My day at St. Anton Arlberg

My day snowboarding St. Antons ski mountain (which I believe is the best Alps mountain in Austria) was my most fun so far.

First off, it was super easy to get to from Innsbruck. ~$40 round trip on a train that took about an hour. I got off the train at like 8:55, was at the mountain by 9. After getting my lift ticket for ~$45 and renting gear for ~$70 (thinking I might have been able to find a cheaper place if I didn’t go right where the mountain was), then taking up the gondola, I was on the mountain by ~9:45.

I’ve done lots of skiing and boarding in the Rocky Mountains, but the Alps were totally different. The mountain is wide open, so instead of following a given run with signs about its difficulty, either you take the groomed run down, or just make it down to the lift.

I was able to basically go wherever, and just had to be careful since there were rocks and cliffs that you could accidentally end on top of. But nothing too bad to navigate. And, the mountain felt endless. Lifts going in all directions and so much terrain to explore.

They had gotten a dump of snow a few days before, it was a beautiful sunny day, and no crowds. The make for a perfect day.

The ski lifts there were a bit nicer than those in CO and they have these things called après-skis, which are basically bars on your way down to the base of the mountain. So you can stop inside to grab a drink (or multiple) before putting your stuff back on to ski the last few min to the bottom. It was super high energy at the end of the day, mulled (warm) wine, and the perfect way to end a ski day.

Hard to fully capture, but was an awesome place, and hoping to make it back there one day without a doubt.