skiwelt wilder kaiser - brixental
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skiwelt wilder kaiser - brixental印象
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Dear Noble1248,we are glad to hear that you had a good time skiing at SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental.We continuingly try to improve the numbering scheme of the slopes to make them clearer. Since we are Austria's largest interconnected ski area we have more than 2000 signs in the whole SkiWelt area. Every guest has another orientation that's why it is not so easy.We will consider your recommendation and hope to welcome you again at SkiWelt soon! :-)Best regards, SkiWelt Marketing Team
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It is a very good ski area with various kinds of slopes. Unfortunately for us it had not been snowing for a while so some of the slopes were icy.
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Ski buses directly outside hotel. Be careful on time though. Last one to slopes just after 9.30am, last one from slopes sooner after 4.00pm
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Fantasic pistes and lift system, no queues. The lift map lets the whole area down, it is impossible to read( we are experienced skiers and are well travelled), they have tried to cram all the areas on one map and it does not work. Some of the runs are not even on the map. It was ok once we found our way. Why cant they use both sides of the map?
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A massive area to ski and more than most can ski in a week. We choose late to ensure snow coverage because the highest mountain, the Hohe Salve, is 1800m. The snow was fantastic.
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Pardon me! An Apology.This started out as a few memories of our 9th holiday to the Skiwelt in the Austrian Tyrol but I got a bit carried away and the entry has grown to a few thousand words. I can see hoards of you skipping to the next entry after a few paragraphs but those who remain to the bitter end might – I hope – get something out of it and see why I keep going back. Our home base was Söll, so it all kinda assumes Söll is a starting point if you’re planning on using this as a guide (which it seems to have become). If it isn’t then maybe you could print this out anyway and make a nice drawer-liner with it.The Söll Bowl.On our first day we like to venture gingerly onto the gentler reds and blues to allow our legs to recover whatever skiing mode interface they have with the brain and generally get us around without slapping our faces into the snow. Our first day was shared with a very heavy snow-dump, making many of the pistes indistinguishable from the off-piste areas. The Farley’s Rusk level of skiing below is therefore not the way we continue on day two and subsequent days.Bundle into the gondola from Söll (Gondola 40) and ascend the mountain, passing the Stampfanger Church that perches precariously on a rock. The red piste 40 decends steeply on the right. Mostly the piste numbering will take you to the lift of the same number unlike in some French resorts which require a Doctorate in logic to navigate around. So Piste 40a (yeah – sometimes they have an ‘a’ or a ‘b’ or something…) will take you to the bottom of the number 40 lift. It’s about a 10 minute ride up to the mittelstation of Söll, (or Hochsöll). Scanned the piste map that we got at the bottom gondola station. HUGE improvement in the map this year. Four smaller maps at the bottom of the main map explode the areas that usually have your eyes watering and your brain whimpering as you try to make out the pistes and even whether they are uphill or downhill. In particular, pistes 7 and 51 used to disappear around the back of the Hohe Salve, presumably passing through the legendary Tir-na-Nog on their way to wherever they end up. OK. It’s a huge area to represent on one map. I get that. Splitting it into two maps might be the way to go but, meantime, the addition of the 4 little maps is a huge improvement.Getting sidetracked. Apologies. I tend to do that. It’s my problem. I’ll handle it.The piste that I mentioned on the right as you ascend in the gondola is the Söll home run and is quite steep in places. Near the end of the day it gets busy and quite mogul infested. More on it later.Off the top, collect our skies, tramp out past the huge board in front of the station. To the right is the red gondola to the top of what we refer to as ‘our’ mountain. That’s the Hohe Salve. Up the hill in front of us is Grundalm. The way the weather is today we might be there a lot earlier but it is a nice place for a beer or other at the end of the day in the round tented bar at the rear – fondly referred to as the ‘umbrella bar’ by our fellow skiers. To the left is Gasthof HochSöll. Good place for lunch and drinks and a wild place in the evenings. We try to leave our lunches until 14:00 when things are quieter. The Söll home run 40 (red) begins between the liftstation and Gasthof HochSöll. As I said, more of that later. I tend to start gibbering even at the thought of it.Skies on and off to the right and down behind the red gondola that goes to the top of the Hohe Salve mountain. First time on skies since this time last year and my left leg is trying to carve away from me to have a holiday of its own! Nice gentle run, passing Stockalm eating place on the right. (All the places in the Söll bowl here are good for lunches), pass under two chairlifts and zero in on the 2-man chair rising up to a corner of the hill in front of us. This is no. 46, climbing slowly to an easy blue that merges into an easy red back to the bottom of the bowl. If you fancy an even easier start take the 2-man chair (47) which you will find on the right as you are heading to the 46. There are 2 lifts together here and you want the left hand one to take you up the hill (Salvenmoos) behind the lifts. The other one (44) climbs over your head towards the Hohe Salve. We try to avoid that because it is used a lot by tiny tots and it is constantly stopping to allow them on and off. Anyway. Getting distracted again. Looped around that a few times until my legs realised I just wasn’t having any of their guff and then it’s off exploring.So exploring