I have just spent 3 hours at Friedrichshafen airport (the transfer airport that Mark Warner uses for winter holidays in St Anton, Austria) for a flight to Gatwick.

One thing that is still odd though is that I have flown out of the airport around 5 times now (all with Mark Warner), and not once has the flight been on time. And this, brings us to what I think this is Mark Warner’s Dirty Little St Anton Secret….

On the plus side Friedrichshafen airport has greatly improved in the 8 years I have been using it. I first came to the airport with Mark Warner Holidays around 2002. On that trip our plane was so delayed that we landed at the airport at the same time as another charter flight. The net result was total pandemonium as the airport only had one baggage claim carrousel, and they could not cope with 400+ passengers. It took over 2 hours to claim bags and clear immigration. These days Friedrichshafen is greatly expanded with a number of baggage claim carrousels and a good number of checkin desks.

The charter airline company Mark Warner uses for the winter season is Viking Airlines (despite their name they are Greek and spend the summer flying holiday makers to Greek Islands). On transfer days the St Anton ‘out’ and ‘return’ flights are at the end of a chain. For example, the plane that leaves the UK around noon for St Anton, and is therefore the mid-afternoon return plane, will have already done early morning flights to and from other Mark Warner winter holiday locations. This means that if there is a slight delay on any of the flights in the early part of the chain then you are not getting home on time from St Anton.

Over the years I have been caught twice by this problem and ended up stranded in London with no hope of a train home.

I guess the bottom line is, if you ski with Mark Warner in St Anton, you may enjoy a leisurely start to your holiday (i.e. no 4 am at the airport dash), but you may pay the price of a severely delayed return and a lost day of work.

In St Anton Mark Warner has a couple of hotels/chaltes. We stayed in the Rosanna, which is centrally located in the town and is handy for the slopes, shops and bars.The hotel is very comfortable (usually too warm) with a guest-only bar and dining area. The bedrooms are of a good size with ‘Austrian Twin’ beds (two single beds pushed together). Bathrooms are nice, with shower and underfloor heating.

The hotel consists of six floors. The basements house the kitchens, the ground floor the guest bar, dining room, reception, a boot and ski room (the boot driers don’t work) and Scotty’s Bar and Pizzeria.

There are then three floors of guest rooms (served by stairs and a lift), and the top floor is lived in by the hotel owners. In total the hotel takes around 60 – 70 guests.

We stayed the week before Christmas so were the second set of guests of the season. Despite it being early season the hotel was already running along nicely. However, there are some problems with the hotel….

If you are a light sleeper and are on guest floors 1 or 2 then forget trying to get to sleep before 12:30 am as the noise from Scotty’s bar is so loud it will almost bounce you out of bed.

If you are an ‘internet junky’ be prepared to go cold turkey as even though Mark Warner offers 5 hours connection for 10 Euros the connection is so poor as to almost be unusable (hence no thesnowsite.com updates during the trip. In fact, you will spend more time trying to connect to the Internet, than actually connected (and you get billed for when trying to connect).

I keep returning to St Anton in Austria to ski…. why?

Well, the town is stunning, the slopes are challenging, and the night life is extraordinary.

St Anton has some truly great skiing, both on and off piste. I would certainly describe the resort as being for ‘intermediate/advanced’ skiers, and not for the beginner.

The resort can be split broadly in to two areas: Rendl and the rest.

Rendl

The Rendl ski area is served by its own lift from the town (a cable car) and consists of an area of 4 lifts and one drag. The area needs a lot of snow and is not usually open before Christmas. The terrain is mixed (and has a snowboard park) and mountain facilities are limited (two cafes and a shop at the top).

The ski back from the Rendl area is via a long road that winds it way back to St Anton. The entrance to this run (R1) can be difficult to spot as it is hidden over a lip behind the main high speed lift next to the mountain top gondola station.

The ski back to St Anton is worth doing if only for the Apple Strudel served at a small mountain restaurant on the right-hand side of the piste about three-quarters of the way down.

St Anton

Fantastic ski area with lots to do, both on and off piste.

Generally split over 3 or 4 mountains with interconnecting runs and lifts. Mountain facilities are good with a lot of high-speed lifts with ‘bubbles’ for cold days, and a number of mountain restaurants.

For lunch it is definitely worth trying the restaurant just off the piste in St Christoph (the lower one of the two), if only to use the slide to the toilets. The food can be a little pricey.

Another fun trip is to take the run down to Stubben (but don’t go to Stubben) and the catch the free bus to Lech (bus number 3). You can either go all the way to Lech (the standard St Anton pass covers Lech), or get off at Zurs and ski that area, or ski from Zurs to Lech on the ‘white ring’. From Lech (or Zurs) you can catch the bus back to the bottom of a drag lift near Stubben for the ski back to St Anton.

