Getting there
I travelled with Topflight, recently voted Ireland's best ski tour operator for the 20th consecutive year. Call 01 2401 700 in the Republic or 028 9752 1168 in Northern Ireland, see your travel agent or visit www.topflight.ie for deals to Austria, France, Andorra, and Italy.
St Johann in Tirol In St Johann, a great resort for beginners, intermediates and families, I stayed at the nicely restored three-star Post Hotel in the baroque pedestrian town centre. The town is great for shopping, with some good bars and restaurants and a well-equipped sports centre which is free if you stay at the Post Hotel.
Up the mountain, the Angerer Alm doesn't do dinner in the winter, but it's highly recommended for lunch. www.angereralm.at/en/
At the end of the day, most skiers end up in Max's Bar, usually into the small hours.
Prices start at €608 for one week in the Hotel Post, including flights from Dublin, Cork or Belfast, transfers, accommodation and full luggage allowance.
Westendorf Westendorf is part of the Ski Welt, Austria's largest interconnected ski area, with over 279kms of piste. I stayed at the good value three-star Hotel Post in Westendorf, with ski hire, ski school and beginner ski area just across the road. For a bit more luxury just around the corner, the four-star Hotel Jakobwirt started life 400 years ago as a farmhouse with a single room for travellers. Still in the same family today, it's as stylish, elegant and charming as owner Annemarie Ziepl, whose recommendations for exquisite fillet of trout and venison stew with pear and cranberry were spot on. www.jakobwirt.at/en Prices for the Hotel Post start at e670 and for the Hotel Jakobwirt e940.
Up the mountain, try a lunchtime stop-off at the top of the Hohe Salve, and check out the view from the loo! The Kuhstadl, a former cowshed at the bottom of the slopes above Westendorf, is a cosy spot to end the day's skiing.
Soll Soll is part of the Ski Welt, with great skiing and mountain huts, and something extra in the form of night skiing and two toboggan runs.
PS: No marmots were harmed in the writing of this story. The tourist board story is true, but I didn't really find any sticking out of the snow.