then…Swooped down the red from the top of the 2 man (46), skied past the no. 46 leaving all the other lifts to the right and on to the 6-man Hexen6er, pronounced ‘Hexen-secx-er’ (no. 45). This quick 6 man bubble chair soars a good way up the Hohe Salve and widens the options available. At the top, a swing of 90 degrees before you slide your asp off. Straight ahead out to the main piste (43) or turn left and head down under the chairlift on a nice red back to the bowl.Just a wee aside here and a word of warning. If you get stuck in the bowl when all the lifts stop in the evening you face a tiring slog back up the hill to the gondola station OR you can take the 40 blue from the right hand side of the lifts if it is open. It’s a horrible run at that time of the evening with families in wide snow-ploughs with their bums protruding behind them and their heads jutting out like vultures’ ahead of them. Most lifts close at 16:30 but some close at 16:00. (That might be extended by a half hour in February.) The blue 40 is only a track (as most blues are) but it was upgraded a few years ago and has a few interesting curiosity stops along it. (I often think the blues are more dangerous than the reds because you are more likely to catch a ski-edge and ski off the track!)Yeah! I know. Got sidetracked again. It’s your fault for encouraging me.So straight on when we got off the Hexen6er. The first part of the piste here skirts a ravine. Trying to stay high to the right, contouring along the hill. It will keep us out of peoples’ way and gives more space to turn when we finally build up the nerve to start skiing downwards. Also, importantly, keeping an eye above us because skiers will be coming down from the black higher up. Getting that friendly with fellow skiers should be kept for the après-ski later.A few sunnier runs.Ha! That’s a laugh! It’s still chucking it down and I could easily accumulate a decent cone of snow on my skid-lid if I stood still for a few minutes. I’m sure I saw a polar bear in the distance earlier… Back to HochSöll. Passed SimonAlm on the way. They usually have a few snowmen (or snowwomen but I was going too quickly to establish that…) here. Didn’t realise this place existed until last year. 400 years old (and parts are 600 years old) so it’s not as if it has just appeared! Specsavers for me m’thinks.Time to brave the high reds. Onto the red gondola (42) to the top of Hohe Salve. SERIOUS snow up here. Could need a machete to see our way through this. Off the escalator to where the church of St. Peter and St. Paul looms in front. I think this is builled as the highest church in Austria. Wonder how big a congregation they expected when they built it. Or is it really for priests who just like to get away from it all?Skipping here through a time portal to a later day in the week when the sun was rock-splittingly in evidence. Not quite as neat as the Kubrick film 2001 with that famous cut from a bone to an orbiting space-craft but surely it’s up there for some sort of literary award?To the right is a fine place to eat and drink with the most eye-goggling views. If you stop for a break here, it is a good idea to pair off and swap one of your skies with a partner and then stack your odd skies away from each other. It cuts down on the chances of theft and the resulting frantic, wide-eyed explanations back in the hire-shop. At the back of this place is a revolving terrace. Had lunch and the obligatory beer at a table on the rotating platform that inches its way through 360 degrees every 30 minuets. The delights of drinking the beer is well matched with drinking in the fantastic panorama as the thing works its way around.Before we skied away, just had to walk to the right behind the gondola station and look back down into the Söll Bowl. Disneyesque views! We’ve seen this in the past with the mountain peaks protruding through the cloud canopy as if the whole panorama has been protected with cotton wool.Destination Hopfgarten! Skies on and shuffled along to the right of the restaurant to the top of the red. This can be a wild windy place but shelter comes only a few 10s of metres down. The 42 black also starts here and heads off to the right. Not going to do that today. Following the 22 red.There’s a very obvious hut just here. Doesn’t matter whether you ski to the right or the left of it. It does matter if you ski into it! I find skiing to the right of it is easier and then work my way around to the left. Keep the head up. Fantastic unreal scenery with almost impossible depth opens up and I don’t like to miss it. The view down to Rigi and into the Hopfgarten valley beyond is like a postcard. Makes concentrating on the narrow track a bit of a cracker.Always a tough decision at this point. The challenging run straight down or the easier, wider one off to the right. Today we opted for the run to the right, following (almost) the chairlift that always seems to be empty. A bit of experience pays off here. The piste winds around the side of a left-to-right slope. Skiing too high to the left can leave you too high when you get near the bottom. Skiing too low takes all the challenge out of it and you find yourself wimping slowly into Rigi. (But for a taste of a black, take the narrow track to the right half way down. It takes you back to the top of the Hexen6er.)Get it right today. Coming to the bottom of the piste and we easily spot the obvious clump of trees and the top of a lift station and some place built high on a hill. (You can also ski straight on here into a deep bowl, with a bit of speed to get out the other side. It is safe even though it is not always groomed.) Slide to a stop onto the track that runs to the right and under the chair lift. But we ain’t a-goin’ down the track. Lean on my poles and look over the edge. This piste is a very definite red and can get mogully but it is very manageable today AND we’re skiing in the sun. It’s the red 21/22.If you decide to carry on around the track you will eventually get back to the Söll Bowl. Also the way to Itter which is a lovely run. More on this later too.Where had we got to? Oh yes. Half way down the red 22 and onto another narrow track that swings around to the left to join up with a REALLY WIDE piste. I have a vicious memory of a skier who