Update on the Spitzingsee area.
Friday afternoon started snowing and Ssturday had snow showers during the day and in the evening. Was very tempted to go on this weekend, but we do avoid this area on weekends unless ski touring.
The snow that we are seeing is light, fluffy and it's great! (And this is at my house level) Problem is that it was windy, and this snow would not have stuck and drifts would have accumulated that would be very sensitive. Guess what. On Saturday 6, two people got caught by an avalanche, one of them dead. Here's the location.

Thanks SJF, I was struggling with that.
Basic German explanation,
1 & 2 are where they were found.
Top red circle, Auslosebereich - where it happened.
You can see where they were ascending, Aufstiegsspur.

Note it is still tree line level below 1500m.
Also close to Taubensteinhaus - see the gelende map.

Thanks for the updates and props Jynnx.

Did my first season in Ellmau Quattro. Excellent area. Loved it.


DAY 4: SATURDAY 20th FEBRUARY 2010

Woke to the sound of the snowplow and between 5-10cm of light, dry powder in the village. The decision to stay put had paid off.




Showered, packed, stored my bags at reception, breakfasted, and on the Skibus Bayrischzell to the local hill, Sudelfeld, at 8:30. The bus stop is in front of the train station, and it's free. Someone had left this chocolate Santa on the bus stop bench.




Got off at the Schwebelift stop and walked up to the single chair base station - ticket office and one restaurant. The road is pretty steep and I wouldn't recommend it for families.


Sudelfeld 1
Sudelfeld 2


COST: 30.00 euro for Sudelfeld lift ticket (with 3 euro refund if you returned the plastic lift card at day's end)


The extent of the queue for first chair at Sudelfeld on a powder day!




As I got higher on the single chair the weather closed in and it continued to snow. And the end of pics. There's some excellent gladed terrain back to the base of the single chair, but it needs a good base. Lots of deadfall.






Sudelfeld Ski Area




Took the quad and then the t-bar to the top of the system and spent most of the morning skiing laps down to the Rosengasse t-bar station. Up to knee deep of light powder on a crusty, hard base, and nobody skiing where I was.

Best skiing is in this area and the hike to terrain off Kleiner Traithen. Pics from scottishskier's thread:

TR: Bumbling Around Bavaria


3 great hours then back to the hotel to re-pack, wash up, and load up for the train back to Munich airport. Easy, stress free journey and I Was back in cardiff at 9pm

COST: 22.50 euro one way


Fabulous, fabulous area and wonderful people. Would definitely recommend and return to this area. Plenty of skiing, plenty of challenge, bags of charm, and to my mind very reasonable prices.

The AlpenPlus area


TOTAL COST: 706.40 euro (of which 319 euro was the flight)

Sudelfeld area has lots of possibility when it snows. But you got to be there at the right time or otherwise it gets chopped up with piled up heavy snow bumps. The place doesn't get groomed very often (it's comparatively large for a local ski-jo) and it gets challenging at steep sections when it's like that on snowboard.
Only 2 lifts. The first single is like out of history. I was telling my missus it reminded me of when I started ski. With snowboard strapped on, my thigh was hurting and I was wiggling all the way up. Everything else is T-bar. If you don't like T-bar you are stuffed. More suited to skiers.

I have to apologize for a little mix up. The avalanche story I posted happened on the 6th Feb. (11 days before Mike was there) The one that happened on 7th March was at Großer Traithen, you can see on the pisten map, the mountain just behind, south of Sudelfeld.

If anyone is interested in this area, It's a great area but needs experience and local knowledge (which I don't have) when going off piste . Last year there was 6 avalanche incidents in Bavarian Alps in February.

SJF can you please help me with this image, I think it's informative.

That's a massive crown

Just got back from Sudelfeld. Practiced the T-bars for 2 days. That Rosengasse t-bar is so sketch, it's the sketchiest of all, I always nearly fall the section it's like a wall and the brook running along the bottom.
Anyways, it snowed on thursday and that night so I hit it on Friday. Shin deep powder on recently gloomed runs, no crowd, lots of untouched bits to play with. Went into the trees, too. Still need more base along the single chair. Saturday morning snowed a little to just cover it up a little. Bit bumpy but new snow, no complaints.

Hi Mike

Thanks for the report and photos.

Would you go to Japan or Germany / Austria if the distance was the same?

Thanks.

For snow, Hokkaido.

For terrain, Germany / Austria.

I guess somewhere in between would be Nagano or Niigata.

Wow Mike I think you just set the std for a trip reports. That pic of your tips at the head of the shute is a cracker. Thanks for taking the time to post, especially with all the links.

Monday saw 10cm of fresh snow. Looks promising and hoping it will snow some more overnight. Getting up early tomorrow to check it out.

Slept in, and got there at around 11:30. The whole day it snowed, occasional strong winds, and when it wasn't that, the fog made you guess which way you are going.
The great part was - Knee deep powder. Fresh tracks all day long. It wasn't fluffy but hey, with less than two dozen people on the whole mountain with most of them sticking to the main route ...
Had to take my board twice cos I couldn't get out.
Going back there early tomorrow morning. I heard it is going to be warm, 15 degrees C. It would have been perfect if it were a few degrees colder today.

Excellent.

15 degrees!!!!

Very interesting report thank you.

There are some great cheeses in that part of the world. I hope you tried them out too.