LOCAL AREA: St. Anton am Arlberg & St. Christoph
CONNECTED AREA: Ski Arlberg- Stuben, Lech, Oberlech, Zug, Zürs & Warth-Schröcken
SEASON START & END: Early December until mid/late April
SKI ALTITUDE IN METRES: Local resort 1.300m / Highest point: 2.800m
PISTES: Total 300 km / Blue 129 km / Red 121 km / Black 50 km
LIFTS: Total 85 // Cable cars & Gondola 17 / Chair Lifts 43 / Drag Lifts 25
SNOW: 88% of the slopes in St. Anton are supported by snow cannons
LIFT TICKET PRICES: Visit HERE for more info
CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: more than 40 km of trails
LANGUAGE: German
AIRPORT: Innsbruck 100 km / Memmingen 170 km / Friedrichshafen 130 km / Zürich 200 km / München 250 km
TRAIN: St. Anton am Arlberg station – direct access to the village centre
SKI FACTS: Guaranteed snow and excellent piste conditions characteristic of Austria’s largest interconnected ski area. Among the 5 largest ski resorts in the world.
St. Anton The Town
Nestled on the edge of the Tirol is a very special ski area known as St. Anton am Arlberg, it has a long relationship with Skiing being the local skiing grounds of Hannes Schneider who was born in Stuben am Arlberg in 1890, he went on to develop the “Arlberg technique” whilst teaching in St. Anton. Schneider became known as the father of the Alpine skiing techniques that we use today and thus St. Anton became known as the “Cradle of Alpine Skiing”.
In 1937 the Galzigbahn ski lift was built, one of the first gondolas built in the Alps and St. Anton was firmly on the map as a Ski Resort. The town itself is very pretty and has a nice quality to it, with a good mix of classic old hotels as well as more modern architecture with a bustling high street packed with lots of choices when it comes to shops, restaurants and cafes.
There is a big Freeride vibe in St. Anton, it seems every other skier is carrying fat off-piste skis and there are many ski shops catering for the freeride scene with oodles of off-piste gear and equipment.
We stayed in the Arpuria up on the hill, newly renovated with a brand new rooftop spa area with outstanding views over St. Anton, the gourmet cuisine and staff are outstanding.
St. Christoph The Town
St. Christoph is a gorgeous little village just up above St. Anton at 1793 metres, despite its compact size, St. Christoph dates back to the 14th century when Heinrich Findelkind, a shepherd built a hospice for travellers. The Arlberg Hospice, currently under redevelopment was the founding place of the Ski-Club Arlberg in 1901.
St. Christoph is also the centre for the Ski Austria Academy, where all state ski instructors are trained. Obviously, its high altitude means that it is very snow sure.
We stayed at the delightful Hotel Maiensee, the rooms are beautiful and the restaurant is very cosy.
St. Anton am Arlberg Skiing
St Anton and St. Christoph are part of a very large ski region that straddles Tirol and Vorarlberg. From St. Anton, one can ski to St. Christoph, onto Stuben, Zurs and then over to Lech, Oberlech and around to Warth; so one can never run out of mountains to explore with 300 km of pistes and 200 km of off-piste trails across the whole Arlberg region.
The local skiing around St. Anton and St. Christoph are great with 4 main areas to explore. To the South, up the Rendlbahn is a Rendl, a great selection of mostly north and west-facing pistes. This area is usually a lot quieter than the rest of the region but can be cold in the mornings before the sun hits the pistes. Skiing from the very top all the way back down to St. Anton is a lot of fun.
Kapal mountain is a great mountain with the majority of the pistes that descend down to St. Anton. From skiing above the treeline to many pistes that wind their way down through the trees to St. Anton. This area has a healthy mix of blue, red and black pistes covering the whole mountain so most levels of skiers can enjoy the area.
Galzig is the other main mountain overlooking St. Anton, this has some tremendous blue pistes for practising your carving, from here one can ski over to St. Christoph via a very easy blue piste. This is also on the route to the rest of the Arlberg skiing region via Blue Piste 100 but bear in mind that it can get busy at times. For the best views in the region, leave your skis at the top of the Vallugabahn and take the very small Vallugabahn II to the top of the Valluga mountain at 2811 metres to get the most outstanding 360 views.
Finally, one area that is worth a visit is the Albona area accessed from Stuben or at the bottom of Piste 100. Mostly red pistes, this is a fun little area to visit and usually pretty quiet too, because a lot of people forget that it is there!
St Anton and St. Christoph have a lot of choices when it comes to cuisine on the mountain, catering for all tastes and budgets. We particularly liked the Verwall Stube with its 15/20 Gault Millau points, this is refined dining with outstanding views; we recommend the Venison, snails and the foie gras.
The Sennhütte is another firm favourite of ours, built in the 80s by the family and now run by the second generation the restaurant has gone from strength to strength. Marcus Senn will welcome you with open arms and Tanja Senn a “Schnaps-Sommeliere” will make sure you enjoy yourself on their homemade Schnapps made from their herbs gardens. Live music is integral to Sennhütte Go for the food and stay for the party.
A great location in St. Christoph for lunch is the Maiensee Burger Bar serving delicious juicy burgers and Champagne, the perfect combination.
Beginner
There are a good amount of nursery slopes at the base of St. Anton but once people find their ski legs the surrounding mountains have a great collection of blue pistes, so it is a good place to learn and to improve. Note that Blue Piste 56/55 down from Galzig can sometimes be closed when there is a risk of an avalanche which only leaves the rather long and steep Black 52, so take the lift down in this scenario. St. Christoph also has a lovely nursery slope with a great blue piste just above it, perfect for advancing to after the nursery.
Intermediate
‘The Arlberg is your Oyster’ is the saying isn’t it? Well for intermediates you will love skiing around St. Anton with pretty much every part of the mountain being accessible to intermediates. Even if you want to try stepping up to Black pistes, some of them cut over red pistes so you can bail out if required. As mentioned earlier Albona is a great area to ski with all the red pistes and very few skiers. If skiing to the rest of the Arlberg, make sure to leave plenty of time to return from Lech, although buses do run between St. Anton and Lech.
Expert
Areas Kapall and Galzig have a great collection of black pistes, we particularly like piste 52, which has quite a steep narrow final section, but it can get busy. Kapall’s black pistes reach from the mountain top all the way down to St. Anton so make sure your ski legs are ready. Heading up the Schindlergratbahn leads to some great red pistes and some fun itinerary routes if they are open.
Offpiste
St. Anton is famous for its off-piste skiing and attracts Freeriders from all over the world. We recommend taking a guide to get the best out of St. Anton, we spent the day with Herman from the Skischule Arlberg (Started by Hannes Schneider in 1921). Herman knew the mountain like the back of his hand and showed me where the best powder was to be found.
Ecology & Sustainability of St. Anton and St. Christoph
-All artificial snow is made of pure water with no chemicals
-The Kartell power plant creates hydroelectricity from the lake producing all of St. Anton’s electricity since 2006.
-St. Anton operates a biomass heating plant which incorporates a solar heating system that serves 80 residential properties.
– Strict waste separation takes place, for instance, all cooking fat is collected across the region and rendered into Biodiesel for vehicles.
-St. Anton train station means that many visitors can arrive by train. How guests travel to ski resorts can deeply impact their carbon footprint for their trip. Arriving by train has one of the lowest footprints.
-St. Anton has been part of the KLAR! project since 2021, a government initiative to implement concrete actions
For more information visit St. Anton am Arlberg & St. Christoph am Arlberg