lost it here a few years back. Misjudged a hillock of snow and went silently over the side with one ski stuck vertically out in front of him and winding down the windows with both arms like a scene from a Harold Lloyd movie. He was fine, but I was laughing so much I thought my trousers would never dry. No such hilarity for us today though. Keeping to the right of the piste ends up above the lower gondola station but we elected to stay to the left and carved along the gentle gradient to arrive between the two gondola stations (20 and 22) at Hopfgarten Mittelstation. Nice place for a hot gluhwein at the outdoor bar just here on the right. A few years ago, Steve from our hotel (Gansleit) took us on a skiing tour of the home runs and we had the bar doing the embarrassing actions to the hit YMCA as an unfortunate side effect of a gluhwein too many! (Note to self: Might edit that bit out before going to press to save further embarrassment later.)To the left behind the gondola 22, through a short tunnel, is good territory for exploring long gentle blue pistes. But I’m going to exercise a bit of restraint and NOT give you any notes on that.So the final decent to Hopfgarten. One of my favourite runs. Continuing between the gondolas and slightly to the left to the alternating gentle and steep slopes. After a few kilometres we find ourselves following the gondola down a steep bit that ends in a left hander. Again, experience pays dividends. There’s a slight flat bit that marks where a road crosses the piste half way down and I think there’s a blue (spits with contempt!) off to the left. Made our way down a bit further and stopped to the right of the piste when we could see the way off to the left. Lined ourselves up, skies together, and let off the handbrake. Hold the speed because there’s a bit of uphill piste to get over further down the track trying not to look too smug as we whipped past other skiers polling themselves along. Further along and we come to another downhill bit. The way ahead is straight, you can see well ahead, and it is pretty obvious there’s an uphill bit to the narrowing bit beyond. So skies together again and go for it!Even further down is an adrenaline inducing bit of piste. Across a well used road (no extra points for putting any dents in cars!) you can see a long straight piste. Line yourself up about 20 metres before the road (Take care crossing it. It’s a bit bumpy.) and then – skies together – and scare the horses as you touch 80 KPH before you get to the tree section and you have to slow down again. How many pictures have I got of this? At the end of the tree section, stop, get out the camera and photograph the Disneyesque, tree-framed views of the twin onion towered church and town of Hopfgarten.Continue to the gondola (20), back to mittelstation, and put our skies back on. Ski down to the 3-man (21) to the right which takes us back up to the track at the start of the Hopfgarten run. This time we continue down the track which takes us around the hill to Rigi and a short fast downhill (skis together and poles under your armpits with your hands stretched out in front! The professionals don’t ski with their hands dug into their chest with their ski poles poking upwards like a 1960s TV aerial!), and then along the path. The path gets a bit rough near the end from people snowploughing their speed off so be careful not to carry your speed for too long.We’ve opted to take advantage of the good snow conditions so we ignore the pistes 31/40 to the right to the Soll bowl in favour of staying to the left, past Gasthof Kraftalm (good decent home made food), and along the narrow track to the left of the gondola station. (If there has been heavy snow you might have to ski around the right of the lift station) Made sure the gondola was running. It gives you a right royal pain in your wrasse if you get to the bottom and the gondolas are just hanging there bouncing in the wind like a load of sage heads telling you you goofed. Sometimes the Itter home run is closed, necessitating skiing around the back of a little church to rejoin the no. 40 to Söll. Today it was working so we darted down the narrow track to our left, through the trees and to the top of the first of a few nicely varietied pistes of the Itter home run. The last bit is very flat and across open country so we made sure to have plenty of speed to take us all the way to the gondola.Back up in the little gondola (30) (a small 4-man) to the top of the 40 which will take us back down into the bowl. Work our way to the left towards the path through the trees to avoid the 31 that goes down into a hollow, the only way out of which is the 2-man 31 back to the top of Hopfgarten.The Söll Home Run.Yeah. Suppose I should get it out of the way and we can put it behind us. All the home runs get busy in the evenings and progressively more mogully as the day goes on. The run is absolutely fine during the day but, in the evening, two sections of this guy are not for the faint hearted. The earlier part is quite flat. We try to stay to the left of the piste so that we get the benefit of a few shusses to give ourselves the momentum to get past the uphill bits. The piste is on right-sloping ground so staying to the left allows a gradual drift to the right when speed really slacks off. Watch out for boarders. They seem to delight in stopping in the middle of the piste right where they are in the way of the most people. The two challenging bits begin just over precipices where fellow piste users like to stop and, besides blocking the way, contemplate trading in their equipment for a set of golf clubs. Watch for people coming behind you, especially those travelling on their bums with their skies unattached and taking a parallel course!Further afield: Let’s go to Scheffau.Word has it that a new ‘sexy’ lift has been installed on the way to Scheffau. Clip our skies on at the HochSöll gondola (40), head left past the Gasthof Hochsöll restaurant towards the 4 man chair lift, Keat (43), that takes us as far up the main piste as it is possible to go without using those long skin-wrapped skies that you see people trudging up the mountain on. (Have a look straight over the edge back down to HochSöll. Always looks scary but it is a great run.) Take a sharp