The season winds down slowly, with sleepy seasonaires finally finding out closure dates and talking of summer destinations…bars become dead zones and slopes deteriorate into muddy rivers of crap.

Erm. No. This is St Anton…

The St Anton season races along still, with us now in March enjoying the fruits of a good season. Over the last few weeks huge grins have characterised most of the town's faces as a huge mid-Feb dump delivered some fine powder skiing, although the skies didn't clear as nicely as they could.

As for right now, the sun is back with avengence. Shorts are almost the order of the day in resort, that's clothing as well as the usual flugerls, sambuca and brrrrrr's, and the lower slopes are suffering a daily mid afternoon porridge fest.

The Rendl Big Jump comp went by with an amazing atmosphere on the beach. Highlights of the day included Scotties v Cuba intense snowballing, with a few poor individuals being really pasted (KK's resident skiing kangaroo Gustav being one notable victim.) Nick Draxl wowed the crowds with some off axis spins, and a magnificent 900 to finish. Myself, I attempted the 456 degree spin mentioned in the previous report, but stalled, only managing 120 of it…Next year I'm hoping for 210 at least, and maybe keeping one of my skis…

The comp's atmosphere continued well into the night. Dangerously so. With Pimps Prostitutes at Funky (that's fancy dress folks), and Cuba enjoying a full house too. What didn't get missed however was a bit of a promotion from Kartouche with a destructive drink as much as you can for 10 Euros all night drinking sesh. With the Scotties Crew on their big night off, it was always going to be carnage. When Cuba had to shut briefly following a tech fault, four horsemen could be seen at the roundabout laughing... Two full bar crews, one having a night off thrust upon them like a ski bum finding a 100 Euro note…eek. The stories from the night are too numerous to mention here, but with unlimited beer, flugerls and tequila you can imagine!

The various ski worker breakages are slowly clearing up, only to be replaced by a new set of bizarre incidents. Having a cast or bandage on your hand is this year's resort must have ( closely followed by the Natives St Anton Hoody!), and people will go to any lengths to get one. Best attempts recently have been blending hands and falling over drunk in toilets…In the spirit of true reportage, I too decided to ski over my own hand to the tune of 4 stitches (It's not everyday you get to see your own bone :-).

Rendl this week was also party to the Rendl Vollyball comp. Lots of activity on the beach under marvellously sunny skies.

Well. The season will trundle to a close all too soon. Official season end is in 6 weeks. Most of us are hoping for a repeat of last year's fantastic end of season snow. Fingers crossed.

Report from Alastair Vaan - Natives Resort Reporter in St Anton

Mail this page to a friend
What do you think? Tell us on the Message Boards