Hopfgarten - slopes
Hopfgarten is one of the best placed resorts in the whole Ski Welt for easy access to the Hohe Salve area, which is the highest point of the network and is centred on the most challenging and varied skiing.
A gondola rises to the peak from the village, via a middle station from which two chairlifts radiate. From the Hohe Salve there is a choice of runs down, including the best black slopes in the area, as well as the connecting run towards the Zinsberg sector and the rest of the Ski Welt.
From here there are also runs down towards Itter. The great run all the way down to Itter is one of the best in the Ski Welt – and there is also an excellent off-piste run down, best discovered with a guide.
The slopes on the far side of the Hohe Salve, above Soll, are easy to reach and together with those immediately above Hopfgarten give a decent area to enjoy even without exploring further into the Ski Welt. In fact, Austrian ski cross ace Patrick Koller, fresh from the Whistler Olympics, says his favourite run is straight down the Keat lift beneath the Hohe Salve – ‘it's in the shadow nearly the whole day – it’s really steep so you can make really fast racing turns’. ?
Itter also has its own gondola, the Salvista, up to the main skiing. The gondola is reached from the village of Itter by way of a drag-lift and a longish track.
Kelchsau has its own small ski area served by four lifts, with a handful of reds and blues. A ski-bus runs the five kilometres from the village to the Hopfgarten gondola. But Kelchsau, although a very small area as far as piste skiing is concerned, has an ace to play. It is one of the best starting points in the region for ski-touring trips – including many not-too-tough tours that are ideal for those just getting into this great way to enjoy the mountains away from the lifts.
A word of warning – the piste map for the Ski Welt can take some figuring out. It’s not even always easy to see which is uphill and which is downhill. It has improved from one some years ago which was totally impenetrable – but it really tries to do too much by covering the whole Ski Welt.
There is wonderful cross-country skiing available here, with the Angerberg-Mariastein area having 40 kilometres of well-prepared tracks through the most wonderful scenery.
Ski highlights for all levels
Beginners: Hopfgarten, Itter and Kelchsau all have their own beginners’ areas in the village, with their own dedicated lifts. The area for beginners at Itter is quite extensive. It should be borne in mind however that the home bound runs to Itter and Hopfgarten are long and beginners graduating to the higher slopes would be well-advised to take the gondolas back down after their first forays on the more difficult runs.
Intermediates: Skiing for intermediates, particularly the adventurous, is really what the Ski Welt does best. Intermediates staying at Kelchsau will certainly want to make the trip most days to the main network. The options are mouth-watering and virtually endless. Some of the runs off the top of the Hohe Salve above Hopfgarten may appear a little intimidating but there are easy routes down from here. From the Hohe Salve you can head off to explore the rest of the huge area, via the Zinsberg peak. But the Zinsberg can also be reached via lifts and easy runs from the middle station of the gondola up from Hopfgarten. Slopes 20 and 24 on the piste map, down to Hopfgarten, are really fabulous family runs and red/blueish – but do the run say around midday, when many are at lunch, rather than leave it to the end of the day when it gets busy.
Experts: There are a few steep marked runs, particularly from the Hohe Salve. But experts will get the greatest satisfaction from going off piste – and a massive amount of the Ski Welt is skiable off-piste. The vastness of the area will also appeal to good skiers and boarders. The network of lifts stretches away into the far distance, covering the peaks, beyond the Hohe Salve, of the Zinsberg, Eiberg, Brandstadl, Hartkaiser and Astberg. The distances involved can in themselves provide a mission for hotshots. You certainly won’t run out of ideas for a day out on skis or boards. Another beauty of the area is that is you do mis-time things and miss a connecting lift home, it’s not the sort of financial disaster you face in the Three Valleys for instance. All the villages are set around a central massif – so you simply ski down to the nearest one and get a ski-bus home, or a not too expensive cab.
Ski schools and guides
There are three ski schools in Hopfgarten, the Alpine Ski School (00 43 664 3434 088), the Ski School George Ager and Stephan Keck (00 43 664 3704856) and the Tyrolean Ski-Hohe Salve Hopfgarten.
In Itter there is Fox Sports, a combined equipment rental outlet and ski school. Kelchsau has Ski and Racing School Kelchsau. In the town of Wörgl there is Ski School/Rental Kecht (00 43 5332 73945), again, combined school and rental. All pride themselves on welcoming British guests and putting students in classes with English-speaking instructors.
The area attracts a lot of British holidaymakers, and students often find themselves in groups that are predominantly British – or at least with other skiers for whom English is the common language, such as Scandinavians and Dutch.
Snow reliability and snowmaking
None of the villages in the Kitzbuhler Alpen, indeed the whole of the Ski Welt, are high. But the whole region has a good snow record – Kitzbuhel is just down the road and it didn’t become one of the most famous names in skiing without getting good snow consistently over the last 100 years.
In an extensive area such as the Ski Welt, you’ll ski on slopes facing every which way. Which means there are quite a lot north-facing, and once you get to know the area a little you’ll discover that it’s possible to find powder caches many days after a good snowfall. And 75 per cent of the entire Ski Welt is covered by snowmaking machines, the biggest operation of its kind in Austria. It means the essential links across the whole area, and the home runs, are generally open even if the real stuff is in short supply.
Terrain park
There’s a new terrain park at Hochsoll, on the Soll side of the Hohe Salve but easily reachable from Hopfgarten and Itter, with boxes, frames and rails and facilities for both beginners and experts.