Could do better (Saalbach)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Saalbach
Date:	15/02/05 (1700 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent pistes, Good food, Lively nightlife

Disadvantages: Inaccurate piste classifications, Poor joined-up skiing

When we first arrived in Saalbach our impression was that this was as near a skiing paradise as we were ever likely to find. After a couple of days we were disinclined to change our mind but as the week wore on we started to see inadequacies that took something of the gloss off of our experience.

Saalbach is in the Austrian Alps and was for us a new destination. We had been in nearby Zell am See some twelve years ago, as a family, when we first learned to ski. We knew the area was very good for skiing and, being at a relatively low altitude (1,000 to 2,000 metres) would provide plenty of tree-line skiing as at this altitude you are mostly below the maximum altitude at which trees will grow.

The description of the area and of our accommodation suggested that, whilst not exactly ski-in-ski-out, it was within close distance of the lifts up to the slopes and not to far from the ski back home at the end of the day. This is a major consideration for us, being no longer in the full flush of youth! Here, descriptions were a little misleading, but more of that later.

The Travel Company
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This year we were travelling with Thomson, a company we have used often in the past although in recent years we have travelled mostly with their sister company, Crystal.

Although we had identified our chosen holiday in a Travel Brochure, we actually booked the holiday through the Thomson website. Selecting and booking our holiday on the website was comparatively easy and enabled us to get the exactly mix of options that we wanted. Bizarrely, although we could complete the booking and pay the deposit via the website, we were unable to pay the balance some weeks later the same way!

We were offered, at the extra cost of £50 per person, priority checkin and access to the airport lounges whilst waiting for our flight. When we discovered that that was only for the outward flight we understandably declined their offer! As it happened our experiences of Gatwick South have not been unpleasant so we knew that only if the flight was going to be substantially delayed would there be any need.

We were encouraged by a voicemail left on my mobile by the local Thomson rep, asking if we had any questions and inviting us to contact her if we needed any information. Unfortunately this was a misleading indication of her actual helpfulness once we had arrived.

On the coach she invited us to go out with her as a guide on the Sunday morning. She failed to show up, having left us waiting half an hour before we called her to find out where she was. She gave some lame excuse.

At the get together that evening we booked a couple of events and were then astonished to discover that she would not accept credit card payment. I think this is the first time ever that this has happened. On all other holidays we have never had to pay cash for what can turn out to be quite a cost if booking a number of events. Needless to say we hadn’t got the cash she wanted. I got the money from an ATM the following day and turned up at one of her advertised meeting places to give her the money. Once again, she wasn’t there.

We hardly saw any sign of her throughout the entire holiday and, indeed, another guided tour opportunity was taken by her trainee colleague instead. He was very new to the courier job but to be quite honest, he did a far better job and we would have been happy if he had been the only representative of Thomson.

The Airline
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We were flying once again with Britannia. They are no better, no worse than most charter type airlines. The flights went more or less according to plan. The meals in flight were the usual thing, hot but little else to recommend it. Drinks were all extra and chargeable.

Legroom is the same as you find on any economy flight meaning that I just about fit into the seat but not really with what I would describe as comfort.

Salzburg Airport
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Our last experience of Salzburg airport was 12 years ago. Since then there has been a brand new terminal (T2) built. This is right next door to the old terminal (now T1) and so it is possible (until you pass through passport control) to investigate what both have to offer.

Despite the two terminals, Salzburg is not a large airport and so don’t expect a whole range of facilities like you would find at Gatwick. As it happened, we arrived at T1 but returned from T2. Between the two is the dedicated ski checkin where you can deposit your ski bags before going through to check in the rest of your baggage for the return flight. This is a big improvement on most other airports.

Saalbach
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Saalbach is located a couple of hours by transfer coach from Salzburg. Thomsons take their guest for Zell am See and Saalbach on the same coach and so Saalbach guests have the delights of a detour before finally reaching their destination. It adds about half an hour to the overall journey.

Saalbach falls within the ski area called Ski Circus. The symbol for the area is a clown with his pant on fire, or that’s what it looks like! The valley is shared with its near neighbour, Hinterglemm and the three small hamlets of Viehhofen and Vorderglemm below Sallbach and Lengau above Hinterglemm.

