World Alpine Skiing Championships: the finish line at Schladming, Austria What's more, although the lift pass price is fairly standard for Austria, at €218 (£185) per week, prices up the mountain are low: soup costs around €3 (£2.50), a Wiener schnitzel as little as €9.50 (£8) and a glass of wine €2 (£1.70). The town, with 4,500 year-round inhabitants, an attractive main square and an ancient stone gate, has good-value, everyday shops, from Billa (a bit like Tesco), Bipa (Superdrug) and C & A Kids, to Schuhe Weitgasser (with a huge variety of snow boots) and L & M Mode und Tracht or Steiner 1888 (for the chance to try on a dirndl). Places to eat include sausage stands, a Chinese, a Mexican and numerous Austrian restaurants. Even the swisher options are amazing value: the Tischlerei, for instance, has a two-course set lunch for less than a tenner. My exploration of the slopes, as a first-timer, began with Planai. Morning mist enveloped the town, but up top I found intense blue sky, fresh snow blanketing the trees and a slope-side thermometer reading -8C (17.6F). Finding the race courses was easy, as the starts were proudly marked with yellow-and-green boards displaying statistics such as maximum gradient (72 per cent, in the case of the men's downhill, which is even steeper at the start than the finish). It took me five minutes to ski the men's course (it takes them closer to two); my legs were burning before I even reached the black lower section, and I felt the red stretches were fairly stiff, following the contours of the mountain pretty much down the fall line. The women's course was considerably gentler. Most of my fellow skiers were intermediate to advanced cruisers, 90 per cent using piste skis: there's limited off-piste, much of it above the tree line, and most runs are cut through forest, giving a North American feel. And as in North America, the people in charge have gone to great lengths to make the hill fun and welcoming. We came across a ski-in, ski-out shelter housing a jukebox, on which you choose a song then wedel to the beat past a dozen speakers. We found an adventure playground, with slides and bridges; several "speed traps"; a "beach," optimistically featuring sunloungers and a poster of Thailand; rows of giant cut-outs of race-winners; and cheesy posters showing semi-clothed Adam and Eve characters and the slogan "Welcome to Paradise." Best of all, we found the "Sky Toilet," a set of superior if slightly alarming lavatories, at the top of the Burgstallalmlift and Märchenwiesebahn , each with one wall entirely of glass - blacked out from outside - and glossy, mountain-scene wallpaper everywhere else. Even if you linger in these loos-with-a-view, it is possible to ski Schladming's four linked mountains in one day. The base stations at each end are 10 miles apart, and the area, which has 80 miles of pistes, feels much larger than the lift map indicates, so skiers who like to feel they have travelled will find a four-mountain day satisfying. I don't, so I opted to ski one mountain at a time. After a day on Planai, I went to next-door Hochwurzen, taking the free bus (20 minutes, every half-hour) to the lifts above the village of Rohrmoos, which is marginally faster than using the link lifts. Around Rohrmoos - the best base for families - are meadows that serve as exceptionally scenic nursery slopes. Up higher, using lifts with names such as Sun-Jet, Fun-Jet and Basic-Jet, I explored a mountain with slopes that open at night, six days a week, for skiers and tobogganers to play on under floodlights. The only downside was the five-car, standing-space-only gondola, the only lift in the area - apart from a drag lift or two - in which you can't sit down. Next up was Hauser Kaibling, smoothly linked to Planai and the venue for the warm-up runs during the World Championships. It's owned by three families, including that of the Eighties downhill star Helmut Höflehner, who twice won the World Cup series and has had two chairlifts named after him, Höfi Express I and II. More cruisy runs awaited, but also reasonable off-piste and a marked ski route from the highest point in the area. My favourite, though, was Reiteralm, which has 50 private owners, most of them farmers or hoteliers. After taking the bus to Hochwurzen and skiing across, we found easily the quietest slopes. The mountain has a rustic feel: we passed corrals of fluffy, winter-coated ponies (on Hochwurzen we had found a stableful of goats), and there are several places to stay up the mountain, such as Almdorf Austria, with 13 cute, self-catering chalets, a hotel and a restaurant. Common to all four mountains were lovely views of the Dachstein massif, which rises to almost 3,000m, and, beneath it, the Ramsau plateau, which is criss-crossed by cross-country skiing trails. There's a cable car to the Dachstein glacier, which has limited downhill skiing, extensive cross-country skiing, a freestyle park, a "sky walk" and an ice palace. It also has the area's best off-piste run, an