 Poster: A snowHead
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Type of Trip: DIY
Travellers: Two friends and one non skiing dad
Ski Level: Decent all mountain skier and boarder.
Travel:
Plan was to take the train form UK to Innsbruck. Outward journey worked although SNCF changed a train schedule which caused us to miss a connection and added 2 hours to the journey. Return journey was impacted by German rail strikes and we had to book a last minute flight back instead, on the plus side this meant we traveled back a day later and got an extra day on the snow.
Gear:
We took out own gear, I used my Faction prodigy 1.0 skis for the first time and found they really suited me as a all mountain ski.
Accommodation:
Booked an Air BnB serviced apartment in the centre of Innsbruck about 10mins walk in ski boots to the rail station and bus station, similar difference to the Nordkette funicular stop. It was good and pretty cheap for 3 of us not sharing rooms. The plan was to stay in Innsbruck and buy the multiple resort city pass. We would then use busses each day to get to a chosen resort. This worked well but quite hard work because it was an hour or more from our door to the resort (and back) each day. This meant we needed to leave the apartment between 7am and 7:30am each day and got back between 5pm and 6pm.
Weather/Snow
Overall the snow was good. This was helped a lot by using the Innsbruck city ski pass so we could pick and choose the resort each day depending on conditions.
Village (well city really)
Innsbruck is a lovely city with lots of options for non skiers. It being a proper city there are obviously plenty of bars, restaurants, supermarkets etc. We walked to the bus station in the centre of the city with skis and boots, we didn't feel out of place doing it.
Lift system
Nordkette, very close to Innsbruck served by funicular from the city centre and then a cable car, very small with only two slow chair lifts at the top.
Kuhtai, reasonable size resort (10 lifts or so). Lots of chairs (and one gondola) all starting and finishing in high altitude village. Lifts were generally fast and good. Single level resort in that all lifts pretty much start and finish at the same level.
Axamer Lizum, Small resort. Excellent fast main gondola, slow chairs from mid level to access more runs. Chair on opposite side of valley for expert runs was closed when we were there but looked ok.
Schlich 2000, Reasonable size resort. Good older gondolas mixed with some newer chairs, overall pretty good connectivity with lots of options between the mid and top of the resort.
Patscherkofel, Small resort, really top notch central gondola with mid station serving almost all runs some beginner drags we didn't bother with.
Hochoetz, reasonable size resort, an old gondola and a mix of old slow and newer fast chairs. Reasonable connectivity.
Stubai Glacier, Stunning modern lift system with multiple fast gondolas supplemented with modern fast chairs. Some drags right at the top to loop the highest slopes. Really top notch.
Skiing (exact order of days is a bit of a blur so I might have got the oder a bit wrong)
Day 1 - Nordkette, very sunny day with hard pistes. Runs here were steep and ski area was very small. Long red down to cable car was closed so looped the chair lifts on the red runs. Ok but not really enough runs open for a full day.
Day 2 - Kuhtai, cloudy day with a dusting of snow. Runs very firm early on but softened up later. Best skiing was at end of day on black runs under newest lift.
Day 3 - Axamer Lizum, good fresh snow falling on whole mountain first thing. Made the most of it on red runs through the trees (for visibility) until it stopped later and the sun came out. After that looped various runs on good snow.
Day 4 - Schlich 2000, Went to Stubai first but they closed the resort while we were on the first gondola up due to high winds. We had to get two very busy busses back down the valley to Schlich 2000. Weather was warm and mainly sunny and the snow was quite soft. Explored the whole ski area on pistes and found the best runs were higher up at the back of the resort. Run down to the base was fun but very warm and slushy.
Day 5 - Patscherkofel, Heavy snow in the morning at the upper section but raining lower down. Very quiet especially in the morning because I think the rain at the bottom put people off. We had an excellent time on fresh snow looping the upper gondola section for a couple of hours until more people turned up. In the afternoon the snow & rain stopped and I looped the whole gondola top to bottom on the truly superb black/red run which I think might have been used as the downhill in the 1976 olympics (if not it was still one of the best easy black runs I have ever been on)
Day 6 - Hochoetz & Kuhtai, very sunny day, started in Kuhtai on very firm snow and took the bus to Hochoetz and explored most of the ski area in a few hours, all of it was on very hard snow which was not that much fun. Went back to Kuhtai after lunch when the clouds came in and the snow softened up a bit.
