St. Anton

Free, and worth knowing

Seventeen marked winter walking routes. Eighty kilometres of marked and signed walking across the valley, free with no pass of any kind, and the tourist office publishes every route separately with its own distance on it, which is rarer than it should be. They run from a one kilometre stroll to a twenty four kilometre valley walk, and most of them start in a village on the free ski bus rather than at a trailhead that needs a car.

The free ski bus, St. Christoph to Flirsch. The bus that makes an outlying village workable. It runs the length of the Stanzertal, joining St. Anton to St. Christoph and St. Jakob at one end and to Pettneu, Schnann and Flirsch at the other, and it is what puts the Verwall walk, the Pettneu pool and four of the region's five toboggan runs within reach of somebody staying in the middle of St. Anton with no car.

The Skishow, Schneetreiben. Forty five minutes of ski and snowboard demonstration in the Karl-Schranz finish stadium in the middle of the village, with a multimedia film running the history of skiing on a screen behind it and a torchlit descent to close. The tourist office, the lift company, the two ski schools and the Ski Club Arlberg put it on between them. It is in the village rather than up a mountain, and it runs most Wednesdays of the winter at nine in the evening.

Stanton Ski Open, the season opening. Three days of live music on three stages, food trucks and free ski and snowboard testing to mark the official start of the winter, and the festival area is a few minutes' walk from the railway station, which makes it one of the very few things here that works for somebody arriving by train with no plan. Sunday is given over to the Arlberg Safety Days, with avalanche talks and transceiver practice run by the mountain rescue. Bring your own transceiver, probe and shovel if you want the practical session.

Schlagerliebe Open Air at the MooserWirt. A German television music show has been recorded on the MooserWirt terrace every December since 2001, and anybody can stand and watch it being made. Rehearsals run through the early afternoon and the recording itself happens just before dusk. No tickets and no reservations, so go early in the afternoon for a spot at the front.

Adventzauber, the Advent markets. Five Advent dates across the villages, running from the end of November to the weekend before Christmas, which puts three of them in before the lifts have even opened. Free to walk into, and the dates are already confirmed for this winter.

Tanzcafe Arlberg, the music festival. A spring music festival run jointly by St. Anton and Lech Zurs where every concert is free and none of them takes a booking. Two of the stages are down in the villages and reachable on foot, one in front of the St. Anton tourist office and one on the Rufiplatz in Lech. Admission from half past one in the afternoon, first come first served, so arrive with the crowd rather than after it.

The toboggan run, already paid for by most passes. Worth saying out loud to a group weighing up what to buy. Daytime use of the Nassereinbahn to reach the Gampen toboggan run is included in any valid ski pass, and evening use is included in a season pass, in a six day or longer pass, and in the Sonnenabo. So for most people in a normal week the ride up to the top of the sledge run is already bought and paid for.

A few of the rest

The Gampen toboggan run. The resort's headline thing to do without skis, and a genuinely good one. A natural run from Gampen at 1,850 m down to Nasserein, dropping five hundred metres and taking about a quarter of an hour, graded moderate but banked with snow along the edges and sold as suitable for families and beginners. Price on request.

The toboggan evening at Gampen. When it runs, the evening goes like this: the gondola up from six, dinner at the Gampen restaurant, then the floodlit run back down to Nasserein with the village lights below you. Sledges are hired at the Nassereinbahn valley station against a deposit, and a table at the Gampen restaurant has to be booked. Ring Arlberger Bergbahnen before anybody plans a week around it, because its status for this winter is genuinely unsettled. Price on request.

The Sonnenabo, the pedestrian pass. The one product built specifically for a guest with no equipment, and better value than it first looks because a single card covers both ends of the Arlberg. Seven consecutive days on the main cable cars in St. Anton, St. Christoph, Lech, Oberlech, Zurs and Klosterle, the Valluga included, and it carries the toboggan run by day and in the evening. Over 50 euros.