You can get lucky if you try to catch the last of the ski season. It's a risk, of course, and you might end up with no snow atall, but if my visit to Gastein at the very tail end of the snow is anything to go by, you can get the best of all possible worlds. Of course, you had to go high to find it, but late season also means you're also likely to be blessed with gorgeous weather throughout. At the end of this season, there were more than enough snow-covered slopes on which to tire out my muscles. My guide, Helmut, not only drove me hard my first morning introducing me to all the runs on the upper slopes of the Schlossalm ski area, but when we paused briefly for a hot chocolate, he was also a mine of information about skiing throughout the Gastein valley. I was staying at the Hotel Bismarck at Bad Hofgastein. Otto von Bismarck, who stayed in Bad Gastein, may have beenknown as the 'Iron Chancellor' but there was nothing steely about the warm family atmosphere of the h