New ‘Where to Ski in Austria’ book is WTSS back at its best!

The ski resort gospel is back! Mary Creighton reviews the new Austria edition of Where to Ski and Snowboard, now titled Where to Ski in Austria

For my family, every ski holiday started with Where to Ski and Snowboard (WTSS). We’d spend rainy September evenings poring through its pages, taking the words of editors Chris Gill and Dave Watts as ski gospel.

Even as the internet eeked into every corner of our lives, I’d still refer back to my dog-eared copy of Where to Ski and Snowboard 1999 and to this day, I don’t know a website that offers such comprehensive, objective and downright useful information as WTSS.

Which is why I was among one of many distraught readers when WTSS announced its retirement from print in 2015.

Imagine my glee when I found out, that after a short hiatus, my ski bible is back once more, albeit in a very different format. Rather than 700 odd pages covering all the major skiing countries, it’s now country-specific, with the first edition one hundred percent dedicated to my current home, Austria. Books on France and Italy are due to follow next year.

Where to Ski in Austria (they’ve dropped the snowboarding bit) has everything I loved about the old books: quick, at a glance overviews at the beginning of each resort chapter, before going into a detailed analysis.

The reviews are unwaveringly fair and accurate, covering everything from size and snow reliability to bars and restaurants. It’s more concise than its predecessor, with details like hotels and tour operators more or less chopped. But there are also fewer resorts covered, with only the old British favourites getting a chapter.

Afterall, Where to Ski in Austria is very much written with the average British skier in mind: it’s more concerned with the number of pistes, family friendliness and the location of the nearest Kaiserschmarren than things like weather patterns, easy access powder runs and undiscovered spots.

If that’s what you’re after, then (warning: shameless self-promotion) you’ll need a copy of Fall-Line (subscribe HERE) to fuel your imagination. But for anyone planning a family trip, or a week tottling from cosy mountain hut to cosy mountain hut, Where to Ski in Austria reigns supreme.

Where to Ski in Austria is edited by Chris Gill, with Dave Watts as consultant editor. The RRP is £11.99 but you can buy it directly from wheretoskiandsnowboard.com for £11.50, including postage and packaging.