Seefeld trip report 17 - 24 February 2024

A snowHead

Type of Trip: DIY

Travellers: Dad (me) and my 10 year old son.

Ski Level: Decent all mountain skier (me) and early intermediate 10 year old.

Travel:
Plan was to take the train form UK to Seefeld. Outward journey was impacted by French rail strikes and we had to book a last minute flight back instead (worked well). Return train journey via Mannheim went like clockwork but was still 17 hours with me carrying luggage skis and boots over 5 changes of train so it was very hard work.

Gear:
We took out own gear. My skis needed a base repair which I had done on the Sailer Sports shop at the foot of the Rosshutte slopes, repair quality was good and I hired a pair os skis on the first day while the repair happened. I thought economy skis would be ok but it turns out I should have gone for premium. We also rented a ski locker for about 10 Euros a day which was worth it to avoid carrying the skis, the fact we had this locker meant there was no real prospect of skiing the other areas in resort.

Accommodation:
Booked an Air BnB studio apartment (Appartementhaus Birkenwald) the Rosshutte end of Seefeld about 10mins walk to the Rosshutte snow face. It was good and cheap for UK half term. The building has a pool and sauna open to residents very easy to use. Sauna was quiet most of the week but got quite busy on the Friday. Location was convenient for the ski area but all the shops and bars were the other end of town.

Weather/Snow
Very much like late season conditions, with bumps and slush in the afternoon. There was rain on the lower section of the runs on the night we arrived and also early in the week which seriously degraded the snow base. In addition the early part of the week the weather was warm and wet. There were key linking runs without any base at all in large sections the resort kept the linking runs open but they were very poor in places with brown snow or mud. I don’t think the night skiing helps the base either because it just gets too much traffic. Overall the piste preparation was surprisingly good in that most of the lower blue runs had snow at the start of the day and they clearly made the most of what snow they had. The low altitude of the resort combined with rain and warm conditions couldn’t really be overcome. The upper slopes above the mid section of the number 4 lift were much better although the resort suffered from the fact that the top section of the mountain with the best snow is served by a slow old cable car which was constantly packed. Later in the week fresh snow arrived and the heavy fall on the Thursday night and Friday daytime made Friday a really good day.

Village
Lovely village with plenty of shops and bars. We didn’t explore much because my son tends to ski pretty hard for full days and then rest in the evening. The main issue we had was that the best skiing is in the Rossuhtte area to the east of the village (where we stayed) but other than the ski bars at the foot of the slopes there are no shops or restaurants in the area. Also there was the problem of all the supermarkets and grocery stores shutting at 6pm on Saturdays which creates issues if flights are delayed, I think if I did it again I’d consider paying extra for the airport taxi to do a quick supermarket stop in the valley. We managed to find the only open takeaway (Pizza & burger near the station) on Saturday night and used it to cobble together supper and breakfast but it was not ideal.

Lift system
We skied exclusively in the Rosshutte ski area because it had the highest altitude runs. There are 3 good fast covered chair lifts which were good, we sticked almost exclusively with those. There was a funicular we went on once but it was slow and uncomfortable so we didn’t use it again. We also avoided the top cable car because it was very busy and only accessed an easy looking black run which my son was not interested in trying. The key lift in the resort is the number 4 lift (Rosshutten express) to the north of the ski area, it has a middle station you can get on at but not off. This creates a bottle neck in poor snow conditions because people join the lift at the middle station to avoid the lower runs but the middle station only has access a small proportion of the empty chairs (one in three). Lift queues were generally very small apart from this. The only other time things got busy was midweek when what looked like school trips all started lessons at the same time.

Skiing
It is a great resort for beginners with a really good set of blue runs that offer both variety and a gradual progression. It is small without much in the way of challenging runs so there isn’t really enough to keep a good skier interested for a week, it’s fine for families though. My son made real progress and was able to ski in a relaxed way without anything too difficult most of the time. Favourite runs were the wide blue close from the top of the number 4 lift and the red run to the south of the ski area. Both had good snow the whole week. The blue run from the top of the number 4 lift also had a little off the side for me to enjoy.

Food
Self catered with food from the local supermarket. Ate lunch at the main Rosshutte restaurant which was pretty good value overall. My son enjoyed the half chicken and chips and I usually had a salad bar.

Summary
Overall a great trip because my son enjoyed it and made progress. I would recommend for a family or beginners trying to progress to becoming intermediate red run skiers. I don’t think I’ll go back because my son is ready for larger intermediate friendly resorts like Ischgl next year.

A snowHead

@Henwc,
As you say it's good for beginners and kids, but to get the best out of Seefeld you either need to be a cross country skier or go in the summer - Seefeld is excellent for both, although I hear the swimming pool is going to close. Mrs M likes XC and winter walking so when the kids were young it was perfect for us.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@musher, Agreed it did look great for XC and I imagine it is lovely in the summer.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Shame about the weather recently.

When it shows (Like it did in Jan 2024), Seefled is absolutely beautiful and snow at village level.

But Seefeld without trying cross country feels like miss, even if to just for an afternoon.

Help!!

Seefeld trip report 17 - 24 February 2024

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