I have been hitting the snowy slopes for more years than I can remember. Here in Europe we have been blessed with a gigantic region called the Alps that just has and endless oppertunity for skiing activities of any kind. Whether it is in France, in Switzerland or Austria (or even head a bit more East to Czech Republik, there are just a lot of mountains and slopes over here.
I have visited a lot of them over the years and all of them have a different charm over them. Whether if it is a small mountain town where the three locals rule the world, or if it is a big resort which is not personal at all but the infrastructure for snowy sports is just a big winner...All of the options are there. And we are just lucky to have all of them so closeby.
Heading towards the Alps at the end of March or even at the beginning of April is a bit of a long shot, as there of a lot more risk of not having the best snow anymore...or even snow at all.
That reduces the amount of towns that is wise to visit drastically, but there are some very decent options.
Ischgl is the big winner
For me one of the towns that has it all is the Austrian town called Ischgl. It has a lot of slopes at higher altitude, the skiing areas is super big and very diverse, the quality of the cable cars are chair lifts is really something else, and there is also some social stuff to do after your long day on the slopes.
Sure the equivalent of this skiing wise is the 'Trois Vallées' region in France, but the reality is that the quality of lodging and also of the skiing lifts is a bit different from here. Less modern I would say. That is also what Ischgl is often know for, they invest a great bunch in their infrastructure, replacing a chair lift nearly every year for a better one with more capacity.
That is cool as they really want to keep up with the demand.
One of the reasons that I didn't like this resort at first is the sort of people who come here who want to show off their spending habits. As in...in a typical bar you would see a lot of these big bottles popping bought by daddies creditcard and an equal amount of blond haired duckfaces smelling the money around it.
Not my kind of people at all.
But it feels like the crowd has changed for the better in the last couple of years, and that makes it more fun to hang around outside after hours.
Back to the slopes
Enough about the golddiggers, but back to the slopes....The whole reason why you visit a place like Ischgl.
I mean come on, these far sights are just stunning to see and especially at this altitude the snow quality still feels like it is January if you stay high enough on the mountain. Ischgl is located in the Vorarlberg region which has an inner Alpine micro climate which means it snows a lot more here compared to the rest of the Alps. No bad if you are on the hunt for snow!
Also a fun thing about Ischgl is that half of the time you are in Austria, and half of the time you are in Switzerland. People speaking with different accents, prices in CHF instead of in Euro, your phone switches network....But apart from that, you wouldn't even know that something was different when you look at the mountains.
And the mountains are just sublime. With a good amount of friendly beginner slopes, but also enough challenging slopes that make the legs burn more that you would want them to Ischgl has a lot to offer.
Sure the run towards the valley isn't always the best one, but does that even matter when there is so much to do higher up?
I mean come on...look at how sweet this is groomed in the morning and calling your name ready to race over it? For me that is the best waking up to.
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So yeah...when you look at it pure mountain and skiing-wise.....For me that means that visiting Ischgl is a no brainer and it will never disappoint you mountainwise.