Here in Germany, Easter is a prime time for vacation because everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off (four day weekend!). And it's not just a long weekend -- schools are out for 2-3 weeks so many of my colleagues are taking a holiday for the entire time. Munich really empties out as families leave for Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey.
Things are a bit different this year because Easter arrived so "late", on the 24th of April. For those heading south, it doesn't matter, but many Bavarians like to use this time for one last ski trip. Frau A and I decided to do this too (although only for a couple of days). Since we're in late April, there is one place guaranteed to have decent slopes: the Stubai Glacier.
;)
The snow is truly guaranteed -- you can buy a lift ticket online and they will refund your money if there is not enough snow to ski through Easter. They offer the same guarantee in October too! Here is a snippet of their website recently:
;)
In the valley there is no snow left, but on the glacier at 3000+ meters they have 200cm of snow.
As you seen on the map above, the Stubai Alps are in the south of Austria, near Innsbruck, on the border with Italy. The range has at least 9 peaks over 3000m, and the glacier is accessible via the Stubaital (Stubai Valley). The valley stretches 40km with a single main road going through it, with a half-dozen "large" towns along the way catering to tourists year round (hiking and similar activities in the Summer).
There are many other ski areas in the Stubai region, but the glacier is the only one with the altitude and depth to support skiing so late into warm weather. In fact, the season there usually starts in the middle of September and ends in early June! (Of course, the snow quality starting in May is relatively low, with mostly slushy conditions... but addicts can get their fix.)
Here is a map of the pistes:
The glacier area has 110km of slopes, most of them (85km) are easy-to-medium difficulty. There is a mix of gondolas (5 of them), chair lifts (7), and t-bars (9). They also have a "fun park" like Defereggental. What's really nice is that you can drop you equipment off in the "comfort center" at the base of the pistes and leave your skiis & boots overnight -- no lugging equipment back & forth from the hotel!
At the top of the highest lift, they have a great lookout platform - gorgeous place for photos. Here is Frau A walking up to the top:
This is the view from down on the slopes, looking over the Fun Park...
... and the same view from the viewing platform -- you're standing on a small peak (snow in the foreground) looking over the same range in the background:
The pistes at the highest altitude had great snow, but with such blue skies and intense sun the runs near the bottom were getting a bit wet. The scenery was beautiful and it was not too crowded as you can see in the photo below (taken from an open window in a gondola):
We would stop frequently to take more photos, because the weather was incredible. This is one of the upper slopes, winding through the mountains:
They also had a short Super-G run, complete with a starting gate and appropriately spaced flags to weave through. The timer was not working that day (sometimes they will even have a clock that shows you how fast you made it) but you still got a feel. Here is Frau A ready to go:
It was simply a great, and unusual, Easter weekend. We've already circled September dates on the calendar to get our first skiing next season in Stubai.