Skift Take
Skiing in Europe is all about discovering hidden runs and villages with easy access. East Tirol's charms put it on the lift-ticket to-do list.
Skiing in February half-term in Europe is usually a nightmare: hour-long lift queues, 80-strong swarms of schoolchildren and the entire population of Paris clad in C&A-ski chic skidding across the piste. Carving wide, open turns on a deserted slope is a rarely fulfilled dream.
And yet here I am with the sun shining and perfect snow under my feet, a lone figure, cruising at my upper speed limit and headed for an empty, heated, six-person lift. What's more, I'm happily full from a lunch of steaming noodle soup that cost €2.50, and a €3-a-pint beer.
From the raucous, boozy, après-ski of St Anton to the heart-in-your-throat downhill descents of Kitzbühel, the Austrian Tirol is well known to Brits as the heart of the country's skiing. But not so well known is that this Alpine paradise comes in a double helping: North Tirol (the one we Brits mistakenly call Tirol) and East Tirol (Osttirol), the lesser-known bit. The resorts of East Tirol, two hours from Innsbruck, rarely appear in ski top 10s and you will not find the boot-stomping, après-ski scene often associated with Austria there. But that's not to say that it's a backwater, just alluringly remote.
"Aaaal right, Kals. Yeh. Baby." The perfect silence is suddenly obliterated by a 50-something cocktail of Steve Martin and Franz Klammer who skids to a halt on massive skis.
"Yo," says Robbie,
