What do you get when you combine endless ungroomed terrain, a flawless cable car network, and one of the best après-ski scenes in Europe? The off-piste ski trip of a lifetime! We’ll head to St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria’s backcountry mecca, for a week of incredible freeriding on wide powder bowls, deep valley forest runs, and 2,300+m (7,540+ ft) peaks. When we’re done on the slopes, we’ll come down to explore St. Anton’s legendary restaurants, bars, and live music venues. This is a ski haven, a party place, and a cultural hot spot – all rolled into a single powdery package.
Enjoy a week of spectacular runs in Austria’s off-piste freeriding mecca! Head to a cozy B&B Hotel in St. Anton, meet up with your experienced, certified guides, and shred the days away with your group. Explore St.Anton’s lively après-ski scene and, if you choose to, you can even up your game with a technique workshop!
Arrive at St. Anton and settle into your hotel. Lift passes and any ski equipment can be pre-ordered and collected up to 6 pm, or the next morning. Enjoy some welcome drinks around 7 pm, as well as a hosted dinner.
Your guide will meet you at the Chalet around breakfast. Take a walk over to the Galzig gondola to collect your safety kit and any rental skis not collected the day before. Start the day with an Avalanche safety briefing and some warm-up runs on-piste, so your guide can evaluate your level. Then, you get to use the lifts, and spend the rest of your day earning your turns off-piste!
The second guided ski day! For anyone who needs a little more off-piste technique practice, your guides recommend joining their Off-Piste technique workshop from 9-12. It’s a safe, fun, and confidence-building workshop that will put you through a series of drills to improve your technique. Rejoin the group after lunch, or spend the afternoon relaxing.
Over the next 4 days, you get to enjoy all the best off-piste runs across the entirety of Arlberg, such as the Maroikopft in Stuben. Don’t worry – you’ll have one free day mid-week to rest your ski muscles and explore.
If you want to, you can opt to try the White Ring, a circular route that links St Anton to the classy resorts of Lech Zürs. You can make it even more special with a ride in the champagne Gondola, which whisks you from the endearing village of Zug to the Balmalp restaurant, offering simply breathtaking panoramic views of the Arlberg. If you would like to sign up for this route, let your guides know on arrival.
On day 8, you depart after breakfast. If you have an evening flight and would like to ski an extra day, let your guides know and they’ll be able to store your luggage. Alternatively, if you would like to add a city break in either Zurich, Bregenz Lake Constance, or Innsbruck, just ask the concierge team who can make recommendations.
Had the best guided day tours ever. Very well-organized and flexible company! If you’re an experienced ski tourer ask for Moritz, he’s helped me progress in the sport faster than I ever have and we got some sweet lines in. Highly recommend PTP
With the conditions at the moment, I did not expect much, but I was positively surprised! Tom is a very good guide who knows the mountain very well. He managed to find some very nice runs with good snow and fresh tracks in these challenging conditions.
What you get on this adventure:
What’s not included:
To enjoy this backcountry adventure, you need to be in excellent physical shape. You will be on your feet for 5 full days, covering miles upon miles of terrain every day. You will need to manage controlled descents in variable conditions. All participants should feel comfortable on challenging blue or black-level resort runs and be able to carry a loaded daypack while skinning up variable degrees of terrain.
For the enjoyment and safety of everyone involved, participants must be approved to participate in advanced backcountry skiing tours either through a previous trip with the guiding service or through recommendations and a vetting process.
To participate in this tour, you need to be an intermediate or advanced backcountry skier in excellent physical shape. You will be skiing, touring, and summiting on varied terrain for 5 full days at altitudes of 1,400-2,300 m (4,600-7,500 ft). To adapt to the altitude, your guides recommend starting physical preparations, including plenty of aerobic exercise, around 8 weeks before the trip.
For technical backcountry ski touring gear, you will need to bring:
For personal items, you need to bring:
All ski equipment and ABS bags can be rented from your guides’ partners at Jennewein in St. Anton. Your guides recommend pre-ordering the equipment online to secure yourself a 10% discount.
The Avalanche Safety kit, including the transceiver, shovel, and probe, can be rented for €70 ($75 USD) for the week or €140 ($150 USD) including a free ride backpack (non-ABS).
Group sizes and pricing
Skiing in St. Anton can be arranged for larger groups. Contact us to make arrangements.
Min. age requirements
If your group has skiers under the age of 18, contact us prior to booking to make arrangements.
To get to St. Anton am Arlberg, most people fly into Zürich Airport in Zürich, Switzerland, 2 hours away. From there, you can take a regular train line, a night train, or just rent a car and drive to St. Anton.
Once you and your guide agree on the details of your itinerary, your guide will suggest the best place to meet. You will usually meet the host at the St. Anton am Arlberg railway station, and they will escort you to your hotel in St. Anton.
We highly recommend that you cover all your bases with both emergency medical and travel insurance.
With medical insurance, if you have an accident or medical emergency on or off the mountain, you’ll avoid paying out of pocket for costly expenses. This covers everything from hospital treatments to emergency air transportation and more. Travel insurance covers canceled flights, natural disasters and other scenarios that may interrupt your travel plans.
We also expect you to respect local regulations and take measures to protect yourselves, your guides, and the communities you’re traveling to. For more information on travel recommendations and restrictions in St. Anton, Austria, please refer to Austria.info’s latest COVID-19 information.
If you need assistance selecting the right insurance for your group, let us know and we will be happy to help!
A 30% deposit to secure your place is due upon booking. The remaining amount is paid 3 months (90 days) prior to departure. Once the trip is confirmed by the guide, the cancellation policy stated below applies.
Been skiing with Piste to Powder for nearly 15 years (on and off) and have never been disappointed. Whatever the weather and conditions, they always seem to find good powder snow to ski. The business model of joining an open group makes guiding very accessible financially and it is always fun to meet and ski with new people of the same ability. We had a great couple of days this time with Magnus who I would love to ski with again. For me, Piste to Powder is one of the main attractions now of St Anton where I have been skiing for over 30 years.