right under the chair lift and down the short track. The pistes disappear around the back of Hohe Salve on the map here so a peek at the little map number 3 is needed for newcomers. But we don’t need that. Soon we’re back in the sunshine and on a wide piste. Follow that piste (51) around to the right down a track to the top of another wider piste. The blue (43a) snakes away back to Söll from a few places to the left but we plunge straight down the 51 towards the orange bubble lift nestling at the bottom. Enjoy the heated seats as it takes us back to the top.From here we curl down to the right along the red 7a. REALLY careful on this. The piste becomes a track and many skiers tend to take the same path, cutting deep ruts that threaten to unbalance the careless traveller. It’s quickly over though and we remember to look up to the right when it cuts across the 51a so that we don’t clobber anybody coming down along it. Arrive at a very busy lift - Filzboden (7). Three pistes come together here so it’s hardly surprising. It’s a long (almost 2 Km) fast 6-man lift all the way to the top of Zinsberg. It used to be a T-Bar. Many hairy stories of hallucinations and exposure are told by more seasoned skiers when listeners gather and beer flows.A few times we’ve taken the red 7 back down. It is a fantastic run. There is a speed trap on it just off to the right that’ll tell you how fast you were going before you fell and broke your coccyx. This run has been the bane of a few people including me. The signs here are really wrong (Haven’t looked at them in a while mind you so they might have been corrected) and people have taken the 7 thinking they were going to Brixen and getting exasperated as they – again – find themselves at the bottom of the no. 7 lift!Anyway – Back at the top of no. 7. We’re still headed to Scheffau and the sexy lift. We wouldn’t usually go this way but… did I mention the sexy lift? So, straight off the 7 lift and hang a left between the trees to zoom along the wide 71 red. Already we can see it. Head to the right down to what used to be a 4 man bubble chair lift. Now it’s a sleek black 8-man bubble lift. Sexy? Well, depends on what you’re into I suppose. But it’s certainly keeping the queues short. We ski to the left of the ski hut Aualm to avoid the narrow grooved steep icy decent on the right. This lift used to get so busy sometimes. Never knew why. Once had to queue for 10 minutes before I got on the thing.Took the lift (Sorry. Got so excited I forgot to tell you it is the 71) to the top and then hung a left, piling on speed for the short flat 65a. Another stunning view here. Down to the busyness of the Scheffau bowl. Three lifts come together here (even though I can see only 2 on the map. Am I misremembering?). The way down is exposed to all winds and frequently the trees are clustered in white glittering snow making you think you might actually be on a Hollywood set. Rising up from the bowl we can see an orange and black seated lift (are they still the colours or am I misremembering again?) and that’s our destination. So off we go again. To the Osthang (64). Another relatively new lift. A heated 8-man chair lift that lifts quickly to the top of Scheffau. Straight on from there heading towards black 61. It is only a short descent but my wife remembers nervously how she misread the edge of the piste a few years ago and did a heart stopping cartwheel to the bottom. An easier option is to ski off to the right, around the trees and join the red that goes from the bottom of the black. We love this red; a nice challenging run that becomes a blue and goes all the way to the bottom of Scheffau. The crossing point for the red and the blue is near the gondola mittelstation but the contimuation of the red can be horrible so we make sure we don’t go under the gondola but follow the signs for the blue instead. Stop at one of our favourite watering holes near the bottom – the Waldhof Alm. The car park is just below you. Don’t ski down too far or you’ll have to plod back up again. The place is designed to appear as if you’re on the outside when you’re on the inside. They have a waterfall that cascades out of the wall to run under the glass floor. Well worth a stop. Don’t just take my word for it.Ski the final 100 metres to the Branstadl 1ift (61). Stay on right to the top. Head straight on to the easy blue 64 and back down into the bowl to catch the double 4 man chair lift to the right (67/68). Doesn’t seem to matter which of these we take. It’s just like the shopping market queue. The other one always moves faster! Up to the Eiberg mountain and then down the fantastically wide piste 70a keeping right towards the chair lift Muldembahn 70 which climbs back up to Zinsberg. Another good laugh here. Watched some poor git skiing off-piste and taking a tumble that threw him completely head over heals. That wasn’t funny but the sight of him poking the deep snow searching for his two skies was. Losing a ski in that kind of snow isn’t a good idea. The two little brakes don’t always grip and the ski can burrow along under the snow and stop so far from you that you’ll have to come back next spring to recover it.Off lift 70 and straight ahead to piste 2a. It’s a longish blue piste and sometimes a bit of an even gradient so, again, skies together and straight down to build speed until we are over the flat bit and onto a downhill again. There’s an old T-Bar that cuts across the piste here. Usually not noticed because the bars will be way above our heads but sometimes you’ll unexpectedly be bearing down on someone cutting across it and unable to get out of your way. Saw someone panic and let it go one day. The problem is that it coils back up on its spring to hang way above the piste and there’s no way you can get back on it. Continue further down the piste, where it then branches out into a bigger piste. (More of that later. It is the one that takes you to Brixen.) Head straight across the piste and through the trees still following 2a and bearing round to the right which brings us towards HochBrixen. We emerge onto the blue 3 above Hochbrixen beside a hut. Follow the 4-man lift that ghosts along above our heads.Complete memory failure here. We thought there was a nice place for a lunch stop just a bit further