Obergurgl first timer

Der Bomber,
Thanks very much for your Obergurgl review :D. It has jogged my memory about the place.

I was pretty sure the pistes down from the top Hochgurgl restaurant were blue and black, but I checked the piste map to be sure, and they are.

http://www.obergurgl.com/main/EN/GG/WI/skigebiet/skigebietsfacts/index.html

(Scroll down and click on the ski map).

As you said, the blue one was really quite difficult when I went down it (3 years ago). I'm ashamed to admit I snowploughed all the way down it, because it was so narrrow, icy, and it had that very nasty drop to the left. The black one looked really very hard.

Perhaps you didn't go to Obergurgl during the British school holidays? There were plenty of British kids when we went, although there were also several German children in my daughter's class (who spoke very good English). And my daughter's instructor spoke excellent English.

I'm surprised you thought Obergurgl village was pretty. I thought it was quite ugly myself. It was basically just a long road with a series of hotels along it.

I totally agree with you about the length of time it took to eat dinner. To me, it was a very strange way of eating. They'd give you about a tablespoonful of food on one plate, then come and take your plate and cutlery away, and bring another tablespoonful of food on another plate with more cutlery, and so on for a couple of hours. I'm used to having a heaped plate of dinner on one plate using one set of cutlery. I'm glad I wasn't doing the washing up! By the end of the week I was dying to get home and cook myself some 'proper' dinner.

My overall impression of the place was that it was a very middle-class sort of place - full of wealthy people who liked to be comfortable on their ski-ing holidays. I distinctly remember the windshields on the chairlifts :D.

Ally

I wouldn't know when the holidays are actually!

The only time I stayed there for longer than a day or two ( I prefer Soelden but always have at least a day in Ober/Hoch) was a week from feb 9th one year.

Didn't realise that slope was a black, it is probably the hardest bit of the mountain to be honest, Obergurgl/Hochgurgl is an intermediate cruisers paradise!


A lot of Austria and Bavaria is like that when it comes to evening meals - a sit down, family meal with 7 courses is standard, and kids are frowned upon, many hotels and chalets don't even let under 12/14s eat with the adults due to them getting bored between meals. In my hotel I (and the other Brits) found the 'italian buffet' night to be the best, which was at our own pace and a lot less rich than the other nights, despite the fact it was probably the chefs night off and most of it had been rustled up from frozen! It was also quite clear that the Germans and Russians were obsessive about which wine they had for dinner, and there was quite a bit of 'sales pressure' over expensive bottles of wine, with most of the English looking at the waiters as if they were going mad! 30 euros for 4 or 5 glasses of wine or 1.30 a beer? I'll take ten beers please!

I find Obergurgl pretty due to the architecture tbh - a good mix of very modern buildings and 'chocolate box' hotels, the graveyard was also very impressive. I think the lack of traffic (its at the end of a valley road, for those unaware)helps, plus the fact its always been under about 2 foot of snow at leat when I've been! Also the views if your in the upper floors of one of the hotels on the top ridge, or in one of the outdoor pools, are astounding.

BTW, I can't ever remember that Poma being there, under the connecting gondola. Is that new? They do list it as the last lift number.

Der_Bomber wrote:4. The kids ski shool slope being located down the valley from the main ski area, I guess beause of point 3.

Funny you should say that, they've moved the whole ski school to the area at the bottom of what was the rope lift (it's now an extremely smooth button lift) between the Olympia and the Hochfirst. It's right in front of our balcony and is quite entertaining viewing :D