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Not writing frequently any more - work demands curtail my time!
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Schladming, in Northern Steiermark, is one of Austria's premier ski resorts, as indicated by the fact that it has a fixed place on the circuit of the Alpine Skiing World Cup. Over the last few years, the Night Slalom, an event introduced to put a bit more spectacle into a flagging program, has been a fixture on the calendar, and something that has won Schladming a lot of plaudits. The night slalom is spectacular, as I witnessed in 1998, and the atmoshpere is great.
The skiing in the Planai is excellent, with the lifts going upto about 1900m, the village of Schladming itself being at 750m above sealevel. There are over 100km of pistes, which are served by approximately 50 lifts. Of course if there is an exceptional mild winter, the snow can be not as good as if say you were 500m higher up, but generally the snow is still very acceptable.
Lift passes are fairly cheap, with a weekend skipass for an adult costing around ATS 750 for 2 full day's skiing which explains why it is so popular with people living in eastern Austria. Child's lift passes are either ATS 450 or 405ATS depending on whether they are supervised or not for a weekend.
Schladming is very easy to get to, with regular train services either from Salzburg (sometimes direct, sometimes having to change at Bischofshofen) or from Wien and Graz, having to change in St Michael. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) have a special ticket for skiiers, which includes discounts on skipasses, called Wedelweiss. This is typical of the cooperation between the railways and ski resorts, and a further initiative has been taken offering additional services to St Anton am Arlberg during the Alpine Skiing World Cup.
One of the problems in Schladming is that of accommodation and you are well advised to book in advance if at all possible, as Schladming is after all a fairly small resort in terms of size. There are some chalets available, and a lot of the cheaper end accommodation is to be found in the "Pensionen" - they offer B+B Austrian style. If you go with a tour operatorm, then you'll not have to worry about finding you accommodation.
Doubtlessly you'll be treated to some form of Austrian entertainment, with heaps of Sauerkraut, oodles of Schnitzel, good strong beer, plenty of Schnapps to blow your brains out and rousing Austrian hospitality. The Austrians are very unreserved, and even though Steierisch, the regional dialect, is uncomprehensible to a lot of people (including many Austrians) a lot of people will speak sufficient English for you to have not problems communicating.
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Jan 19th, 2001
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