deviates from the Ulmer Hütte track brings us closer to the Schweinströge area, which is as spectacular as the Schindlerkar. Another of the long descents that more advanced skiers will enjoy is Mattun, which starts from the Mattun Col (Mattunjoch) and also ends in the aforementioned Steissbachtal.
Next to the Galzig-Valluga region is Kapall-Gampen (2,330 m), famous for its traditional Kandahar descent whose history dates back to 1928. There are also slopes for all tastes and it would not be a bad idea to start the day with an easy and panoramic descent from Kapall to Gampen, the intermediate station. The descent to St. Anton overcomes a gradient of 1,000 m that is long and entertaining.
At the bottom, the new Fang slope was prepared, which turns out to be an attractive option for more advanced skiers. As for the ski lifts, the area has a new cable car with cabins for eight people that goes up from Nasserein, located between St. Anton and St. Jakob, to the Gampen station (1,850 m) and which replaces the St. . Antón-Gampen, at the same time that it must contribute to decongesting the most conflictive points, which are usually those of the Galzig cable car and the Gampen chairlift.
In this regard, we must remember that we can connect with the Galzig area from Gampen-Kapall if we go down to the lower part of the Steissbachtal (which can also be reached via the Kapall-Mattun ski route), to then climb up the Zammermoos or Feldherrenhügel chairlift. Making the first turns in Kapall is an option that allows you to climb in not too long a time to an altitude of 2,300 m, that is, up to 1,000 m above the valley. From Kapall we can do one or two relaxed and panoramic descents to Gampen, or even a comprehensive descent to St. Anton, before moving on to Galzig-Valluga-Schindler Spitze.
On the other side of the St. Anton valley, opposite the two regions described, the Rendl area constitutes a small resort apart, since it does not connect with any of them but also has a good number of slopes covered by half a dozen ski lifts mechanics. A gondola transports skiers to the Rendl resort, located at 2,100 m above sea level.
We will continue with the Gampberg ski lift or the Riffel I and Riffel II chairlifts to access the upper part of the area. The point circus full of bathtubs that flows into the Steissbachtal and that tests our skill and physical preparation.
An entrance variant that deviates from the Ulmer Hütte track brings us closer to the Schweinströge area, which is as spectacular as the Schindlerkar. Another of the long descents that more advanced skiers will enjoy is Mattun, which starts from the Mattun Col (Mattunjoch) and also ends in the aforementioned Steissbachtal.
Next to the Galzig-Valluga region is Kapall-Gampen (2,330 m), famous for its traditional Kandahar descent whose history dates back to 1928. There are also slopes for all tastes and it would not be a bad idea to start the day with an easy and panoramic descent from Kapall to Gampen, the intermediate station. The descent to St. Anton overcomes a gradient of 1,000 m that is long and entertaining.
At the bottom, the new Fang slope was prepared, which turns out to be an attractive option for more advanced skiers. As for the ski lifts, the area has a new cable car with cabins for eight people that goes up from Nasserein, located between St. Anton and St. Jakob, to the Gampen station (1,850 m) and which replaces the St. . Antón-Gampen, at the same time that it must contribute to decongesting the most conflictive points, which are usually those of the Galzig cable car and the Gampen chairlift.
In this regard, we must remember that we can connect with the Galzig area from Gampen-Kapall if we go down to the lower part of the Steissbachtal (which can also be reached via the Kapall-Mattun ski route), to then climb up the Zammermoos or Feldherrenhügel chairlift. Making the first turns in Kapall is an option that allows you to climb in not too long a time to an altitude of 2,300 m, that is, up to 1,000 m above the valley. From Kapall we can do one or two relaxed and panoramic descents to Gampen, or even a comprehensive descent to St. Anton, before moving on to Galzig-Valluga-Schindler Spitze.
On the other side of the St. Anton valley, opposite the two regions described, the Rendl area constitutes a small resort apart, since it does not connect with any of them but also has a good number of slopes covered by half a dozen ski lifts mechanics. A gondola transports skiers to the Rendl resort, located at 2,100 m above sea level.
We will continue with the Gampberg ski lift or the Riffel I and Riffel II chairlifts to access the upper part of the area. The point
