Resort information for St Anton

St Anton is at the bottom of the road that leads up to the Arlberg pass, and is a long, sprawling mixture of traditional and modern buildings crammed into a narrow valley. Although it is crowded and commercialised, it is full of character, with its traffic-free main street lined by traditional-style buildings. It is an attractively bustling place, day and night. The main hub of the resort is around the base stations of the lifts to Gampen and to Galzig, with the main street only a short walk away.

The main slopes are essentially open: only the lower Gampen runs and the run from Rendl to the valley offer much shelter from bad weather. St Anton vies with Val d’Isère for the title of 'resort with most underclassified slopes'. There are plenty of blue pistes that would be red in many other resorts, and plenty of reds that would be black – although, paradoxically, none of the blacks is seriously steep. Reporters regularly complain of poor and limited piste grooming. St Anton’s slopes make up a large linked area with three main sectors – Valluga, Galzig and Kapall-Gampen. If the weather is coming from the west or north-west (as it often is), St Anton and its neighbours get heavy falls of snow. It often has much better conditions than other resorts of a similar height, but many of the slopes face south or south-east, causing icy or heavy conditions at times. Queues are not the problem they once were, thanks to continuing lift upgrades, but there are still problems up the mountain.

There is lots of choice in terms of mountain restaurants. Eating out in St Anton is mostly informal. The après-ski is throbbing till late, and the bars rock from mid-afternoon until the early hours. It starts in a collection of bars on the slopes above the village, and the bars in town are in full swing by 4pm, too. Most are lively, with loud music; sophisticates looking for a quieter time are less well provided for.