Hall, a 24-year-old chalet girl from Kingston-upon-Thames, is working in a snowy Austrian paradise, where locals claim that men now outnumber women by a ratio of about eight to one. “It’s not just that there are so many of them, but they are so fit too,” enthuses a friend who is dancing on a table amid a sea of men. “They ski hard, they get toned, then they party. It’s perfect!”
Well, perfect-ish. In St Anton, the most famous resort of the Arlberg region, it appears to be snowing men. Trouble is, not everyone is happy about it. With the surge in testosterone has come some reckless behaviour on the piste and more off it. Now the tourist office, at the behest of local businesses, has put out what amounts to an official alert: Emergency in the Arlberg — more women required.
To some extent, skiing has always been a male-dominated activity. In recent years, new and more forgiving equipment has made learning much easier, costs have fallen, and family snow holidays have boomed — but, overall, women are still under-represented. Of the 1.2m Brits who hit the slopes last winter, 43% were women, according to the Ski Club of Great Britain.
The problem in St Anton — and several resorts like it — is of a different magnitude, however. Gunnar Munthe, the 58-year-old owner of the Krazy Kangaruh, one of Europe’s wildest après-ski venues and the place Hall and her friends were dancing in, would kill for a clientele that was 43% female.
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“In December through to March, it’s a catastrophe,” he said last week. “It’s about 80% guys, and it is probably the best place in the world for a single woman to find a man. But on some days, it’s more like a gay club. I love all my customers, of course, but we need more women.”
So, what’s gone wrong in St Anton? How is it that a place that 10 years ago felt like any other ski resort, has suddenly become so male-dominated?
Most say the town has fallen victim to its own success. Like Chamonix in France, Jackson Hole in the States and Alagna in Italy, St Anton has boomed on the back of the extreme- skiing revolution. Thanks both to snowboarding and the dev-elopment of fatter, powder-friendly skis, more and more people can cope with deep off-piste snow, and they are venturing into the back country in droves. St Anton’s steep shoots, dramatic cliffs and vast snowy bowls have made it a magnet for this new breed of adrenaline junkies. And — for the time being at least — they are overwhelmingly male.
Drop into the swish new Anton cafe-hotel any morning just before 9am, and you start to get a feel for what’s going on. The cafe sits only a few paces from the Galzigbahn cable car, which climbs a single steel cable to an altitude of more than 2,800 metres, before depositing its passengers near the top of one of the most spectacular ski playgrounds in the world.
It is in the Anton cafe that Graham Austick, a British- born mountain guide, gathers his clients every morning before leading the assault on the hill. His company, Piste to Powder, specialises in off-piste guiding and ski-touring adventures, and is sucking in action men in droves.
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By 8.45am, the cafe is packed with about 30 men, each methodically checking though a rucksack full of equipment, as if they belonged to some sort of special-forces unit. There are just three women in the room, one of whom is serving drinks.
“If you like gadgets, this is the place to be,” smiles Austick, as the armoury of state-of-the-art ski gear glistens, bleeps and flashes around him. Everyone is showing the bloke next to them their latest toy. There are nylon shovels, carbon-fibre helmets, two-way radios, first-aid kits, rucksacks that inflate in case of avalanche and even vests with built-in body armour.
And then, just as a Swede to our right starts explaining that his avalanche probe is a metre longer than the average, an awed hush descends on the room. The cause? A German has trumped everyone by pulling out a metre-long snow saw, crafted from what looks like polished titanium.
Austick accepts that the lack of women in St Anton has got “a bit desperate” of late, but insists that the number of women getting involved in off-piste skiing is growing, albeit from a small base.
“We’ve got some hardcore women skiers on our books, and a lot of them ski better than the men,” he says. “The problem is with women who haven’t been here before. British women, in particular, seem cautious, probably because they have been told that St Anton is all bump-skiing and powder. It’s not, there is skiing for all abilities here, but that is how it is perceived.”
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Austick blames the mach- ismo that surrounds off-piste skiing for putting off women, and says he would happily demand that his male clients put away their toys if it would attract more girls.
“Would I like to see the snow saws and anti-ming underwear replaced by non-smudge lipstick and anti-run mascara? Of course I would,” he says.
So, what’s to be done? How can St Anton — which remains one of the best-appointed and best-run resorts in the Alps — pull in more women? Enter Wilma Himmelfreundpointner, head of the town’s tourist information centre and a woman who believes that this particular cloud has a silver lining.