down to the right. Either it was obliterated in a freak pencil sharpening accident or I am confusing it with somewhere else. Never mind. Carried down along this easy blue to Hochbrixen. The button lift was busy today. Extra care taken to not take out any toddlers on the way through. Not that they seemed to be at all nervous. Some of those little ‘uns are probably more proficient that we are.Noshed up at the gondola station.Hochbrixen is where the Igloo Village is. You’ll see it on your right. Stop and have a walk around. Rooms can be rented for the night here. The ice bar is fantastic. Some drinks come in ‘glasses’ made from ice too! You can even have a hot drink here and sit on the pelts that cover the ice seats.Skies back on and curl around to the left of the gondola station, to the left of the Igloos, and on to the 6-man chair at the end that makes what always seems to be a cold ascent up to the right to the back of the Hohe Salve (our) Mountain. This lift (no. 2) closes at 16:00 (might be 16:30 in February) and if you miss it you will have to get the gondola down and an expensive taxi ride back to Söll. Dangerous to leave it too late if you need to get it because it gets mad busy towards closing time, being the only route back to Hopfgarten, Itter, and Söll. Once there is a queue they seem to keep admitting people though.Getting home from the top of the number 2If we are running late we always reckon that, once at the top of the no. 2, we can get back to Söll without any lifts… if you know the way. Anyway. Skiing down (what other way can you ski!) to the left on the red 51 (could be the 51a…). Stay to the left and zero in on an obvious clump of trees. Stay to the left of the trees and zoom onto the track that branches off to the left. There are two tracks off to the left. Either will take you to your destination but the 1st track is better (especially for snowboarders) and that’s the one by the clump of trees.Now we are behind the Hohe Salve where the map used to be useless. The new one’s not a lot better for finding the way from here if I’m honest but it offers a fighting chance. The track sweeps to the top of a wider piste that goes down to your right. This gets icy and steep towards the bottom but we feel like ace skiers by now. At the bottom we spy the 7a cutting across from left to right. This is the one we were on this morning. The continuation of the 51 stretches off to the left and we aim for that without colliding with anybody on the 7a (licence and insurance no use to you if you do.). Bit of speed here to get us along the flat terrain. Again this track takes us to the top of a wider steeper piste which falls down to the right. We can see the yellow bubble lift that we were on this morning and this is where we’re headed.(Rather than go down the piste you can go off piste here. Instead of turning right to go down the piste, go straight ahead. You will cross a wide piste and off piste again the other side. Stay as high as you can and you see a narrow gap through the trees in front of you. Through there and a bit further and you’ll see a piste in front of you. That’s the 43a and the route home. I think there could be a piste parallel to and below you on your right and you could use this either but you’ll have to take your skies off and walk up along it. If you choose this way, skip the next paragraph when you get to here.)Anyway. Onto the heated seats of the orange bubble lift (51). Take that to the top and then off to the left to look for the blue 43 (mostly a narrow track. Yuck!). Decide we’ll ski down the wide 51 red, keeping an eye out to the left to see where we can join the blue 43 part way down.Easily onto the 43, following it to the top of a short steep downhill. There’s an obvious hut on the right hand side. Other skiers clump here to gather their wits before venturing further. Pick our moment to go straight down this because there is a lengthy track after that which gets progressively flatter before it finally ends at the racing hut on the main Söll piste. Continue to the ‘umbrella bar’ to see if we can catch a few friends.Going.Cracker of a day today. Pristine white snow seems to glisten with tiny diamonds under an azure sky with not even the merest hint of a wisp of cloud. Click into our skies and slide off to the Keat 43 from HochSöll. Off the top of that and curl around to the right to piste 51 and an easy but exhilarating decent to the orange bubble lift 51. Very few about today for some reason so the usually tricky passage down piste 7a is a doddle this morning. Not even a queue for the 6-man lift no. 7.At the top of Filzboden (7) lift. Ignore what instincts might dictate and leap into the air for a 180 degree turnaround to turn our back on the direction we should go. (OK. Didn’t actually do the leaping bit. If you do that, make sure you get it right because you’re going to look a right pillock if you get it wrong and somebody has to help you back to your feet! Second thoughts, you’ll look a right pillock even if you get it right!) Swing onto the blue 5 which curves around to the left…Yes. The left.IGNORE THE SIGN! It’s wrong. Or used to be. Someone who looks like me and dresses in my clothes said this before. Haven’t looked at it for a few years so maybe it has been corrected but, with time running short one evening, the dang thing directed us back to the bottom of the no. 7 – not once but twice - when it lied about the direction of Brixen! Got the message? Yes? Good. On we go then.Lovely long carving turns down to the end of that nice long wide run (ignoring the new turn to Brixen on the right), through the trees, ignoring the old home run to Brixen but steering instead to the left of a very tall conifer and on the no. 6 Jochbahn that lifts up along the hill to the left.Fine views today of the Wilder Kaiser way off to the right and the clean steep lines of the Hohe Salve off to the left, already looking a long way away. Take a few photos, even though we’ve probably got duplicates and triplicates from earlier holidays. But a photo just doesn’t capture the same moment. The vista quite simply defies description. Anyhew – as they say on the Simpsons, so it must be a real word – we dragged ourselves back to the task in hand. A lot of distance to cover today. When