Ski Area Details
The closest base station to the hotel was the Reiterkogelbahn. This gondola
goes to mid-mountain (the treeline) and from there you can catch the Hassennauer
Kopf six pack to the top (Hasenauer Kopfl at 1791m). From this chair were some
nice intermediate runs to warm up on. By mid-morning this area was very busy.
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Grooming in Europe |
| The grooming of ski slopes in Europe is not quite like
what you find in the US. Even if a run has been covered by a snowcat
that day, its likely that there will still be plenty of ridges and chunks
of broken hard pack. Another interesting aspect of slope grooming in
Europe is that it doesn't just go on at night. After the first heavy
snowfall we found multiple cats out on the slopes at one time. This
brings us to the "Snowcat Incident." I don't care how good of a
skier you are, a snowcat will make you nervous. My husband had the
misfortune of taking a fall at the top of the hill in the path of a
snowcat. As he struggled to retrieve his ski and get it on in the
deep snow, the snowcat inched closer and closer to him. I'm fairly
certain that if he'd taken another 30 seconds the operator would have run
him over. Hmm. Maybe those ridges left behind after the
snowcats are done aren't just snow.... |
From there you can head either down the valley
to the new Sunliner chair with more wide open intermediate runs or up the valley
to two twin six packs. To move further down the valley from the Sunliner you
have to ski a wind swept easy run to an old double chair, the Reiterkogel Ost.
Then you take a surface lift to the top of Bernkogel (1740 m). Surface lifts
(a.k.a. t-bars or platter pulls) are alive and well in Europe. Some of them can
be quite long and cover steep terrain. It is possible to ski from Bernkogel all
the way down into Saalbach or you can stop about a third of the way down and
take a surface lift back up. Saalbach was the only place I had a problem with
the areas claim to have a completely interconnected lift system. It might have
been the lack of snow at lower elevations but we found no way to get from the
bottom of the Bernkogel Sesselbahn over to the gondola at the center of Saalbach
base area on skis. We had to walk about a 1000m through town. From there you can
take the Kohlmaisgipfelbahn up to Kohlmaiskpf (1794m) or get off at the
mid-mountain station. There is also a chair lift from the base area to
mid-mountain, followed by a surface lift. Again, there are more nice
intermediate runs all the way to the bottom. The view from either side of the
mountain station is wonderful. This is as far down the valley as we made it.
There is another gondola that serves the Wildenkarkogel peak (1910m) and from
there you can cross over to the other side of the ridge to access runs that end
up in Leogang in the valley to the north. You can make your way back by lift or
take the ski shuttle back around.
Heading up the valley (west) from the Hassenauer Kopfl you reach an area served
by two six packs. The base stations are close together at mid-mountain but they
fan out as they head uphill. There are good runs from either lift. There is an
old chair lift from the valley to the base of these lifts. Also at the valley is
one of the gondolas that will take you to the other side of the valley. The
south side of the valley is much steeper than the north side. The
Zwolfer-Nordbahn takes you over the road and up a steep slope, which sported a
long expert run from the top of Zwolfer (1984 m). The view from this peak is
tremendous. All around you can see snow-capped peaks and the valley in shadows.
The Zwolferbahn also has its terminus here. There are runs of all levels from
this peak, including a world cup run. The Zolferbahn has a mid-station so you
can ski the upper part of the mountain until you are ready to head down. The
Zwolferbahn's base station was the second closest to the hotel (not counting the
surface lifts that service the bunny slope). One morning it was snowing as the
walked to the base station. We went straight to the top and had probably our
best run of the week. The peak was above the clouds, the sun was shinning there
was no wind and plenty of fresh snow, awesome. Close to the base of the ski
school area there is yet another ancient chair lift heading to mid mountain
followed by another one that will take you to the top of Schattenberg West (2096
m). This peak was very windy so, we did not send much time up there. You can
take intermediate runs back down the way you came or and expert run, followed by
some intermediate runs over the other side. This brings you to the last peak
served by lifts on this side of the valley. The Limberg Sesselift (quad) runs
down the backside of Schattenburg Ost (2020 m). The Schattbergbahn runs from the
peak down to Saalbach across the river and the road. This tram is the largest in
Austria. From the restaurant at the top you can look down on Saalbach and watch
the tram going up and down. The longest expert run goes down the face of
Schattenberg Ost, we did not try this out. There is also a very long easy run
down the other side that ends up in the valley at Voderglemm (the base of the
last gondola on the north side of the valley). Because the snow was so scarce at
lower elevations, we did not take this run.
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