Zell am See Experience

Reporter: Richard Baldwin

I had an excellent skiing holiday in January 2023 at Zell am See skiing with the Ski Club of Great Britain. The SCGB rep is Nikki Smout who lives in Zell am See and is there for the whole season.

There are several lift passes available at Zell am See, the Alpin which covers Zell am See and the Kitzsteiner glacier / Kaprun area and the Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang and Fieberbrunn ski circus. There is now a ski lift link between Zell and the ski circus. Alternatively you can purchase, from memory about another £35 for a 6 day pass, the Superski pass which covers 25 resorts from Kitzbuhl to Salzburg. This is the pass that Nikki uses and by having access to a mini bus and member’s cars we were able, as a group of 14, to ski 5 of the 21 resorts. Nikki has good knowledge of all the resorts, and was able to select the resort with the best weather and snow conditions.

I had a terrific week’s sking in Zell am See with Nikki. Over the last 30 years I have skied with many reps and I would rate Nikki as overall the ski club’s best rep, for on-piste and après ski enjoyment. She is phenomenally enthusiastic, supportive and caring both during and after skiing.

I feel that the Ski Club could benefit by copying many of Nikki’s ideas / modus operandi:

• Each member of her group attached a fluorescent pink tape to their ski pole or helmet. This made it very easy to spot other members of the group both those in front and behind. This was particularly useful when we were skiing in poor visibility.
• A whatsapp group was set up for the week, this significantly improved intergroup communication w.r.t. the days skiing location, meeting time, on piste restaurant arrangements and après ski times and venues.
• Nikki’s in depth knowledge of the pistes meant that she can give advice as to go how to reach the next lift e.g. keep to the right and turn left at the large yellow sign. This enabled members to ski freely without following a leader, but other members of the group were instantly recognisable.
• Nikki’s criteria for SCGB members joining her group is that they can confidently ski black runs. This worked very well the week I spent with Nikki with very little waiting for other members of the group or skiing slowly to accommodate weaker skiers.