you slide your butt off the lift, come around to the right, past the top of the no. 70 lift (people getting of. Don’t make yourself an obstacle course!) and ski down the red 70. The lift climbing back up the hill on our right is a short one and we aim in the general direction of that. As we near it, the little path that bypasses the lift opens up on the left and we shoot down that to join the wider piste that skirts around the hill to the no. 69 which climbs off to the left. There’s a bit of a class going on here today. Lots of nervous skiers negotiating the tricky off-camber run so we pick our way though trying not to frighten the horses and reach the lift ahead of them.Now we’re at the top of Eiberg. Hohe Salve a bit more distant; Wilder Kaiser a bit closer. Tell ourselves we have enough photos and pole off to the right, heading for a conspicuous little clump of trees. The frozen over lake (OK, reservoir) is ahead. Two ways to go here but we’re opting to aim to the right of the lake (don’t say it!) to arrive at the bottom of the no. 98. Take the first hill easily enough but slap our skies together and handbrakes off when we get closer to the bottom and try to carry our speed as we glide to the right of the lake and down the blue that skirts off to the right. There’s almost an action replay here as, like the downhill from the Zinsberg, we head for a chairlift (the 97 this time) but veer off to the left just before we reach it and carry on down the path that joins a wider piste and eventually to the bottom of the lift (98) that winds its way up to HartKaiser. Tales of a super new restaurant that has opened here but we plan to delay taking a look until we stop for lunch on the way back.The ‘old’ restaurant here is lovely. Panoramic views. Upstairs is a sun terrace with magical views of the Wilder Kaiser mountain at the other side of the valley. Food is excellent. Nice variety. More later.But we press on. Slide off the lift, head straight across to the left of the building and then down the lovely long red 80 which wends its way under the funny killer – I mean funicular railway. Part way down there’s another of our favourite stopping places – it’s off to the left and can be hard to spot - is the Rubezahl-Alm. There’s a wide downhill bit that plunges down through two banks of tall dense forest. Just before you go through the trees, stray off to the track to the left – I think they actually have a huge banner advertising themselves – and you’ll see it at the end. I call it the troll’s house because it is entered through a low dark short hallway and the inside is a delight of twisted beams and fabulous ancient timber. Used to be a bunch of cow barns apparently. Lovely home cooked food from a friendly and efficient staff. If you can get there early it’s a great place to stop for a drink and have a wander through the rooms. But we don’t stop here today. We’re nearing the bottom the piste where it splits into red and blue. We usually take the blue. It’s a nice run that widens out around a long right-hander until the Funicular station hoves into view.Slow down before we come to the station. We take the path off to the right, easily spotted with its protective orange netting around it and a sign pointing to Going. (Often wonder if the other side of this sign should read ‘Coming’...) Then the plod of the flat elevated path around the car park to the 2-man no 90 bubble lift. Long way from home now. A few hours needed to get back to the critical no. 2 lift. Which stops running at 16:00!At the top of the 90 that crawls slowly and steeply up the side of Astberg. Now we’re off onto the 100 red and follow it all the way into Going. Ski over-confidently here and get caught out by ridges of ice where they’ve had the snow-lance working. This offsets my balance and sends me sliding head first on my back down the hill. Plenty of people about and I have to pick my moment to swing my skies around to get them to bite into the ground and arrest my embarrassingly ugly slide. A kindly soul offers to help me back to my feet. My fear is that I’ll take the two of us to the bottom but she assures me she is an instructor so I meekly accept the aid and she pulls me back to my feet.Some lovely looking runs here if we ever had time to explore, but straight onto the 100 lift up to the top of Asberg. Bums slide off the lift and veer to the left along the blue 102a. Lots of level lengths on this path. Not ideal for snowboarders. Follow it to the wider piste and down to the bottom of the 102. This is as far towards St Johann as it is possible to go without getting the bus! The 2,000 meter peak of the Kitzbuhler Horn stands out starkly in the distance, its mast easily distinguishing it from the others. Spent an early ski holiday in St Johann. Nice ski area. We were novices back then and we knocked a lot of fun out of it. But even at that, we had exhausted the limited runs and challenges by the end of the week. Don’t let that put you off though. Kitzbuher is very accessible from there.OK. Enough reminiscing. Onto the lift. Heading home now. Up to the top and look for the red 90 that works its way to the funicular railway visible as a thin line etched up along the side of the mountain. No lifts between here and there. Just around the corner on the right is a nice place for lunch. There’s a little church to the right of it. Excellent nosh. Quick service. Variety in the menu. We’ve stopped here quite a few times but the promised delights of the new gaf at Hartkaiser beckon. (Best explain here that ‘gaf’ is an Irish slang term for digs or place or house. As in ‘let’s go to your gaf and get hammered’. On second thoughts, it probably would have been easier not to use ‘gaf’ in this review...)Today, the 90 piste was in a bad state for some reason. It passes over a few roads and some strange terrain anyway so even at the best of times it can test the calf muscles. But today there were areas that looked as if a small platoon had snowploughed down the same line to leave a miniature icy halfpipe that just sucked us in and threatened to slingshot us away in a wild gangly blur of arms and legs. Through the first such obstacle course and the grip was back to 100%. Easy skiing for a few hundreds of metres and then back into another black spot. It