Ski-Snowboard Salzburg: Grossarl
The first Salzburg, Austria, ski-snowboard day was spent at Grossarl
The Salzburg, Austria, region contains 22 major ski resorts with skiing and snowboarding on 1100 miles of trails. Our ski vacation with Ski Europe started at Grossarl.
The original Salzburgland ski and snowboard vacation itinerary, put together for our group by the ski tour company Ski Europe, called for skiing at Lofer. Low in elevation, Lofer was actually closed.
We altered our schedule and traveled to Grossarl.
Grossarl is part of an agglomeration of ski resorts collectively known as Ski Amade. Altogether Amade encompasses five ski resorts set in 28 towns, serviced by 257 lifts and offering 860-km (535 miles) of marked trails.
Now, that’s a lot of skiing or snowboarding. Or anything else, for that matter.
We began by riding the Panoramabahn Grosarl I. A gondola. (Why is everything named? And why are these German-language names so tongue-tying?) It ascends nearly 407 meters of vertical (1,970 feet or so), but doesn’t get us even near the top.
The dearth of snow limited us to skiing manmade snow on groomed runs, but never mind. We’re simply happy enough just be here gazing out on endless mountains with ski lifts running all over the place, that any snowsliding will do.
A word of caution for skiing these European ski resorts that are so spread out: hire a guide. Generally speaking:
- the trail maps aren’t very detailed
- runs don’t necessarily have names
- (and if they do, who can pronounce them?)
- and if you make a mistake, you could be paying for an expensive taxi ride back to your starting point.
A guide may involve an extra cost, but you’re not likely to get lost, and you’ll not only get a locals’ insight, you’ll receive a general background into life in the Alps and historical information that add an invaluable dynamic to your experience.
We skied to a nearby chairlift that ascended to 594 meters elevation, but we still weren’t near the top.
Given the lack of snowfall for the season, the conditions were pretty danged good. Yes, we smacked into the occasional icy spot, but we North Americans have a misconception that in Europe they neither need to nor bother to make snow.
Not so.
They snowmaking plants at all the Salzburgerland resorts proved themselves to be pervasive, strong and fully capable of handling a sparse snow season. Nobody really wants to snowslide on manmade-only. But, it’s better than sliding on rock.
The morning was spent dashing from one chair to another, in a vain attempt to achieve a pervasive tour. Given the scope of things, that really can’t be done. But, we gave it a game try, rocketing from lift to lift while trying to keep up with our guide who’s idea of slowing down was reducing from 100 mph to 99.
You can’t blame a native Austrian for going fast. These people are born with skis on their feet.
Luckily, it was soon lunch time.
We skied into a mid-mountain restaurant (or, hut, as they’re likely to say here), called Harbachutte.
We emerged nearly two hours later, stuffed to the gills.
The prolonged, relaxed lunch is another feature of European skiing that has to date escaped our continent. Yeah, you don’t get in as many runs during the day if you add an extra hour to your lunchtime. But, you sure enjoy yourself.
We re-traced our runs after lunch, and spent a good deal of time atop the resort’s highest ridge simply ogling the views.
"Over there," we were told," is Gastein. You’ll ski there on Sunday."
Over there looked to be several country’s distance away, but I could just make out a long, long gondola that I’d later learn was called Gipfalbahn-Fulseck II. Go ahead—pronounce that three times fast!
A shorter afternoon was nothing to complain about. By the time we returned to the bus, nobody was complaining of getting in too little skiing. And, I’d say that the number of people who snoozed en route back to Salzburg evidenced that we’d all skied enough.
