Skiers will have a FELD DAY At best resort you’ve never heard of
by AS we zipped down the slope on our snow bikes, a shout rang out from a waiter on the nearby sun terrace. A rough translation was: “Slow down!”
“If only I could,” I thought. Then I realised it was probably just Austrian sarcasm.
Because while I felt like Eddie Kidd set to leap an unfeasible number of buses, I suspect I looked more like a granny test-driving her new mobility scooter.
The snow bike I had was like a low-slung bicycle with two short skis where the wheels should be. And no brakes. You stop by digging your feet into the snow or – the method I perfected – falling off.
Swagger
weather system, too. Its closeness to the Adriatic creates a unique microclimate ensuring an average seven to eight metres of snow each winter.
But that doesn’t stop it notching up about 100 hours more sun per year than resorts in the Tyrol. All that and 110km of beautifully groomed piste should make it a big draw for UK skiers. Plus the Klagenfurt airport transfer is only an hour.
We stayed at the Franz Ferdinand Hotel, named after two local boys – not the assassinated archduke or the Scottish band. Its spacious, comfy rooms are arranged around two vast atriums with wide, carpeted ramps zig-zagging up and down like fat, flattened staircases. One building has a climbing wall four storeys high.
There are attractive chill-out areas with giant beanbags or squashy sofas everywhere and, like any Austrian ski hotel worth its salt, it has a large sauna. This one has a John Travolta mural and Pop Art decor – a disco sauna which was strangely inviting.
But my favourite feature was the private ski and boot room that dou- bled as an entrance hall for most rooms. Getting my ski kit on in private without a strange man shoving his butt in my face in a crowded communal ski room was a welcome new experience.
The food was good too. Breakfast and dinner were large buffets with plenty of choice, plus a live cooking station for eggs and pancakes in the morning, and steaks, roasts and fish at night. Tell the chef you’re a Liverpool fan for extra big portions.
Across the road is the Millennium Express, a gondola that whisks you up to Kofelplatz at 1,900 metres.
Dumplings
On a crisp sunny morning, above clouds in the valleys below, we set off for the chairlift up to Troghohe, the highest point at 2,020 metres, and took the fast but wide red and black runs down to Rastl.
Most of Nassfeld’s runs are flattering reds so intermediates can get everywhere – even over the border for lunch in Italy where the Wulfenia
da Livio Ristorante does amazing seafood spaghetti and top pizzas priced from seven euros.
There are 25 mountain restaurants. My favourite was at Plattner’s, a hiking hotel that prides itself on “slow food” – not how you ski after a big lunch but traditional Carinthian specialities using local ingredients.
Our four courses consisted of a giant plate of Austrian cured meats, a hearty soup with dumplings, tender boiled beef with horseradish, and possibly my top dessert ever – kaiserschmarrn. Chopped pancakes with rum, raisins, nuts and a fruit sauce, it was beyond delicious.
We were so impressed we asked to meet the chef – who turned out to be a bloke from Swindon. Another nice surprise.
So why not give Nassfeld a try? I think you’ll be nicely surprised too. FACTFILE: Seven nights’ half-board at the 3.5star Franz Ferdinand is from £547pp for two sharing with easyJet flights from Gatwick to Klagenfurt on March 17 and transfers. See crystal ski.co.uk or call 020 8610 3123.