Across and into the next valley is Leogang. This can easily be reached in a day’s skiing and the whole area is covered by the area lift pass (£126 per adult in high season). You can also buy a super area pass that also covers you for Zell am See and Kaprun. By advice is, don’t bother. You’ll get more than enough skiing around the Ski Circus.

If you really have to go over to Zell am See, buy a day pass. You can get there, either to ski or to shop, on Bus 680 from Saalbach in about 40 minutes for the princely sum of 3.20 Euros each way.

Saalbach is the largest of the towns but this is a relative term. None of the locations could really be called big. However, don’t get the idea that you are going to find a charming Alpine village. Saalbach and its neighbours have clearly undergone substantial extension to accommodate growing visitor numbers. Much of the building is new with some of the older properties a little lost in between.

Not that Saalbach is an unpleasant place to be based, anything but. We enjoyed our stay and found as much as we needed by way of resources, to provide for our needs. Indeed, we really didn’t explore a lot of what Saalbach had to offer as on this occasion we were hotel based on half-board. Sadly that means that we are unable to give you any indication of the potential eating-out experiences, other than those out on the mountains. Sorry.

Saalbach is clearly a very lively place in the evenings and there are plenty of bars and clubs to keep the most dedicated night-owl occupied. It is possibly a bit noisy but luckily our room was removed from such potential disturbances.

The Accomodation
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We were staying at the Bergers Sporthotel. This is one of the older buildings in Saalbach and has been run by the Berger family for 70 years. I will write a separate review of this hotel if I can get Dooyoo to add a category for it.

Ski Circus
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The skiing area runs East-West. The consequence is that one side of the valley is always in the shade whilst the other is always in the sun, assuming there is any sun. Fortunately, during almost all of our stay, the sun shone.

Actually, it’s not quite as simple as that. The gondola up to the top of the shady slope (Schattberg X-press) gives you access to the reverse side of the ridge and once more, sunny slopes.

The skiing is superb. The slopes are well prepared and unusually, the piste-bashers carry on running day and night. Additionally, most of the pistes are covered by snow-cannons, not that they were needed whilst we were there. There had been nearly two metres of snow in the previous two weeks!

Many of the slopes are covered in pine trees and tree-line skiing is much the order of the day. There are miles and miles of fabulous off-piste for powder hounds. Despite this, surprisingly, snowboarders are in the minority here.

That’s the good news. If there is a problem, and whether or not you consider it a problem will depend much on your expectations, it is in the uphill transportation, the ski lifts. What you soon begin to realise is that the Ski Circus is some way away from what you would call “joined-up skiing”.

Time after time we found that insufficient thought had been given to connections between ski areas. Too often you found that you had a long hike to the next lift. This is particularly true when crossing from one side of the valley to the other. This is also true in Saalbach itself. Whilst the Schattberg X-press was only 50 metres from our hotel, the other major lift (Bernkoggel Sesselbahn) is a long uphill hike up through the town with not even a ski route back down.

The same is also true in Hinterglemm, where you have a hike of several hundred metres however you want to try to get from one side of the valley to the other. The only location where they transfer is reasonably easy is at the top end of the valley at Lengau.

You can also transfer easily at the bottom end of the valley at Vorderglemm but here you can only travel in one direction. There is no lift back the other way. The only alternative is to climb aboard the Ski Bus back to Sallbach.

Other than these gripes, the actual skiing is great and, for many people, these inconveniences may be of no great import. Maybe my expectations have been spoilt by our experiences in France and Andorra, where these problems simply don’t seem to exist.

The other big complaint we had is that the Austrians seem to have no concept of reality in respect of their piste classifications or on the accuracy of their piste map. Especially we had an issue with critical pistes not being prepared. Worst of all, we found pistes marked on the map that simply didn’t exist.

In Europe we use the Green, Blue, Red and Black classifications to indicate the increasing difficulty of the pistes. Ski Circus doesn’t use or at least doesn’t claim to have any Green. That’s a lie. On our first day we decided to have a “warmer” down a Blue run from the Schattberg X-press Middle Station. We got there to find the Blue run closed. The only alternative? Black!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with Black runs so long as they’re prepared and not unduly icy. Luckily, on this day the run was good and for us manageable. The evidence, though, is that for some relative novices it was far too much. There was no other alternative other than to go back down in the gondola!