reminded us of the TV prog ‘The Crystal Maze’. Soon we were on our way again. More nice skiing, under the 2-man bubble lift and then left and down and across the cambered bit across the top of the carpark and slide to a stop before the road. Some skiers continued to pole across the carpark but playing chicken with the busses and possibly ‘nadjering’ our skies didn’t entice us to copy them.Off with the skies and into the station to get the funicular back up to Hartkaiser. Obviously some first-timers on the funicular today. Nervous chatter when the down-bound carriage came into view and even one or two anxious squeaks just before the carriages separated on the short bit of double track.Out of the funicular. Stacked Skies and into the lift that rises to the top floor. They really have done a beautiful job on this. As is expected in these mountaintop restaurants, exposed timber beams are to be seen everywhere. Concealed trips of uplighters run along the roof beams to bathe the ceiling in a soft light. We didn’t see it to its full effect in the bright sunshine but it must look magical in the evening. A rabbit hutch was built into one of the low walls. No animals were there (that we could see) but it was a great focal point for a bunch of children when we arrived. Carrot and Ginger soup caught my eye from the menu. Regretted not trying it. Sounded lovely. Asked if they did currywurst. I just had a hankering for it. The didn’t, offering grilled wurstl and pommes instead. When it arrived I noticed it was exactly what some children were eating. I had ordered a kiddies meal! But no worries. I loved it.Couldn’t resist stepping out onto the terrace. The Wilder Kaiser rises sheer and rugged at the other side of the valley to stand towering over us. The scale is just so surreal that you might think it’s all a hologram and somebody switches it all off in the evening when we all disappear inside for après ski. Again this is something you have to drink in in person. Pictures of it have I many. But none does it justice.On with the skies, and then off to the left and around to the right. When we’ve done this in the past we’ve stayed on the track until the 97 blue has presented itself but we’ve noticed that a more exciting red joins us from the left. This time we break away from the path immediately and ski straight down, reasoning that we’ve plenty of time to come back up if we don’t find a way through. But it’s there! Off to the right and a beautifully maintained piste that flows down to the 97 lift.Someday we’re going to come over here and just play around this area. It is wholly an unknown network of pistes to us.At the top of the 97 we fall away to the right and onto the short 99 red. Ride up the 99 and then off to the right again down into the Scheffau bowl. There’s a tree here that must have been in the full blast of a snowcannon. Hard, white crysteline ice clads the poor thing looking like a sculpture of art. Whip out the camera for a few shots, then continue down and across the two lifts to the right and all the way to the other end to pick up the double 4-man lift (67/68) to take us back to Eiberg and familiar territory.If you’re using this as a guide – and you haven’t got lost so far – you’ll have to page back to our earlier trip to see the way home. Hope it works out for you. Don’t come looking for me if it doesn’t!Westendorf.Here’s a nice trip out of the Skiwelt (actually I think the whole area is still within the Skiwelt) and into the neighbouring area of Westendorf. There is actually a town called Westendorf and, despite the number of times we’ve skied to the Westendorf area, we only skied down to it for the first time last year. Lovely pistes. Really cookie ‘grand central station’ sort of thing the gondola passes through on the way back up. That alone is worth the experience.Westendorf doesn’t have the same variety of routes as Skiwelt but the pistes are quieter and, for the most part, maintain their pisted conditions for longer as the day progresses. The distance covered is not as great as the trip to Going but there’s still a lot of ground to cover.Cruise down the blue 5 from the top of the no. 7. Usually we carry on along the narrower bit through the trees at the bottom and then round to the right onto the home run to Brixen (red 1b). It almost looks like a wide farm gateway and we skied right past it one year but it’s a lot wider now so easier to spot. This year, here’s the new bit of piste that starts before the narrow section. Well signposted, wide, inviting. This home run is what in modern parlance would be referred to as a challenging run. We treat it with care and stay together. It crosses 2 roadways awkwardly but there is nothing that we haven’t met before and we just press on. Towards the bottom there is a steep section that manages to send plenty of skiers onto their bums. Us too in the past. But today we weather it and soon we find ourselves flying down the last stretch to the gondola station.Off with the skies. On one occasion I was on my own here and unthinkingly got back on the gondola and found myself heading back up the mountain before I refocused. Just as well I was in the gondola on my own! I used up my whole day’s allowance of expletives and in a pretty loud voice too. So; IGNORING THE NO 1 GONDOLA, we tramp across the bridge to the long (3.5 Km) gondola no. 11 that glides across the valley and up to Choralpe (A 1000 metre rise to 1800 metres!). Out of the gondola, up the stairs to the terrace and drink in the views! Shoot off a few pictures of ‘our’ mountain, the Hohe Salve, that looks SO far away. The Brixen home run is easily traced as it zig zags from top right to bottom left, tiny ants that are skiers inching their way along it. The way to Ki-West is a long left handed horseshoe journey that ends a short bus link from the nearby Kitzbuhel skiing area. An extended skipass can be bought to cover it but we’ve never bothered.Head off along the track and down the long blue 111. (If the view across the valley disorientated you then you’re headed to the right when you came out of the gondola station. Do try to keep us, there’s good people. These are supposed to be my memories; not an official guide!) It is a gentle track for the first bit of the way. Carry on past a top