Austria's Top Skiing Destinations
Ischgl
Big ski area. Small town. Surprisingly small considering that Ischgl, after a
late start as a significant ski area (its first cable-car was only constructed
in 1963, bringing prosperity to a struggling community) is now as popular with
the Austrians as St Anton and Kitzbühel.
The reason it has not sprawled farther along the Paznaun valley is simple: the
avalanche danger is too great.
The result is that Ischgl, in spite of its growing international reputation,
remains unspoiled.
The ski area, 125 miles of pistes served by 40 lifts, links with the duty-free
village of Samnaum in Switzerland, and there is a long history of smuggling
celebrated brazenly today with the "Smugglers Cup" event in which
participants are handed a "secret" package to smuggle past customs
officials.
The slopes, set in strikingly attractive scenery, are in the so-called "Silvretta
Hole", which normally guarantees good snow.
The skiing area - mainly long, swooping, wellgroomed motorway runs provides
superb intermediate terrain but also plenty for beginners and experts.
Unfortunately all this can be marred by serious queuing at peak times.
Hemmgway was a regular visitor in the mid-1920s.
Kitzbühel
Kitzbühel is a perplexing resort that is raved about by its fans but can
also be slandered by its critics.
With its medieval walled centre, pastel wash façades, cobbled streets, frescoes
and decorative archways, "Kitz" is perhaps the most attractive of the
more substantial Austrian resorts.
And with three distinct ski areas, plus the most feared World Cup downhill in
the world, the Streif on the Hahnenkamm, it would seem to have a strong suit of
skiing possibilities.
And yet one great descent does not make a world-class ski resort (although few
would deny that it is one).
Kitzbühel's detractors are quick to point out its flaws: lack of height (the
town is at only 2,625ft), fairly bland skiing, serious lift queue problems; and
rowdy visitors who make the most of Kitzbühel's 25 bars, pubs and discos.
This year - not for the first time - Kitzbühel was hit by a combination of low
altitude and a hot March. Yet in other years it has often got away with a better
snow record than its lowly altitude would promise.
Although the various different areas are fairly widely spread, the bus service
linking them is efficient and many skiers quite like the opportunity of trying a
different area or approach route every other day or so.
Lech / Zürs
"Top class elsewhere means nothing here." This somewhat conceited
boast of the Arlberg ski schools of Lech, Zürs and St Anton might also apply to
the self-perceived grandeur of Lech's clientele.
So what is so special about Lech, that this remote impoverished hamlet, cut off
during the winter, now attracts Europe's royalty and so many millionaire skiers?
The ski area, which with that of neighbouring Zürs provides an enjoyable and
moderately challenging clockwise-only circuit, is good without being
exceptional, although a guide will find you some excellent off-piste,
particularly from the Rufikopf.
Lech has the mighty slopes of St Anton, which its snootier clients find a double
edged sword, on its doorstep. Zürs, although much the more recent of the two, has some history of its own: it
was the location of Austria's first "cable-operated hoist for ski
users" - draglift, in other words.
The Zürs slopes are higher and entirely above the treeline. Lech's tend to be
more wooded and gentler. All in all, the epitome of a good Austrian skiing
holiday.
Mayrhofen / Hintertux
Sex and snow seem inextricably linked at Mayrhofen, where the resort has
taken to selling itself through innuendo.
Beneath its catchy "lead me into temptation" headline in the resort
literature
we see both a map of the extensive ski areas, plus a back-view of a topless
skier sunning herself on a mountain top.
Like Zermatt, Mayrhofen has become a victim of its own success, and has all but
lost its original charm, in spite of its beautiful setting in the Zillertal.
Yet it remains an excellent ski resort. In spite of its low altitude (the
village is barely 2,000ft), the ski slopes are much higher. There are three
different areas (Ahorn Penken and Horberg/ Gerentj with slopes as high as
7,380ftm and almost 62 miles of groomed runs. Queuing can still be a serious
problem but a big investment in new snow-cannon at Penken and Hornberg started
to pay off as soon as they were switched on last winter.
However, even in the worst of snow years there is always the glacier at
Hintertux, which also provides some of the best summer skiing in Europe which
many of the national skiing teams take full advantage of.
Montafon Valley
Gargellen is "ideal for ski tours". True. It is right on the Swiss
border and a highlight for skiers is the Madrisa tour to or from Klosters.
For some reason (mainly a lack of sufficient beds), very few British tour
operators pay much attention to this beautiful valley in the Vorarlberg.
