Love St Anton? Where to go next, depending on what you love about it
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20265 min read
St Anton does not do subtle. It has more marked off piste than anywhere else we cover, pistes that are steep by any measure, and evenings with a reputation all of their own. People who love it tend to go back year after year, and they find it hard to imagine anywhere else doing the same job.
So when St Anton regulars want somewhere new, the honest answer is a question: what is it you love about it? Each answer points somewhere different.
First, St Anton measured
St Anton is a big name whose reputation survives the measuring, which is rarer than you would think.
It has more marked itinerary than any resort we cover. Seventy kilometres of it, against 155 kilometres of piste. For every two kilometres of groomed run there is almost one of marked off piste. If that is why you go, very little else comes close.
And the pistes are steep too. Forty three percent of them are steeper than one in four. Only Argentière, in the Chamonix valley, measures steeper. Even the blues average 17.5 percent, above the Austrian average blue of 16.4.
The Arlberg's total size is not yet classified in our data, so the 155 kilometres is our own measurement of the piste around St Anton.
That combination is what makes St Anton hard to replace. Most resorts give you one of the three: the off piste, the steep piste or the big night. Very few give you all of them, and none of the alternatives below does it quite as fully.
Chamonix: if it is the off piste
- VillageVillage
- 1,035 m
Chamonix: 103 km of piste we measure. 42 km green and blue 41%38 km red 37%23 km black 22%
Plus 44 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Chamonix is the closest match in our data on the skiing itself. It has 44 kilometres of marked itinerary, the most of any resort outside the Arlberg, and 39 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, close to St Anton's 43. Its reds average 27.0 percent, steeper than St Anton's 25.8. That is measured average gradient, which compares fairly across a border where grade labels do not, though a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch rather than its average. And the season runs on into May.
The trade is the evenings. Chamonix is a real working town under Mont Blanc, with a life of its own, but we do not class it as lively in the way we class St Anton. The village is lower too, at 1,035 metres against 1,304. And ignore the 3,842 metres you will see quoted as its top. That is the Aiguille du Midi, a mountaineering cable car, not the top of the piste skiing.
If you go to St Anton to ski hard all day and sleep at night, Chamonix is the swap. If the evenings are half the point, keep reading.
Saalbach-Hinterglemm: if it is the steep pistes
- VillageVillage
- 1,003 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,096 m
Saalbach-Hinterglemm: 192 km of piste we measure. 122 km blue and easier 64%58 km red 30%12 km black 7%
Plus 12 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
If it is the groomed steep you love, Saalbach-Hinterglemm is the nearest match we measure. Forty two percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against St Anton's 43. On average its reds, at 27.8 percent, and its blacks, at 36.9, are both steeper than St Anton's. It has less black, 12 kilometres against 24, but what there is averages steeper. And it is lively: a sunny circuit of villages built for fun, with 192 kilometres of piste by our measurement.
The trade is height and the off piste. Saalbach's lifts top out at 2,096 metres, 715 below St Anton's, and the village sits at 1,003. It has 12 kilometres of marked itinerary, about a sixth of St Anton's. This is the steep and the fun, without the big mountain.
Ischgl: if it is the nights out
- VillageVillage
- 1,377 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,872 m
Ischgl: 152 km of piste we measure. 43 km blue and easier 28%83 km red 54%27 km black 18%
Plus 11 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Ischgl is the closest overall match to St Anton in our data, because it carries the most across. The village is at 1,377 metres against 1,304, the lifts reach 2,872 against 2,811, and we measure 152 kilometres of piste against 155. It is lively in the same way, with big, snow sure skiing and nights out that are famous in their own right. It has a little more black, 27 kilometres against 24, and the season runs from late November to May, longer at both ends.
The trade is the off piste. Ischgl has 11 kilometres of marked itinerary, about a seventh of St Anton's, and 34 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 43. If the off piste is why you go, this is the wrong swap. If it is the whole week, the skiing and the evenings together, it is the nearest thing.
Val d'Isère: if it is all of it, higher
- VillageVillage
- 1,850 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,456 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 300 km
Val d'Isère: 158 km of piste we measure. 90 km green and blue 57%46 km red 29%22 km black 14%
Plus 29 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Val d'Isère keeps both of the things we class St Anton by: it is lively, and it is built for strong skiers. Then it adds altitude. The village is at 1,850 metres, 546 above St Anton's, the lifts reach 3,456, and the season runs from late November to early May. Espace Killy, shared with Tignes, is 300 kilometres. It has 29 kilometres of marked itinerary, the fifth most of the 55, and 29 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four.
The trade is the extremes. St Anton has more than twice the itinerary, and a much steeper set of pistes, 43 percent against 29. For a strong skier who lives off piste, that is a real loss. For a mixed group, or anyone who worries about the snow late in the season, Val d'Isère is the better week.
So, which one
the off piste is why you go, and you can live with quieter evenings.
it is the steep groomed runs and the fun, and you do not need the altitude.
you want the same size, height and nights out, and the off piste was never really the point.
you want all of it, higher, and can give up some of the extremes.
It keeps both the skiing and the evenings St Anton is loved for, and it adds more than 500 metres of village altitude. You give up some of the extremes in exchange for snow you can count on.