NOT TOO CHALLENGING UNLESS YOU HEAD OFF-PISTE, BUT THERE IS PLENTY OF VERY AGREEABLE CRUISING TERRAIN. IMPRESSIVE INVESTMENT IN NEW LIFTS IN RECENT YEARS

The skiing in the Lech/Zürs area is not as extensive as one might imagine: there are only about 25 lifts in total, although the rolling carpet system of boarding does allow conventional chairlifts to run at higher-than-normal speeds and new high-speed lifts are being installed on a regular basis. Many of the comfortable chairlifts have heated seats and look as though they could have come from the Conran shop.

The piste terrain is best suited to good intermediates. Advanced skiers may quickly become bored here unless they are using a guide to take advantage of the huge number of off-piste routes that this area affords. (Incidentally, this is one of the few places in Austria where heli-skiing is still not just permitted but actually encouraged: heli-ski descents are actually marked on the piste map.) There are good nursery slopes for beginners and there is a fun park for snowboarders.

The most amusing ski itinerary in Lech is known as "The Circuit". Unfortunately it can only be done in one direction, which means queues can occasionally form at bottleneck points in high season. You start by taking one or other of the Rufikopf cable cars (fitted not long ago with new state-of-the-art cabins) up to 2,362m, from where you work your way across via a sequence of nice cruising pistes and drag and chairlifts into the Hexenboden area above Zürs. You then drop down to Zürs itself (1,716m) and ski across one or other of the bridges over the road to take either the Seekopf or Zürsersee high-speed chairlift. (If you want to slot in some more challenging skiing then before you take the Seekopf lift you can take the Zürs cable car up to Trittkopf (2,423m) and try some of the black runs beneath it.)

From the top of the Seekopf or Zürsersee lift you then schuss down to the two-seater Madloch chairlift (alas still the site of a bottleneck queue at busy times). From the Madloch-Joch (2,438m) you then ski down an impressive long red ski-route, which is not groomed and can be rocky, to Zug (1,511m).

Then from Zug you take the chairlift (taking care to close the safety bar quickly, so that you are not catapulted into the river it crosses before the first pylon) up to Palmenalpe. From here you take a rope drag lift a short way along the ridge before dropping straight down to Oberlech and then Lech itself. Alternatively you can ski down to the high-speed Steinmahder chairlift and use it to give you access to a variety of good blue and red slopes above Oberlech. A good skier can easily get around the circuit in half a day, but if you do some extra runs and have a few stops it can take all day.

If you decide not to do the circuit, which only works in one direction, then you will probably start on the other side of the river Lech and use the Schlegelkopf lifts to get up to a point above Oberlech and then the six-seater high-speed lift to get up to Petersboden and so into the main Lech ski area. Improvements in the past few years mean that the Kreigerhornbahn lift is now a high-speed six-seater chairlift with a journey time of just four minutes and the Trittalp chairlift in Zurs is now a six-seater. The Steinmaher lift in Lech has been upgraded to become the Arlberg’s first eight-seater and also has protective hoods and the Hasensprung lift is now a high-speed six-seater, again with hoods.

The Arlberg ski pass that you need to ski Lech also covers St Anton's ski area, but the two are not linked. (They probably could be without too much difficulty, but one senses that Lech would not like the hoards from St Anton rushing directly onto its slopes.) Nevertheless, it is probably worth taking at least one day of a week's holiday to ski St Anton's slopes. A postbus service will take you there (the journey time is 40 minutes) or to the nearer village of Stuben, whose lifts link into St Anton.