The valley is dotted with substantial ski resorts that all sound vaguely
similar: Gaschurn, St Gallenkirch and Gortipohl are linked and market themselves
as the Silvretta Nova (the mountain range dominating the valley) while Gargellen,
Schruns and Tschagguns tend to go it alone. But the whole region is available on
a joint lift pass, and linked by a free ski-bus service.
Altogether the region has more than 100 miles of groomed runs served by almost
80 lifts, not counting the Madrisa tour or the heliskiing areas, which makes it
one of Austria's biggest skiing regions.
Obergurgl / Sölden
These high-altitude resorts are not quite linked but close to one another and
comprise the heart of the Ötztal region, one of Austria's biggest year-round
tourist attractions.
Obergurgl is a classic British enclave (as many as a fifth of its regular
clients are British) with perhaps ahmost as many faithful returnees as the Swiss
resort of Wengen, with which it shares something else in common: a lot of
intermediate cruising with little in the way of serious challenges. Perhaps this
is the attraction!
One run that can be a little daunting with poor or icy snow cover is the Hohe
Mut at almost 9,000ft, served by an ancient single chair (the restaurant at the
top is usually uncrowded and there are magnificent views) but in good snow there
is a hugely enjoyable off-piste run off the back.
With Hochgurgl, its close neighbour, Obergurgl is the highest ski village in
Austria. In Europe, only Val Thorens in France's Trois Vallées is higher.
Sölden, linked with Obergurgl by post-bus, is a very different prospect: much
busier, noisier and with a more international flavour. Like Obergurgl, it has a
separate "hoch" village but the skiing, which is mainly intermediate
is properly linked.
The resort has considerable snow-making, but in the event of a serious lack of
snow its trump card is the glacier skiing at Rettenbach and Tiefenbach.
Saalbach / Hinterglemm
For many British skiers, Saalbach-Hinterglemm was not just the first place
where the slopes made them grin from ear-to-ear but the resort where the grin
sometimes lasted all week.
With a ski-circuit of 125 miles (skiable in both directions) linking the two
villages and both sides of the valley, the area is a genuine intermediates'
paradise. Even good beginners can manage easier versions of the ski-circuit but
there is also some quite challenging terrain (particularly on the Zwölferkogel)
and some good off-piste, for strong skiers.
With no fewer than eight ski schools, 30 four-star hotels and 65 restaurants,
the resort has plenty of variety by day and by night: but it is not cheap. With
tea-dances (sometimes the participants are still wearing their ski boots) and
discos aplenty, Saalbach-Hinterglemm can also be something of a circus by night.
Little of the original rustic ambience remains, and the two villages are
effectively one and the same.
St Anton
St Anton may not be quite as pretty as Kitzbühel, its main rival, but it
wins hands down on its skiing, especially for the type of skier who likes a
thigh-punishing, challenging day coupled with sublime scenery.
At busy times, lift queues can still be a problem, but one has to adjust to the
fact that the sort of queue that once made you groan when spotted from afar can
melt away in three or four minutes when it is assembled at the entrance to a
highspeed quad chair.
Hence the recently installed Zammermoos quad makes mincemeat of liftlines that
used to clog up this vital artery to St Anton's prime skiing on the Valluga Grat
and send you in retreat to ski Kapall instead.
Apart from the Valluga where everyone regarding themselves as good skiers wants
to be - there is a huge network of cruising runs (160 miles of groomed runs in
the St Anton/Arlberg region, plus almost as much off-piste).
Do not miss the long run down to the delightful village of Stuben, and be sure
to visit St Christoph (but not via the Arlenmähder!). Lech and Zürs are
available on the same lift ticket, but you must get there by road unless you
want to pay for a guide and ski one of the steepest and toughest runs in Austria
off the back of the Valluga down to Zürs!
Söll
Snooty skiers tend to dismiss - and bypass - Söll as a mass-market ski
circus, yet the skiing is probably as good as that of Lech and Zürs where many
snooty skiers ski.
The best aspect of Söll's skiing is the joy (snow conditions permitting) of
being able to ski the whole of the Ski-Welt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental region.
You can ski from one resort to another, taking in Hopfgarten, Brixen, Going,
Ellmau, Scheffau and Itter. The tour, never particularly difficult, can eastly
be accomplished in a day, and can be most rewarding for early intermediates who
have never enjoyed the novelty of travelling from one village to another on
skis. Faster skiers can take their pick from 90 lifts and more than 150 miles of
pistes. Söll, with a much-improved flow of skiers to its middle-station since the
installation of a modern gondola, has a considerable amount of good intermediate
runs, and there are some challenging offpiste descents from the top of the Hohe
Salve (7,000ft).
