Skiing in Austria

The Arlberg is hard to explain to anyone who has not been there. Put yourself on the terrace of the Krazy Kanguruh in Sankt Anton at four in the afternoon, a jäger tee in your hand and a band playing remixed Austropop, and I swear that for two hours you forget why you came to ski in the first place. That is Austria.

St. Anton am Arlberg, Lech, Zürs, Stuben — the original villages of technical alpine skiing. Hannes Schneider was teaching the Arlberg Technique here before anyone called it a “method”. Today the combined Ski Arlberg area adds up to 305 km of piste and more than 200 km of marked off-piste, and it is still the place where a European skier shows what they are made of.

But Austria is not only the Arlberg. There is Kitzbühel and its Hahnenkamm race — the Streif — which every January spreads adrenaline around like salt on the runs. Ischgl and its industrial-scale après-ski, where Pink Floyd and Bon Jovi have played. Sölden, with its glacier, its 007 filming locations and its guaranteed altitude. Saalbach-Hinterglemm, the Skicircus, 270 km of piste linking four valleys with Tyrolean hütte culture, Kaiserschmarrn and brutally good golden beer.

For those after something else: Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis has the most absurd underground railway in the world — a metro, inside the village, free, so you can ski with children. Mayrhofen has the Harakiri, the steepest run in Austria at a 78% gradient. Bad Gastein mixes Belle Époque with thermal waters. Obergurgl is the Ötztal glacier, with a village sitting at 1,930 m — there are few like it. And Schladming, Zell am See and Stubai complete a map where nothing is surplus.

Anti-recommendation: Do not come to Austria looking for French-style luxury. Austrian luxury is a different thing: family hotels run by four generations, enormous spas, schnapps after dinner and the lady of the house greeting you by name on day three.

Austria does not ask permission to enjoy itself.