In mid Jan...?
Conditions?
Opinions?
Thanks,
The Colonel

Colonel, I've skied it, but it was January, 1996.

It's nothing special as Austria goes, and I don't plan to ski it again. As is the case with most Austrian ski areas, in bad snow years they don't do a good job of making snow (at least they didn't in 1996). I've skied Kitzbuhel trails that it seems were 1/3 green and brown. Stuff that would never be open in the states. Zell am See was no different. There's nothing like a last run of the day, near dark, where you can see sparks flying off your own skis.

They one thing it does offer is some huge vertical. You can take a funicular (sp?) to the top of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier for 7500 feet of vert -- but only if there's enough snow to ski all the way to the bottom. The glacier itself is a very pale green - pretty flat stuff. The funicular was the scene of a horrific accident maybe a decade ago -- while inside a mountain tunnel the thing caught fire and lots of people were killed.

If I were doing Austria, I'd either head further east to Badgastein or west to Salbach Hinterglem, or if it's a good snow year Kitzbuhel. I've never done the Austrian areas in the far western part of the country, St. Anton, et all, so I have nothing to share about them

If you're interested in glacier skiing there's always Hintertux, home of Austria's highest peak. It's uphill of Mayerhofen (approx 40 km south east of Innsbruck). Take the Gletcherbus gondola to the bottom of the glacier - and then various other lifts further up the glacier. Hintertux's glacier has much more steepness than the one at Zell am See. The gondola ride itself is pretty dramatic. Beware of fog though. Hintertux is renowned for it. There's always Solden for glacier skiing, too. It's southwest of Innsbruck. I've never skied Solden.

Then again as I said earlier, whenever I head to Europe nowadays, I head straight to the Dolomites.

Yes, many times but it's been long enough I couldn't tell you about conditions. Conditions in so much of Europe are so variable these days anyway...

But I have great memories of Zell Am Zee. In terms of bad memories, I knew a father and son who burned to death in that accident (fire in the tunnel).

I'm a fan of the Dolomites (Cortina, Arabba), but for conditions, your best bet is probably the high elevations of France (Val d'Isere or Val Thorens would work).