St Wolfgang Sneeuwverwachting

St. Wolfgang can be reached in just under 1 hour from Salzburg Airport. We had early flight from Birmingham and were in the hotel Leifer by 1.30pm for lunch. Being picked up at 4.40pm on the following Saturday allowed for plenty of shopping in the resort and a walk up to one of the small waterfalls. The resort is very traditional and picturesque being located next to Wolfgangsee lake. Well worth getting a lake view. Slopes are a 30 mins (good weather) to 50 mins (it's snowing) bus ride away (you do get a seat) which is again very picturesque but becomes a bit tiresome by the end of the week. You can be picked up from outside of some hotels but can never be on the slopes until 10:15am (10:30am ski school start) and the bus(es) all leave at 4pm sharp! Ski school is the best we've ever had - I was in the intermediate group with "Killer" Fred and he was brilliant. The piste map looks tiny compared to most ski resorts being split into mainly blue runs on the one side (all T-bar lifts) and reds and one black on the other (4-seat chairlift). The reds are a good challenge and even the longer blue run from the top suddenly turns into a red near the bottom. Both sides have off limited off-piste, however, go with the right ski school instructor and they will take you through forest and away from the crowds to virgin snow that the crowds never visit. Overall, it is very small compared to the typical ski resort but you could always travel to Gossau near the Dachstien Glacier (1 hour on the ski bus though) for 130km of runs.