Styria (Steiermark) Ski Resorts Austria

The Austrian state of Styria (or Steiermark in the local language) has numerous ski resorts worthy of interest to any powder seeker and piste lover. Easy to get from neighbouring Salzburgerland, Styria is a state of contrasts from the mountainous west to the lowlands in the east around the capital Graz. Of the over 70 ski areas with lifts in the Steiermark, only a couple of handfuls are worthy of note to powder hounds, but that is still enough to make us want to ski them all.

Styria Skiing & Snowboarding

When one thinks of skiing in Styria, three places immediately come to mind:

• The magnificent race-quality pistes of Schladming. A stellar combination of the four mountains (all actually separately run ski resorts!), it includes Haiser Kaibling (where we regard the best skiing is in Styria), Planai (the main mountain rising up above the town of Schladming), lovely, rural Hochwurzen, and finally the modern lifts of Rieteralm. A bonus here is each can be reached by train. We love that.
• The high alpine ski-touring & freeride descents of Dachstein Glacier. The highest point in Styria is in the north-west of the state on the Dachstein peak (2,995m) above the ever-diminishing glacier. And whilst most ski lift assisted skiing on piste is no longer available there, the cable car does provide stellar access to several big freeride routes & excellent ski-touring, including all the way across to Krippenstein.
• The weird snow magnet that is Tauplitz. We say weird, because it somewhat. Private road access, a strange upper mountain plateau, the 'skibus' getting towed around by a John Deere tractor smelling of bovines etc just make it feel unlike most other ski resorts. What's not weird is the serious upper mountain snow-depths that accumulate most winters. To ski here on a powder day is allegedly epic, but it’s also weird that there are so few photos & videos of such! Tauplitz can be reached by train too, which is fantastic to help save our planet.

But it also way more than just those. A plethora of smaller, but still fantastic ski resorts abound in the Steiermark. Places you have probably never heard of but perhaps should. Planneralm, Riesneralm, Galsterberg, Turracher Höhe (down on the border with Carinthia), Lachtal, and who could forget the ski resort called Loser (it is anything but!), perched dramatically high above Altaussee. And where else in the world could a place like Kreischberg ski resort exist, with its modern gondolas & 6-seat chairlifts to go with its 1,250m of skiable vertical, and most skiers don't know about it. You can even go there by train to the valley station of the main gondola! Gobsmacking stuff. Styria Austria deserves some exploration.

Review & More Info

The Powderhounds have skied less than handful of resorts in Styria, and probably need to add a few more, particularly ones that appear to qualify as 'secret stashes'. More information about skiing in this Austrian state will come after our next visit. Check out the reviews of the ones we have already visited via the resort links above.

See how the Austrian ski areas compare on the Austria ski resort ratings page, or compare to the rest of Europe on the European ski resort ratings page.

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If you have a question about skiing & snowboarding in Styria or elsewhere in Europe, CONTACT US.