Ischgl trip report 21 - 29 April 2023

A snowHead

Type of Trip: DIY

Travellers: Two friends grabbing some end of season snow

Ski Level: Decent all mountain skier and boarder with a sore knee.

Travel:
We drove from the UK to Ischgl, stopping over in Calais on the way out and leaving Ischgl on the Friday to stop over in Stuttgart. The plan was to ski until about 14:30 on the Friday before leaving the resort but the weather changed out plans.

Gear:
We took out own gear, I got a service and binding check in resort (at sport + mode Zangerl because I got a discount). Service was quick and I was happy with the price.

Accommodation:
Booked though booking dot com. 6 Nights at the excellent 4* hotel Sonne including dinner, B&B and an afternoon snack (more like a meal). We got a superior room with a sofa bed so we didn't have to share beds. The hotel, service and facilities were all excellent. We had the pool and spa area almost to ourselves in the afternoon after skiing. The location of the hotel was excellent, about 50m to the tunnel that leads to the Fimbabahn lift. The staff parked the car for us and arranged lift passes (they turned out to be 30 euros less than we expected for each pass). Overall a bargain although I'd expect it to be much more expensive in high season.

Weather/Snow
Overall the snow was far better than we expected for the time of year and the overall poor season. The the first 5 days the snow was excellent, in fact as good as anywhere I have been high season. Frequent top ups of a few cm of fresh snow and a heavy snow fall on the Tuesday night leading to a bluebird morning with fresh snow on the pistes. On the Friday the weather warmed up and it was raining a long way up the mountain. If this had come in a couple of days earlier it would have been a real problem but that's the luck of the draw.

Village
Ischgl is very compact with a large number of quality hotels. It's compact nature means that there are views of the alpine pastures and forests from most places which makes it look quite pretty. Many of the hotels are clearly purpose built but the standard of architecture is quite high and everything is clean and well maintained. There are 3 large lift stations throughout the village (town?). It was very quiet while we were there but you could tell that it is lively in high season. The final weekend seemed to be a big deal with a concert planned, we left before this happened and the resort seemed to get much busier at the end of the week.

Lift system
The lift system was one of the best and most modern I have had the pleasure to use. The sheer number of high speed chairlifts with covers is surprising. There are one or two slower uncovered chairs on the fringes of the area but these are a minority. The E5 cable car was also excellent. At no point did we have to queue at all as far as I can remember.

Skiing (exact order of days is a bit of a blur so I might have got the oder a bit wrong)
Day 1 - Skied much of the area in good conditions with some fresh snow, went over to the Samnuan side because it was more sheltered. The sun came out later on and I looped the runs above the main Ischgl gondola station.
Day 2 - We started by attempting to do the bronze ski circuit (gold and silver had closed runs), this involved taking run 60 down to Samnuan village in fairly deep snow. It was worth the short bus ride to the lift back up. Later the conditions came in with quite a strong northerly winds so we stayed on the Samnuan side most of the time. I skied later in heavy snow while my boarder friend had a break. I skied down to the mid gondola station in increasingly slushy snow but got on the wrong lift which took me down to the opposite end of town, luckily it's a small place so it wasn't too far to walk
Day 3 - We started this day by taking the 80 smugglers run down to Samnuan. We got fresh tracks on good pistes most of the way down, I managed to ski as far as the road bridge next to the lift back up. In the afternoon we enjoyed some powder on the pistes in the extremely quiet Alp Bella area. We got an early night in anticipation of the overnight snowfall.
Day 4 - Some of the best conditions I have ever had. We looped the red and black runs at the "E" section of the Ischgl side. We got an hour and a half of fresh tracks in reasonable depth fresh snow before the E5 cable car opened and then hit the large open snowfield after that until we had had our fill of fresh snow. It seems that they close the E5 cabe car for a few days to let the snowfield recover then open it so everyone can get fresh lines, a great plan if you are in the right place at the right time. We spent the rest of the day seeking out the remaining stashes on the mountain which was relatively easy because it was so quiet.
Day 5 - Another day with sun and some fresh snow. We had chilled time looping the good snow on the high runs on the Samnuan side.
Day 6 - The rain was well up the mountain and the webcams in the morning confirmed this. We cut our losses and headed off to Stuttgart early without hitting the snow. If it was the first day we probably would have gone up but by this point we were happy with what we had done and also had a couple of injuries to nurse. Getting to Stuttgart early resulted in an afternoon in the excellent bar Kraftpaule.

Food
The hotel food was really good, large 7 course meals for supper, an excellent breakfast and a very substantial afternoon snack. The staff were happy for us to make a packed lunch at breakfast time which was a bonus (tbh I don't think they are that used to people on a budget)

Summary
Overall a really excellent trip, the power day on Wednesday was as good as I have ever had. The hotel was very good value for what we got and I would go back in an instant if the opportunity came up again. Conditions were superb for the time of year and it was a great time to get some fun stress free skiing on empty pistes.

A snowHead

I've never skied Ischgl that late in the season. now I'm tempted..

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I've ridden there for the season closing party before now and it's been acceptable. The snow obviously is the variable factor; when I was there you could ride down to the base, but most skiers didn't - on a board sloppy wet stuff is easier / more fun I think, and the lower runs were that. But downloading is not much of a problem anyway.

Help!!

Ischgl trip report 21 - 29 April 2023

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