Best versus favourite skiing in Austria – my local hill opens tomorrow
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The case for suggesting Axamer Lizum, Innsbruck has the best skiing in Austria might be professional suicide – we pride ourselves in offering the very best information we (as a company) can give – to suggest Axamer Lizum ranks with the best skiing in Austria is fanciful. St Anton am Arlberg, Lech am Arlberg, Gerlos, Solden, Stuben am Arlberg, Zauchensee ….. the list might get pretty long before we could include Axamer Lizum. Length of pistes, number of lifts, après ski bars, kids facilities – all told Axamer Lizum doesn’t cut it compared to the big resorts. Yet it is where I have skied some of the very best conditions in Austria, a place where a 0.5l beer was the best I had tasted, where I have pulled up so many times and marvelled at a familiar view and when a mid-week car park is sparse even on huge powder days. Marketing is a powerful force. Axamer Lizum is too small attract the praise lavished on the big players and in many ways, rightly so. I spoke to a ‘leading figure’ in Stuben am Arlberg last winter (Stuben may well be the off-piste capital of the Alps) and we talked about the lift system – ‘faster lifts mean more skiers and snowboarders on and off-piste; that takes from the Stuben experience.’ The Stuben lift system is smaller and slower than much of the rest of the Arlberg – that is the beauty of the place. Fast, high capacity lifts are great but not everywhere. Stuben and Axamer Lizum offer unimaginably great winter days with resources that on paper don’t cut it. And for Axamer Lizum, you can substitute this for any resort, in any country – localism lives, knowledge is all and skiing or snowboarding thrives on familiarity, when imponderables beat lift capacities and running into an old friend mean everything.
matt this is a great article…I could write the same about Schlick…it is not big but has really good pistes and also some very good powder runs. and the huts are still huts…a perfect day skiing for me means skiing all morning long and chill in the afternoon with friends and some good beer at the bar
Hey Kathrin, that sounds just like my sort of day. I would say in my experience then the Arlberg and the Zillertal Arena offer the best skiing in Austria, possibly the Alps. Certainly not in every respect for every person but broadly the both offer outstanding and lift linked skiing. I would certainly advise anyone to go to either of these places and both the Arlberg and the Zillertal Arena have a variety of resorts types there then there is broadly something for everyone. Trying to sell my local hill Axamer Lizum is tougher - on paper or the piste map then it is a harder sell - less than 10 lifts, more limited km’s. But for those familiar with the area then you really can have the best days there.
Matt, as Kathrin said, this is a nice article. Dude, please share more experience you had in your life time.