Lech

Lech is a really pretty Austrian village that was a favourite of Princess Diana.

The ski area is not particularly challenging and there is a great selection of ‘cruiser’ trails available which are easy to ski and really compliment your skiing ability.

Thinking of going away skiing or boarding (or riding) over the Easter break? If you are then you might like to check out the excellent article over at the Guardian newspaper…

So, where is the Guardian recommending?

Well….

Tignes, France – thesnowsite details
Saas Fee, Switzerland – thesnowsite details
Obergurgl, Austria – thesnowsite details
Mammoth, California, USA – thesnowsite details
Cervinia, Italy – thesnowsite details
Geilo, Norway – thesnowsite details
Whistler, Canada – thesnowsite details
Val Thorens, France – thesnowsite details
Zermatt, Switzerland – thesnowsite details
Kaprun, Austria – thesnowsite details
Zell am See, Austria – thesnowsite details

The thing these resorts have in common is either height over 1,500 m

Tignes – 1,550 m – 3,450 m
Saas Fee – 2,500 m – 4,000 m
Obergurgl – 1,795 m – 3,080 m
Mammoth – 2,425 m
Cervinia – up to 3,480 m
Val Thorens – 2,300 m – 3,000 m
Zermatt – above 2,000 m

‘Up north’:

Geilo

Massive snowfalls:

Whistler – 400 inches of snow

Glacier skiing:

Tignes – Grande Motte
Saas Fee
Kaprun – Kitzsteinhorn glacier

Makes me wonder where I should try next….

These is a good piece in the Guardian (UK) today on eco ski lodges and hotels – article.

The article lists the 10 top eco ski lodges and hotels in Europe, Canada and the US. If you combine the information in the article with the advice offered at snow carbon on how to travel to the slopes in an environmentally friendly way then you have the makings of a ‘green’ skiing and snow boarding trip.

Snow Carbon: http://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/
Guardian: Ten top eco ski lodges and hotels

Good piece over in the Times (UK) on useful iPhone Apps for skiing (blog post).

The recommendations include:

iTrailMap – http://www.bigairsoftware.com
Local Picks by Tripadvisor – http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/help/what_is_local_picks
MotionX GPSLite – http://onews.motionx.com/category/motionx-gps
Prove It Ski Challenge – http://www.facebook.com/nissanproveit
Qype Radar – http://www.qype.co.uk
Realski – http://www.rtp.com/company/realski.aspx
Ski Location (formerly Peak Location) – http://www.peaklocation.com
Snow Report – http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/snowreportapp.aspx
SportyPal – http://sportypal.wordpress.com

However, they missed (in our humble opinion – well, we would say that) one really useful App and that is snowNews from http://thesnowsite.com, which brings you the latest news from over 500 ski and snowboarding areas around the world direct to your iPhone….

Just read a really interesting piece in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) titled: “Helen Jaques: Halfpipes and helmets – how Olympic athletes could reduce head injuries in skiers and snowboarders” – original post

So, do you wear a helmet?

I started wearing a helmet whilst skiing a couple of years ago. The reason I started was because I received a fairly heavy blow to the head one day when I was getting on a slow two-man ski lift in Italy. The blow was not severe enough to need treatment, but it did hurt and I got a lump! So I decided it was time to get a helmet.

I had worn a helmet whilst biking for years, but never skiing. I had resisted wearing one on the slopes as I thought they were heavy, uncomfortable, and cold. THEY ARE NOT! The helmet I have is very light weight, comfortable, and really warm on really cold days on even the coldest of days. My advice is, get one. It won’t save you if you decide to ski at 50 mph in to a tree, but it could make all the difference in other falls.

As the article says, studies have shown that nearly 1/5 (15 – 20%) of skiing injuries involve the head. And some of the really scary fact from the article are that in a breakdown of skiing related head injuries in Colorado residents (1994-1997) it was found that 24% sustained skull fracture, 39% had intracranial lesions, and 79% had amnesia. So, these are not just a ‘bump to the head’.

And as the article says: “In fact, traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and catastrophic injury in both skiers and snowboarders.” – YIKES…..

The good news is that wearing a helmet could reduce the risk head injury from 29% to 60%. So, it makes sense to wear one…

One thing I had wondered about helmet wearing, and is addressed in the article, is: ‘Does wearing a helmet increase the risk of neck damage in a skiing accident?’ – well, it appear the answer is no!

But one mystery still remains: why do so few (23%) of ski patrollers where a helmet?

The full BMJ article can be read at: original post

Google has done a ‘street view‘ (does that make it a ‘snow-view’) of Whistler in British Columbia (thesnowsite link to Whistler).

The way they did all of this was by equipping a snowmobile with a full Street View camera system – more details. And the shots they got were great. Check these out:

And the Google street view snowmobile

Fantastic stuff, just makes you want to be there….

