Resorts Visited on the Tour
The itinerary is flexible so you can ride at the best resort on the day. Your base for this tour is the city of Innsbruck, which gives us easy access to over 14 resorts in the region including:
Kitzbühel
Situated in the north east of the Tyrol region, Kitzbühel is one of the best-known resorts in Europe. It’s actually made up of five different villages. The place is gigantic, and you certainly get what you pay for with seemingly limitless options (and a good chance of the sun shining somewhere on any given day). Lifts are fast and comfortable, keeping the queues down and your shred time up. On a powder day, you don’t have to go to far – in Aschau, for example, there’s a 1200m vertical descent right next to the piste. The absolute must-do runs, though, are found at the Kitzbühler Horn and Pass Thurn areas. The Horn has gullies, cliffs and steep faces for the adventurous, as well as expansive powder fields with lots of little jibs and jumps. Meanwhile, Pass Thurn offers seemingly endless tree runs, making it the ideal choice for a bad-vis day. Off the 2000er lift you will find what amounts to a natural snowpark, a veritable powder playground with epic terrain and loads of tree and rock jibs. There are also some steeps and wider bowls, accessible with just a short hike.
Ischgl
The massive resort of Ischgl makes plenty of headlines with its opening and closing parties, and its après ski has gained a deserved reputation for going off. But that shouldn’t detract from the fact that above all, this is a seriously good mountain. Huge investment has left it with one of the best lift systems in the Alps, providing access to its vast 238km of pistes, which stretch all the way into the Swiss duty free village of Samnaun. It is located in West Austria in the Paznanun valley, which is not too far from its similarly party-mad cousin St.Anton. Almost everything in Ischgl is above 2000m. With such a massive area, there are plenty of opportunities for powder lovers. The Idalp and Alp Trida bowls have plenty of easily visible pow-fields between the pistes. Heading to the Palinkopf and Pardatschgrat gives you access to some steeper stuff. There are 20km of established ski-routes in avalanche controlled zones, so you’ll be rewarded with a massive long run. Ischgl really shines on the piste front, with masses of largely high-altitude pistes. Apart from a few runs back down to the villages you won’t find any narrow cat-tracks and equally, there is a lack of flat sections in the bulk of the area. What you will find is a vast number of wide intermediate pistes, groomed to perfection every morning. The steepest runs can be found off the Palinkopf and the Greistspitze peaks, and the 14a piste is the one to head for to test yourself on a slope that can hit 70 degrees in places! These are also the starting points for the longest runs back down to both Ischgl and Samnaun.
St Anton
Wonderful St Anton has a well-deserved reputation as a play hard, party harder kind of place. There’s plenty of amazing steep faces and powder to hunt out and plenty of après ski bars to quench your thirst at. The word is out on the great freeriding to be had here, so follow your guides and they will be sure to show you loads of great terrain. This area is amazing with tight and open trees, and relatively crowd-free slopes. In St Anton the variety of pistes is fantastic; from the steep and fast runs down from the Valluga to the gentle runs off the Gampen and Galzig.
Nordkette
The closest resort to Innsbruck that is accessed direct from town via a new cablecar. Besides the world-renowned Nordkette Skyline Park and 6 runs of varying difficulty, the Nordkette offers numerous freeride possibilities. One of the absolute highlights is the Hafelekar Run; The Hafelekar Run is one of the steepest ski runs in Europe. With an incline of 70%, this ski run is reserved for extremely good riders. One of the other great features of Nordkette is the apres. Don’t miss out a schnapps drinking session at the Cloud 9 Igloo bar.
Axamer Lizum
It may not be the biggest of resorts, nor is it the chosen resort for most tourists, but Axamer Lizum is a full-on, no-nonsense, natural freeride snowboarder’s paradise. The resort has everything you could possible ask for and although not extensive, the terrain in places is as natural as it gets with top-to-bottom riding when snow permits. Having twice hosted Olympic disciplines, the runs are obviously of a decent standard, with something to suit all. Freeriders and freestylers are going to get the best out of the slopes, with loads of great hits, big banks, and gullies that form natural pipes to drop in and out of and tight trees to weave through. The atmosphere on the slopes is really cool, and on certain days snowboarders actually out-number skiers.
Stubai Glacier
Access to the Stubai Glacier slopes involves a beautiful 20min cable car ride, but once up, you’re presented with a great selection of runs. You’ll love this place; there's plenty of nice wide, well maintained pistes available. The management take great care in preparing the slopes; they don’t just piste-bash at night, but throughout the day also, so there's plenty of opportunity to cut the corduroy. During winter they have a traffic lighted carving run, where you can fly down guaranteeing that no ones gonna cut in front of you. Intermediate freeriders will also find an abundance of trails to ride. If you’re looking for some freestyle terrain, the legendary Stubai Zoo is great for a few laps and when in full swing offers 3 lines with almost 20 features.
Ötztal – Sölden, Obergurgl-Hochgurgl
Located about an hours drive from Innsbruck is the Ötztal Valley and the resorts of Sölden, Obergurgl-Hochgurgl. Not many resorts can boast three mountain peaks over 3,000m and two glaciers, so Solden is definitely snowsure. The terrain here is great for intermediate riders, so it’s a great place to kick off our tour and warm up. We’ll aim to ride at Sölden where he 148km of pistes are spread over a vast area, and good conditions can always be found. First lift queues can be pretty long, but once you’re up the mountain, people get spread-out nicely and you won’t be waiting for a lift. Most pistes are above 2000m and the vast majority are wide cruisers. There’s also lots of easy to access powder spots not far from the piste, so it’s a good option to get used to riding in Austria.
Other Ski Resorts
Other ski resorts accessible from Innsbruck that may be included on the tour depending on weather & snow conditions include Hintertux Glacier,
Hochoetz, Kaunertal Glacier, Kuhtai,
Mayrhofen & Oberperfuss, to name a few.
