You would think that an Austrian ski resort with Olympic heritage close to a major city, plus a high elevation base, a lift ticket under €40 & superb north-facing terrain would be overrun with skiers all season long. But we have found that is simply not the case when it comes to Axamer Lizum near Innsbruck. As the photos show, Axamer was deserted & the snow was deep. Powderhounds pleasure!

Whilst it is let down by some ancient & slow lifts, we had a sensational few days riding deep powder at Axamer in early March with the entire mountain to ourselves. Perfectly groomed piste trails, off-piste freeride variety above & below the tree line plus the excellent mountain huts & summit restaurant (the extraordinary Hoadlhaus) all conspired to provide an awesome ski experience. 

We stayed in Innsbruck, but if had the opportunity again, would have stayed a night on the mountain in one of the ski-in ski-out hotels in the base area. The village of Goetzens is an option too. Taking the public bus up to the resort, it is possible to ski 6km of piste trails on 1100m vertical all the way down to the valley via the Birgitzköpfl. Gotta love a good European valley trail!

Axamer Lizum highlights a major reason to ski Austria. So much choice & so few skiers during the week, & when the sun is not out! Timing might be everything in skiing, but good management beats good luck every time. So, if you are driving down the motorway heading to the skiing behemoths of St Anton, Ischgl or Soelden on a powder day during the week, stop, reverse & head up to Axamer Lizum instead. Your bank balance & sanity wont be disappointed & the ski experience will be fantastic. Best avoided on a sunny weekend though when the Innsbruck locals all come out to play!

See our video here

Briefly visited the medium sized resort of Axamer Lizum on a weekend, so it was unfortunately quite busy. However, its high elevation base meant the snow was sensational and all the off piste routes including off the backside looking across to Oberperfuss were open and looked great.

Overall has some excellent ski in / ski out accommodation, very good intermediate piste trails, some interesting off piste and glorious views from the upper mountain dining areas.

We look forward to coming back next season and skiing it fully .................... on a weekday!
See our video here

When we visited Axamer Lizum there had been a fresh dump of 20cms of powder overnight, the skies were bright blue, and it was very crisp – probably about -25 degrees Celsius. The conditions were absolutely perfect and the powder was exquisitely dry. The only problem was that there was an almost non-existent base. There were fresh tracks galore to tease us, but we didn’t have “rock-hoppers” to make the most of the many many sharks lurking just below the surface.

And even though there was beautiful powder on the sides of the piste, the groomed runs were horribly icy.

Due to the inadequate snow base, the main black piste was closed, but it was enjoyable to head up the chair lift to the little mountain hut and enjoy the gorgeous views (and then download). Whilst the area is renowned for relatively low snowfalls, the presence of many avalanche fences seemed to suggest that this isn’t always the case.

Even if we had struck gold with the snow, the one day trip would probably have sufficed. Like the other Innsbruck ski resorts, Axamer Lizum is not a large resort so there’s only enough terrain to warrant a visit for a day, or perhaps two at the most.

The tram lift was pretty cool but unfortunately the other lifts were painfully slow.
See our video here