“I think St Anton is paradise for women,” she says. “We don’t keep statistics on the ratio of men to women, but every day you meet these incredible sportive guys from all around the world. If you are a single girl, it’s perfect. When you go out, you have the greatest time.”
She draws on the Anton cafe’s new calendar to emphasis her point. A glossy full- colour production, it is illustrated not with the usual pneumatic blondes, but a selection of 12 semi-clad “snow hunks” snapped in a variety of unlikely poses. “From Mr January through to December — they all live here,” she says.
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She has also organised a “ladies week” that runs from April 9-16 and includes a special skiing and boarding package for women. Starting at £357, it includes a welcome party, accommodation, six-day lift pass, ski lessons, ski hire, free admission to a top spa and a movie night.
Even the chalet girls back the initiative. Their secret out, most said last week that women would be “daft” to stay away from St Anton. Jane Paton, 24, from Compton near Chichester, who met her boyfriend on the slopes, summed it up: “If you were organising a girls’ week away, this is the place to come. It’s got the best après-ski in the Alps, and with all the guys who are here, you would never have to buy a drink. Not once.”
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Travel brief
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Getting there: Austrian Airlines (0870 124 2625, www.austrianairlines.co.uk) flies to Innsbruck from Heathrow, from £107. From there, pick up the shuttle to the railway station, and take the train (£9.35 one-way). Or fly to Friedrichshafen from Stansted with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com), from £32. From there, Loacker Tours (00 43 5523 59090, www.loackertours.at) runs a weekend shuttle for £21 one-way, or a more expensive taxi service. From Dublin, fly to Munich with Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com), from €114; or from Heathrow, Birmingham or Manchester with Lufthansa (0870 837 7747, www.lufthansa.co.uk), from £98. Pick up a car from any of the three airports, with Sixt (08701 567567, www.e-sixt.com), which has weekly rates from £140.
Where to stay: self-catering apartments usually cost bet- ween £21 and £28pp a day, and most must be booked for a week. The St Anton tourist office (00 43 5446 22690, www.stantonamarlberg.com) has lists of what’s still available, updated daily. The Hotel Alte Post (5446 25530, www.hotel-alte-post.at) has doubles from £195pp a night, B&B. It’s one of the prettiest in town and right in the thick of things.
Tour operators: Mark Warner (0870 770 4227, www.markwarner.co.uk) has two chalet-hotels in town. The Rosanna (from £789pp per week with flights, chalet-board, departing March 13), ideal for St Anton’s famous nightlife, and the Schweizerhof (£790pp, chalet-board, departing April 3), which is much quieter. Or try Flexiski (0870 909 0754, www.flexiski.com), or Total (08701 633633, www.skitotal.com).
Off-piste guides: Piste to Powder (00 43 664 174 6282, www.skimountaineering.com) has group classes from £55pp a day, ranging from clinics to help you make your first turns in deep snow, to full-blooded off-piste adventures.
Not so man-mad?
NOT EVERY resort is overrun with hairy-chested off-pisters. Here are three top testosterone-free options. All packages include flights from London and transfers.
LECH, AUSTRIA
Next door to St Anton, and blessed with an even snowier climate, Lech is one of the great smoothies of the skiing world. Not surprisingly, it’s also home to some of the best ski hotels on the planet, notably the Schneider Almhof (00 43 5583 35000, www.almhof.at; doubles from £180pp a night, half-board). Inghams (020 8780 4444, www.inghams.co.uk) has a week, departing on March 12, at the four-star Gotthard hotel, for £884pp, half-board.
COURMAYEUR, ITALY
Wander into town at the weekend, and you’d never guess that Courmayeur is home to a host of terrifying off-piste routes. The place is overrun by Italians who mix a few gentle turns on the groomed slopes with a lot of eating, drinking and wandering in and out of shops. Three nights at the three-star Bouton d’Or hotel, departing March 10, cost £398pp, B&B, with Momentum Ski (020 7371 9111, www.momentumski.com).
ASPEN, COLORADO
The fail-safe option: great shopping, handsome architecture and the world’s most flattering slopes, but what really makes the difference is the H-word. Aspen’s Hollywood connection guarantees a healthy balance of the sexes. One week at chalet Aspen Heights, departing March 12, costs £835pp with Skiworld (08707 879720, www.skiworld.ltd.uk).
Sean Newsom