The Blue run remained closed for most of the week despite the fact that there was no further snowfall. When it eventually opened we took advantage of it, to finally get a look at it. What we found was not a Blue run but a Green one, by any definition you care to use. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that far from returning you to the bottom of the slope at the Schattberg X-press Bottom Station, as the piste map shows, following the piste arrows dumps you in a car park on the outskirts of the town with yet another long hike back!

Often we found two pistes literally next to one another, one maybe to the right of a ski lift and the other to the left. One would be classified Blue, the other Red. We found Blue runs that should have been Red; Red that should have been Blue or worse, Black.

The Ski Circus classifications seems entirely arbitrary so, be warned, do not under any circumstances rely on what the piste map tells you.

For snowboarders there is a dedicated board park. It was out of action at the beginning of the week due to the shear volume of snow that had fallen but midweek the piste-bashers were out shaping it up for use.

Going Uphill
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The mountain infrastructure here is good. There are three new 8 man gondola systems, one of which is brand new this year. In addition there are two older 12 man gondola systems where you stand up inside with your skis. Despite the fact that we were skiing during the local school holidays and it was also the famous Austrian Fasching festival, we never had to wait very long.

In addition there are plenty of 4 and 6 man chair lifts. The only drawback is that there are also many of that unique Austrian abomination, the T-bar draglift, most of them quite new! In France and indeed most everywhere else, you get solo button draglifts. In Austria that try to overcome the capacity problem by doubling up by changing the button into a T-bar. These are a nightmare, especially if you have a relative disparity in height between people sharing the lift. One gets the bar behind their knees, the other in the middle of their back!

Eating out
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And here I mean out on the mountainside. Ski Circus has dozens of mountain restaurants and bars. Most are good, some very good. Those to avoid are simply because they tend to get horrendous queues rather than that the food isn’t any good or overpriced.

The food is typical Austrian fare although staples such as Spaghetti Bolognese can also be had. We found that our perfect midday lunch was Gulaschsuppe, a sort of thickish spicy stew in a bowl, served with bread. We usually had this with a glass of wine or beer. Prices varied from 3.60 to 4.50 Euros.

Goass-stall Alm (Alm seems to be the general though not universal designation for a restauarant) above Hinterglemm beside piste 32a offered a relatively thin version of the soup. However, what was most notable about this place was its umbrella. You will find umbrellas and umbrella bars all over. What was notable about this umbrella was its size. Although closed when we visited, I estimate that full open it must have been around 50 feet in diameter. It was HUGE.

We had two favourites. The first was Ellmaualm at the bottom of pistes 16, 17 and 18. A great view from their terrace and near perfect soup. The other was Westerstadl Altach beside piste 46. And once again, superb views.

One to avoid is Hochalm near the bottom of piste 24. It took me 30 minutes even to reach a tray. The problem was that you couldn’t see how long the queue was at the start and by the time you could it was too late. The food was OK though.

You will find Umbrella Bars all over the place. These are simply round bars, enclosed within a surround of plastic panels and with benches and tables around it for customers. You may also drink inside the “enclosure” should you wish though space is limited. The Umbrella is raised to provide protection in inclement conditions.

Conclusions
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So, at the end of the day, what’s the verdict? Well, we did enjoy our visit but then again, this was helped by mostly superb weather. At the beginning of the week I was fully prepared to grant Saalbach the full 5 stars. As the week wore on I revised my view.

Saalbach loses 1 star for the arbitrary and illogical classification of its pistes and for the inaccuracy of its piste map. It looses another star for its lack of joined-up skiing. So the final award is 3 stars.

Would we recommend you go there? Probably, so long as you take heed of the warnings about what you will find in reality.

Would we go back again? Probably, but I will be watching the website (www.saalbach.com) for news of improvements in the uphill infrastructure before I do. After all, with so much choice all over Europe, a ski resort needs to be damn near perfect to deserve a return visit, and Saalbach just isn’t. Sorry.

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