We could see the little yellow Rendl Bahn gondolas from our room. The lifts open at 8:45 a.m. and close at 4:30 p.m. and everything runs like clockwork. The Rendl Bahn will be replaced after 35 years of service during winter 2009/2010 with new high-speed 8-seater cabins that will whisk up to 2,000 persons per hour up the mountain. Rendl was today’s destination and we actually managed to catch the Line #3 bus to Terminal West and then hopped on Line #1 bus that shuttles back and forth every 10 minutes to the Rendl lift.

Our gondola held a ski instructor from Zurs and his class, two little boys from Melbourne, Australia. He was planning to ski off-piste (untracked, ungroomed and not supervised by the Ski Patrol) with them, down to Pettnau, and then taxi back to Zurs. Those little boys couldn’t have been much more than 12 years old and have to be pretty darn good skiers for the route they were going to take. The Rendl area is going to be developed more extensively and it was easy to see why. Wide expanses as far as you could see with blue and red trails. If you manage to get to the top of the Riffel II Chair Lift, there is a climbing route secured with steel cable up the Vordere Rendlspitze!

These little gondolas pass over some very scary, non-skiable terrain with good drops at one section. ex-Marine just closed his eyes and prayed. You’d never think that this man was a Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine), climbed telephone poles and jumped out of an airplane into the China Sea! Ah well…we all have our own little foibles…

little Yellow Rendl Gondolas in St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria 

the Galzig Bahn on the either side of the valley in St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria
Extensive views up and down both directions of the valley with the Galzig Bahn on the other side and even the chair lift that starts at the bottom of St. Christoph. Abundant sunshine and there hasn’t been one cloud in the sky this entire trip.

Jackets off, snowshoes on, started off down one blue, turned back up at the bottom of that and continued upwards on another blue before turning around again to the top of the Rendl lift. A duo singing (pretty good), people eating lunch, drinking beer and renting deck chairs to sit in the sun. It costs 5.70 Euro to use a deck chair for the day…View image….

a few beers, coffee, little schnaps on the Rendl in St. Anton am Arlberg
It was beyond gorgeous. The sun was dazzling, lot of time to people watch, listen to music, ski, snowshoe, sit in the sun and enjoy the “hills are alive…” I dearly love the “Sunshine Passes.” No more wearing lift tickets around your neck. The cards can be kept inside a jacket or sleeve pocket. Just lift your arm (or turn your body) when approaching a lift or gondola sensor and it automatically read the chips and operates the turnstiles. Isn’t technology wonderful?

Lonely Planet Shop