Day 7 - Stubai Glacier, Extra day due to German train strike. Really excellent bluebird day on fabulous, well prepared pistes. lift system was fabulous and although it was busy there were very few queues. Too many great runs to list. The best day of the trip.
Food
Self catered with food from the local supermarkets. Ate out on the first Sunday and a couple of other times. Our favourite bar (and eating spot) was Tribaun bar.
Summary
Overall a very good trip, it was great to be able to choose the resort based on the conditions. I also enjoyed trying out so many ski areas and exploring. The only down side was the 2 hours plus traveling each day. The Germain train strike seemed a nightmare at the time but it did get us an excellent extra day at Stubai.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glad you enjoyed yourselves!
I can add a little bit of extra info for other readers:
| Quote: |
Nordkette, very close to Innsbruck served by funicular from the city centre and then a cable car, very small with only two slow chair lifts at the top.
Day 1 - Nordkette, very sunny day with hard pistes. Runs here were steep and ski area was very small. Long red down to cable car was closed so looped the chair lifts on the red runs. Ok but not really enough runs open for a full day. |
Nordkette is south facing so the snow is usually hard or “cooked”. Can be good immediately after a fresh snowfall though. The main attractions are the park (the level of skiing here is insane!) and the couloirs that are accessible from the top of the second gondola. They are steep ski routes though, and can be challenging, but are pretty long so provide a lot of extra terrain. They are regularly closed so check in advance if you want to ski them.
The long red down to Hungerburg has not been open for years (politics, rather than conditions). To be skiable, it needs good natural snow cover all the way to the village, which is becoming a rare thing. When the snow is good enough, plenty of people still ski it so it is easy enough to find the route, though there would likely be a few fallen trees across it.
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| Axamer Lizum, Small resort. Excellent fast main gondola, slow chairs from mid level to access more runs. Chair on opposite side of valley for expert runs was closed when we were there but looked ok. |
This chair (Birgitzköpfl) hasn't run since Covid; I don't know why. There is a fairly easy ski tour up from the car park by the end of the Rodelbahn (on the corner of the road up to the main car park), which is why there are still lots of tracks coming down under the lift.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The Birgitzköpfl chair being closed was a blow because we were planning to ski over to Muttereralm and get the bus back to Innsbruck from there.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Henwc, Thanks for the TR. Interesting as I’ve skied most of those areas on short weekend trips but stayed in each village rather than the city itself. Reading your report I’m quite glad I did.
I agree about your last point on the Birgitzbahn lift. The year we stayed in Mutters, Ed had a great day out via bus to Axamer Lizum, with the added bonus of skiing home at the end of the day via the Birgitzbahn. It’s a bit of a deal breaker that it’s closed now.
At least you didn’t have to ski the huge steep mogul field beneath it back fown to Axamer Lizum though! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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how long are the runs in kuhtai, i know its a short vertical of 500 metres, but are they long enough to be interesting.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@philusher76, I went up the night skiing a few weeks back where they have the Hochalterbahn lift open and Red run 1. I'd say at best it was taking me 5 minutes to ski that top to bottom.
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@philusher76, Kühtai is not the most interesting place, but you can get very different conditions on the two sides of the valley, so it's worth exploring a bit. It would be fine for a day or two, and don't forget that you also have Hochoetz just a few minutes up the road.
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I agree with @Scarlet, we did Kuhtai for a day when staying in Oetz. It’s an easy, regular bus link. It was decent for a day, possibly two and being so high, the snow was good. I didn’t really consider the shortness of runs so they couldn’t have been too bad. But overall we preferred Hochoetz, as it had better variety and was more scenic.
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FAQ
