Ischgl Ski Mission

Spent a few days in Ischgl on an early-season ski mission. Ischgl opens early in the alps, usually the end of november. Most of the skiing area is above 2300m and it has a good snow record. Compact but dense, Ischgl has a reputation as a raunchy party town. It certainly has more lapdancing clubs than a typical Tyrolean village. The downside is drunks stumbling around in the evening with skis on the their shoulders, or getting woken up by fellow hotel guests trying to figure out how to use the keycard to regain entry at 3am. The upside, and it's big, is that if you wake up and head up top when it opens -- leave the village on one of the 3 gondola lines [the one I used daily had heated seats, genius!] at 8:30, midmountain lifts start at 9:00 -- you get the mountains pretty much all to yourself for an hour or two. The hungover masses don't seem to pour into the midstation in earnest until 10:30 or so. The lift network is comprehensive, fast, and mostly high-capacity. Even when the throngs do decide to try out a bit of piste-bashing, lift queues are pretty much avoidable. The skiing is good, there are some nice long runs. Lots of pistes to choose from. The area is slightly more extensive than it appears at first. It is well worth fanning out from the crowded mistation to either side, as well as dropping over the back to the runs on the Swiss side of the resort. It's not as mogully or as extensive as St. Anton (which is effectively linked all the way through zurs, lech, and back), certainly more efficient for piste-bashing and less frustrating with the lack of lift queues. Lots of mileage to cover for intermediates, certainly.

I stayed at the Trisanna, which was a cheerful and comfortable family-run hotel (as all small hotels should be). The room was very clean, nicely furnished, reasonably priced, very good value for money. Even had a tidy little sauna area in the basement -- jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, shower, quiet room. Breakfast was good -- typical selection of meats, cheeses, breads, jams, yogurt, cereal, juices, coffee -- but high quality and nicely presented. There was always one hot item of eggs as well, which was a nice addition. I normally had eggs, ham[s], liverwurst (talk about nutritious, one slice of that will keep you going all day), cucumber, tomato, a few different cheeses, and a pot of coffee.

Dinner in the village ranged from mediocre to excellent. The best dish I had was a single pan with small but perfectly cooked, shockingly, pieces of beef, chicken, and pork, with mushrooms and some veg and a mound of homemade butter spaetzle covered wth melted cheese.

The skiing was great fun. Had one day terrible weather -- gets quite exposed on some of the peaks -- but the payoff was the next day of perfect, glorious conditions: bright sun on brand new snow.

P.S. Obligatory nutritional zealotry comment: the last day I skied 6 1/2 hours without stopping except for one water break. No need for "fueling". Much later, I was hungry, and I ate.