Half-dazzled by spring sunshine, I’m standing halfway down a ski slope, the snow-choked ridges of western Austria’s Radstädter Tauern forming a sparkling, sawtoothed horizon. Downhill, a crowd of 100 or so lines an eight-metre-long pool of water in the snow. Among their drinking, dancing, whooping ranks are many who have already nailed this, my first-ever “pond skim”, on skis and snowboards – one dressed as Vegas-era Elvis, one as a plus-size sumo ballerina, another, mullet-wigged, in a black-tie/mankini hybrid he calls his “tuxspeedo”. And, as the DJ drops a funky groove and another champagne cork soars skywards, it’s my turn.
These frisky twentysomething carousers have formed my ready-made ski posse since I arrived five days ago in Obertauern, the small Salzburgerland resort made briefly famous when the Beatles shot scenes for the movie Help! here in 1965. We are all sharing three adjacent apartment buildings on the edge of town and have had our way with the valley’s decent 70 miles of runs. Following the week’s one big dump, we’ve chased powder around its abundance of underexploited off-piste terrain and kicked off skis and boards at 2,000 metres to take chillout-soundtracked yoga classes in our thermals in a heated inflatable pod. We’ve strapped on snowshoes and climbed into hushed darkness above the town’s nighttime lights, and after 45 minutes discovered a cute lounge sculpted from snow, complete with cosy banquettes, sound system, flasks of brandy and hot chocolate chasers.
And we’ve partied. A lot.
For this is The Ski Week (TSW), a travelling mini-festival that first made tracks here three winters ago. It’s the cub of an older event, The Yacht Week, brainchild of a bunch of young, London-based Swedish friends, which in its 11 seasons has grown meteorically, now setting sail 39 times a year. The event built up a highly loyal network of guests that cried out for a winter counterpart.
Today, TSW touches down in four destinations across three continents: in 2017 two Ski Weeks will be held here in Obertauern again, as well as in Aspen, Chamonix, and Niseko, Japan.
Drawing on its sister event’s global reach, it brings together nationalities to a degree that’s rare in snowsports holidays. To date, the weeks have convened young skiers and snowboarders – average age 28 – from more than 30 countries.
TSW is run through a smartphone app, so events can be switched at short notice to suit weather conditions. The app doubles as a private network for each week’s guests to connect, flirt and selfie-swap. It also shares The Yacht Week’s wildly photogenic aesthetic, which is captured exhaustively by professional photographers and drone-borne GoPros, then packaged perfectly for social media, so that everyone goes home with copious evidence they were at the heart of the insta-glam action.
It’s an evolving concept, with each week tailored to the strengths of its host destination. In the Alps’ gnarly adventure capital Chamonix, for example, off-piste guiding is added to the standard TSW package of accommodation and events, while the itinerary for Niseko includes an encounter with wild snow monkeys and a 24-hour stopover in Tokyo, complete with pod hotel stay and karaoke parties.
And while most of TSW guests are intermediate skiers and snowboarders looking for just enough runs to round out a hedonistic social schedule, more adventurous trips are on offer for the more intrepid, such as the Norwegian ski-and-sail backcountry catamaran safari for just 11 guests, which joined the roster this year.
This being Austria, Bacchanalian après ski is very much centre stage. Days dissolve into boozy shenanigans at one or other of the resort’s après venues, while a guided mountain bar crawl lasts one full afternoon, culminating in a raucous ski-boot dancing session in the admirably accommodating Kringsalm restaurant. There’s a neon-bright retro party, a hipflask-fuelled night-skiing session and, on the final day, the hosts carve out a champagne-lined dancefloor just off one of the main pistes where TSW’s team of DJs dish up the bass-heavy bangers as the sun slides south.
And it’s in party mode that the guests reveal another TSW trademark. These people work so many fancy-dress outfits they must pack like Kylie does for a world tour. There’s the group of Hawaiian airlines pilots in unicorn-printed spandex leggings and “Blackout Crew” team sweatshirts. There’s the posse of foxy New York financiers who peel off their skiwear to reveal matching leopard print catsuits and ears. Slightly creepy emoji masks, lairy 1970s fashions, plush animal onesies and light-up shades grace every party, and a special mention goes to the man whose ski pants feature a built-in leprechaun who appears to carry him all over the mountain.
Undressing is also a theme, at least among many of the shamingly buff American men. Give one of these jocks a drink or two and he’d soon be table-dancing to Austro-pop, an R’n’B and house set, or the live brass ensemble treating a sun terrace crowd to oompah classics. The desire to strip off is even more in evidence at the closing night’s Oktoberfest-themed party, when every guest is head-to-toe in traditional Austrian wear (a rail of hire costumes is provided). My final, blurry memory of the trip is of shirtless alphas in snug suede harnesses competing to be pull-ups champion on rafters groaning with kitsch alpine paraphernalia and a huge stuffed bear.
As for my pond skim debut, two words. Glug. And glug.
Way to go
The Ski Week (theskiweek.com) costs from €990pp, including accommodation and entry to all events. Chamonix and Aspen trips also offer a long-weekend option, starting at €630. TSWs run from January to April; Obertauern 2017 dates are 18-25 March and 25 March-1 April
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