Skiing Resort Report: St Anton

Developments for the 2001 World Skiing Championships will have a dramatic effect on the centre of St Anton, and some may regret that the railway station - only about 100m from the main lifts - is to be moved just across the valley. But this is not a picture-postcard village in need of conservation: the great asset of St Anton is its ski area, and that will be improved by the changes.

Stretching up to 2,800m on the Valluga, and to 2,645m on the north-facing slopes of the Rendl, the ski area is ideal for confident intermediates and challenging enough for experts. At both ends of the main skiing face, there are easy, beginners' runs to St Christoph and Nasserein; in the middle, the Schindlergrat offers not only a great chairlift ride up but sublime descents - pisted or unpisted - down either side. St Anton has 120km of pistes, and there are 140km in the other nearby resorts (including Zurs and Lech) to which the Arlberg lift pass gives access; I have never actually made it to either of them, so fulfilling is St Anton's skiing and its setting, and so reliable the snow. The resort's open Dec-May.

All the major operators except Neilson offer packages to St Anton. Among the specialists are Flexiski (0870-909 0754), Simply Ski (0181-742 2541) and White Roc (0171-792 1188).