gondola station on the right and out on to the Talkaser plateau. The pristine red 110 begins to the right here. A lovely long run right down to Westerdorf town. But today we pass straight across the Talkaser plateau and again pick up the blue 111 continuing off to the right. The way to Ki-West is almost linear. Easy to follow. Keep an eye out for the 117 red which descends to the 117 lift. It goes straight over an edge from the 111. Missing it is not a problem though. There’s a second attempt to pick it up again a little further along. After the 117 there is the 118, 119, and finally the 120 all the way to Ki-west. The final 120 is a blue and many parts are perfect for practicing carving turns. The route is starkly beautiful, seeming sometimes to be remote from civilisation. On the left just in sight of the gondola station is the Skihutte KiWest. Plenty of time for a stop-off for lunch (unless Gluhwein beckons… or hot chocolate with rum… or jagertee. I’m not fussy!) but make sure to split your skies and odd-pair them off with your partner’s and stack them apart.The return journey is linear like the outward journey but in the opposite direction (well duh!). Pistes are usually quieter out here. We have never encountered lift queues so there’s time to stop and take in the views without feeling too pressed to get back to Hochbrixen and that critical no. 2. Eventually you’ll find yourself back on the blue 111. Keep an eye out for it as yo near the end of the red 117. If you stay on too long you’ll find yourself plodding back uphill. Not too much of an inconvenience, but hey. Skiing is a downhill sport. So on the blue 111 which loops downwards to the bottom of the gondola 112 and then back up to the Choralpe peak. Although the 111 is a nice run overall, we treat some parts with respect, knowing the sun can turn some stretches to slush and some to ice.A final eye-feast on the horizon before we start our return journey to Skiwelt. Heads up for the scenery because this is a treat. We’re on the 11 red, skiing easily along the exposed ridge with spectacular views right and left as we begin our gentle descent towards the valley floor. Then, too soon, we’re skiing between forests. The town of Brixen swings into view and out again as the run gets steeper and the snow gets icier. A few kilometres down and the red changes to black for a few hundred meters. Very manageable. Test the edges on our skies as we pull short precise turns, eking our way downwards. An avoiding red goes off to the right if you don’t fancy giving the black a go but it’s not for us unless the black is infested with nervous skiers. Berggasthof Kandleralm comes into view on the right. The black is behind us now. We stop off for a well earned break. Plenty of time to meet our deadline of 16:00 at the top of the Brixen gondola.Back on our skies. The beer has fortified our belief in ourselves. We know we’re coming to a long flat bit so we try to speed along without using the brakes. Not always easy to predict the direction of the piste but we know from previous trips that there are no surprises. The track works its way around to the left. We carve our way to follow it around, trying everything not to scrape off speed. Finally the piste dips into the tunnel. The hope is always to be able to ski right onto the conveyor belt but always there seems to be a short queue. Never mind. Soon up that and then on to the rope-pull that will take us to the steps, across the bridge, and on to gondola station (No. 1) up to Hochbrixen.These are just a few memories of holidays in SkiWelt (Ski World). The variety and depth is always an attraction to keep us coming back. If you’ve read this far and you’ve done what we’ve done then you’ll know what we mean. If you’ve read this far and you haven’t done it then what are you waiting for?
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LOVED IT!The SkiWelt offers a huge network of pistes of any level. I would definitely recommend and would love to go back again.
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There are slopes suitable for all levels of skiers, many of them are very long. In my opinion it is better than Kitzbuhel, despite of the lack of a slope "famous" as the Streif.
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Stayed in Soll Austria from 31st January for 1 week. Very impressed with The SkiWelt area. Pistes are kept in fantastic condition with a very efficient lift system. Soll is fantastic for competent skiers. Although there are brilliant ski schools Soll itself does not have a lot of Blue runs for beginners. With over 280km of runs you can't get bored of skiing between all the villages. I will definitely be going back in 2016!
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This is a fantastic skiing areas. The scenery is wonderful and there are a very large number of interconnected pistes. I have now skied here 4 times and there are still many pistes I haven't visited. That is despite having skied over 130 miles there in the past week! Everything is generally very well organised and the quality of the lifts and pistes is very good. This is a lower ski area than some so the pistes are often hard ice in the morning (the previous day's melt having refrozen) and soft by the afternoon, but that doesn't usually cause a problem if you plan your route properly, e.g. avoid south facing pistes in the afternoon on sunny days.My only complaint is that the piste maps are awful. One issue is that they are drawn as a 3D representation, rather than a bird's eye view. This means the routes of some pistes can't be determined from the map because they are "behind" mountains. Worse, the map has a a significant number of inaccuracies, e.g. pistes shown in the wrong place or missing altogether! Finally, while there are various maps available, e.g. the printed version, an online interactive map on the SkiWelt website, a downloadable version for Google Earth and large display boards in key areas of the resort, they are all slightly different and contain different mistakes! For example, the large map on the top of Zinsberg shows a chair lift that doesn't exist any more! The SkiWelt team really need to get back to basics with their map and just have a clear, simple and accurate bird's eye view map.