Would you rather see dawn rise over the mountain tops from a bar stool than the unseemly battle for the first gondola? If so, Austria is the place to go. While almost every village in this ski-obsessed nation offers a degree of after-lift-closure mayhem, there are some that test the best immune systems to disintegration. Bring your A-game.
Resorts such as Ischgl, Sölden, St Anton, Saalbach, Mayrhofen and Kitzbühel are in an après ski league of their own. Debate rages as to the best, but if you arrive in any of the above-mentioned resorts during winter, there will be thronged bars, euro-pop music from the dark side and the building blocks for company legends to be born. Rest up and pack the painkillers - Austrian après skis like no other.
Etiquette usually dictates that après ski is a post-lunch pleasure, although not everyone is so well versed. Like bats fleeing caves to darkening skies, as the afternoon wears on, après skiers make themselves visible on terraces across the mountain.
Wearing a look of ‘that’s me done for the day’, on-duty après skiers message others with glistening beer glasses, framed by towering peaks. The message is that it might be time to leave the carved-up slopes to the younger mountain users. The terraces reach a tipping point in their day, with plates cleared and schnapps skis launched.
Après ski is the reward for the hours of exercise on the snow & ski lifts. It is a broad church and open to non-skiers who become après skiers or skiers without snow. It is a hugely communal gathering where everything is in the mix – classic songs are remastered to offer a contemporary slant, and dance classes are free to join.
Warm, cosy and friendly – après ski is a required stopping-off point for many, between the ski binding and bed. The remnants of hard-core après skiers mingle with the washed and showered clubbers as the evening wears on.
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Ischgl is the only resort where any one of their five best après ski bars would likely top any other resort. It is by some way the world’s best après ski resort. The Trofana Alm on the lower slopes, the slopeside Schatzi Bar, Kitzloch or Nikis – they are all thronged from December to May. One of the best is the Kuhstahl (cow shed) – it is a bar in the mould of a beer hall. The beer taps run at max from opening until closing time. It is relentless – a simple business model that draws the crowds day in, day out.
It is located on the lower slopes of the St Anton ski area and on possibly the toughest blue piste in the Alps. Lesser skiers and snowboarders who got there showed true grit. By closing time at 21:00 there isn’t a capable skier on the mountain. The Mooserwirt is reputed to have the highest alcohol throughput of any bar in Austria. This is no mean feat and is indicative of the ferocious après ski that takes place. It is reasonable to say that the Mooserwirt is the most pumping après ski bar in St Anton, the Arlberg and much of Western Austria.