In fact, Google has some great pages on the Winter Olympics, which can be seen here.

Sun Peaks Adaptive Snow Sports Festival Starts TODAY!:

“January 20, 2010 – Sun Peaks, BC – Adaptive athletes from around the country are hitting the slopes of Sun Peaks Resort as the Sun Peaks Adaptive Snow Sports Festival gets underway at the BC Interior Resort.

In addition to instructor certification courses for CADS (Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing) Level 1, 2 and 2a and race development programs, the 2010 festival features a Come and Try Weekend where people of all abilities can experience adaptive skiing first hand.

As people learn about adaptive racing, they can watch the 2010 Western Canadian and BC Para-Alpine Championships that will be held Saturday and Sunday (Jan 30 and 31). Twenty-five racers with a range of disabilities will compete in Giant Slalom and Slalom races over the two day period.

For more information on the Sun Peaks Adaptive Snow Sports Festival, click here. For more information on the Western Championships race or the Carving the Future camp, click here.

About the Disabled Skiers Association of BC (DSABC)
DSABC promotes and provides skiing and snowboarding programs and services to all persons in British Columbia with a disability. DSABC is dedicated to promoting and facilitating the delivery of superior services to our membership and stakeholders.

About Snowbility
Snowbility supports the development of grass roots adaptive sports programs (alpine and snowboarding) in emerging regions of the Province. Snowbility will support the recruitment and training of volunteer instructors, coaches, and volunteer based clubs who will in turn support athlete development of skiers and snowboarders with disabilities. The goal of Snowbility is to assist volunteer based clubs, both new and exciting, become organizationally sustainable through governance best practices, fund development, and community relationship development.”

(Via Sun Peaks Resort Feed: Whats New.)

Here is a fair question: Does American Airlines understand the concept of customer service? I would have to say NO.

The Story

The Flight Out: On the way out from London to Boston my original flight was canceled. No reason was ever given and I was transferred to a flight 6 hours later. The result of this was instead of arriving in Boston at 3 pm local time I arrived at 9 pm, by which time Alamo, despite a phone call to tell them I would be late and to hold my car, no longer had the car I ordered and I had to pay for an upgrade. As an added bonus American Airlines had lost the bag containing all my ski gear, which is pretty impressive when you consider the fact they had 6 hours to get it on the right plane.

The Lost Bag: The tale of the lost bag is almost beyond belief. When American Airlines loses one of your bags they give you a form, a unique number, and tell you they will call and let you know what is happening. They never call….

What I had to do was phone a help number every day (I usually called morning and evening) and the status of the bag would be given. Now, two problem I had were I was moving around quite a bit and not staying very long at anyone address, and the trip was short…. However, this is how the ‘game’ played out:

Tuesday: Bag lost.

Now the calls:

Wed morning: bag located, en route to Boston

OK, so no ski gear. Called my travel insurers, American Express, who OKed the purchase of some replacement kit (ski trousers (pants), socks, some thermals, gloves and goggles (I had a hat in my coat pocket)).

Wed evening: bag located, en route to Boston
Thur morning: bag located, en route to Boston
Thur evening: bag with FedEx, estimated delivery 2 working days…

Hang on, where was the call telling me this was happening? Plus, in two working days (Friday and Monday) I would be back in the UK. I did have a FedEx tracking number, but when I called FedEx they said the package didn’t exist.

I called American Airlines and finally got hold of a human (the secret is when you call you press 0 (zero) four or five times and ignore the menu system) who transferred me back to the automated baggage system – I hung up. Called again, no joy, no one could help me. Called again, and finally got some one who seemed to know what they were doing. In the end we got the bag recalled from FedEx and returned to Boston Airport for me to collect. They also logged the reason for the return in to the American Airlines system, and called Boston to explain what was happening.

On the Friday American Airlines Baggage Service at Boston called to ask why the bag had been returned!!!!!

The Flight Out: Arrived at the airport, collected the bag, checked all the contents were there, and that nothing had been added. Asked about compensation such as free upgrade to show good will, nothing.

Went to check-in and was told I was 2 bags over the limit (I now had three bags, clothes, new ski gear, and ‘lost’ ski gear). After some haggling American Airlines decided not to charge for the new ski gear bag (as I pointed out it was their fault I had gained a bag), and to only charge $60 of the ‘lost’ bag. After some discussion, during which I pointed out that I had flown out with two bags the charge was waived.

Total Compensation from American Airlines: None. Nothing. Not even an apology.

As I write this I am sitting at the gate. There is a 2 hour delay in boarding…..

So, can American Airlines do customer service? No, I will avoid flying American Airlines in the future. Can American Airlines run an airline? Doesn’t look like it….