unmarked 12-mile descent to Ramsau, starting with a tunnel that closes when there's avalanche danger. There's also a gentle, 15-mile route called the Dachstein crossing, which ends in neighbouring Upper Austria; you catch a bus back (90 minutes). It's a popular outing for local families; the best bet for visitors is to go with a ski-school group. Common, too, to the four mountains was a great choice of restaurants and huts - there are 13 on Planai alone - with tasty, good-value meals served speedily by cheerful, lederhosen or dirndl-clad waiting staff. No matter that the menu was broadly the same everywhere - how can you go wrong with tiroler gröstl (a fragrant potato and meat concoction), spinatknödel (spinach dumplings) or kasnock'n (cheesy rustic pasta), also know n as käsespätzle. On Planai, at the Schafalm (see Basics), I had baked Camembert with cranberry sauce and salad (€9.10/£7.70). At the Hochwurzenalm, with a central stove, the "nails game" and a tune from a skier who carried a mini-trombone in his rucksack, I had consomm é with cheese dumpling (€3.50/£3). At the Eiskarhütte I had spaghetti bolognese (€7.50/£6.30) and half a germknödel, a ball of stodge swimming in melted butter and scattered with ground poppy seeds and icing sugar (€5/£4.20). Unlike in many resorts, tap water is available in mountain restaurants, either free or for €0.50 (40p). So who were the people enjoying all this? Well, not the British. We account for two per cent of overnight stays in the district - although the figure is rising slightly, in keeping with the wider rise in British skiers choosing Austria. We met Austrians (most come from Styria, Upper Austria or Vienna), Germans (it's just over an hour to the border) and Russians (not the same crowd that visits Courchevel and St Moritz). Finally, I had read that après-ski was "not a highlight" in Schladming. But my hour spent in Hohenhaus Tenne, which claims to be Europe's largest après-ski bar, indicated otherwise. In prime position by the finish area, it's a giant and much more appealing version of the Mooserwirt in St Anton, or the Trofana Alm in Ischgl, all rustic wood and exposed stone, with a gallery over the bar and dance floor, and without the Britons (St Anton) or the bling (Ischgl). During my early evening visit, I had a red-wine spritzer (€3/£2.50), watched a salopette-clad crowd dancing to tracks from the Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch to Gangnam Style, and was whisked among them by one of the many expert waltzers - a handsome German 10 years younger than me. Worth a look on the way out are the lavatories, designed like chalets around a copper fountain, and the memorabilia from the 1982 World Championships. I was just sorry to miss the Tenne's two live acts that week, the buxom Antonia aus Tirol, and Jörg & Dragan, "the singing mechanics." Perhaps they will be in there entertaining the racers if they stagger, thighs burning, into the bar after haring over that fearsome finish line. Crystal Ski (0871 231 2256; crystalski.co.uk) is the only major UK operator going to Schladming. A week's half board at the friendly Hotel Stadttor, near the centre, costs from £529 - or Gasthof Kirchenwirt (see Where to eat) from £535, or Sporthotel Royer from £606 - including flights from Gatwick to Salzburg and transfers. Flights from other UK airports available at a supplement. Most hotels have excellent half-board deals; but eating out is so cheap that you win either way. Sporthotel Royer (0043 368 7200; royer.at). A five-minute walk from the Planai gondola and 10 minutes from the town square, a Schladming institution with 130 spacious rooms, many family sized. Facilities include indoor tennis courts (free until 4pm), a squash court, shooting galley, gym, sauna and steam rooms and access to the adjacent public swimming pool and water slide (hotel guests only 7am-9am). Doubles from €208 (£175) per night b & b; half board from €240 (£200); packages from £606 with Crystal (above). Alpenhotel Schwaigerhof (614220; schwaigerhof.at). A quiet, stylish, family-friendly place with an indoor-outdoor pool in Rohrmoos, next to a baby-lift that takes you to the Hochwurzen main lifts. Doubles from €244 (£200) half board. Hotel Planai (23429; hotel-planai.at). Brand new and opposite the Planai gondola, a Scandinavian-style place with an open-plan, light-filled bar and restaurant. Doubles from €114 (£95) b & b or €134 (£112) half board. Kirchenwirt (22435; kirchenwirt-schladming.com). A 300-year-old town house with a painted facade and welcoming interior, which offers Austrian classics such as roast pork with potatoes and salad (€10.80/£9) or venison with red cabbage and dumpling (€15.50/£13). Schafalm (24600; schafalm.at) A large yet cosy mountain restaurant near the top of the Planai gondola, with raucous live music twice a week, a rather doleful ram kept in a pen behind some glass, unbelievably fast service and a menu that features things like chicken stir fry as well as Austrian staples. Soups from €3.40 (£3).