Months ago before we set foot in Europe, we all agreed to make skiing one of our largest priorities for fun. We wanted to get the most exposure to skiing in the Alps as we possibly could while we are here. We are actually here only through half of the ski season so we’ve been working hard to knock off as many ski areas as possible. When the heck else would we get to do this? Tirol has this magical little thing called the Freizeitticket. I think I have mentioned it before but just in case, here’s the scoop.

It’s a multi location ski pass (30 areas and resorts), ice skating pass (15 rinks) and swimming pool pass (8 public pools) for the entire winter season. Even though day passes are much cheaper here than they are in the Rockies ($65/day for the St. Anton, Austrias largest, compared with $115/day for Telluride), it still turns out to be a deal. It has given Patrick entrance to his weekly PE classes at the public pool, access to more skiing than we could feasibly cover in a full season and even gets us unlimited rides to the top of the Nordkette and Hafalkar station, an otherwise 25 euro round trip. All for less than we pay for season tickets to our local Purgatory resort in Colorado. We’re shooting for 20 ski areas before we leave and we are well on our way.

Patrick’s collection of piste plans

We decided this past weekend to rent a car, speeding up travel time between ski resorts and knocking out 4 resorts in 2 days time. We managed to pull it off with a couple of tobaggan runs to boot!

First two stops were for two really small ski areas called Serlesbahn and Elfer. Better known to the locals for their tobaggan, runs they are really small, super close to town, and right next door to one another. I would consider them after work type mountains. With just a handful of runs between the two of them, we managed to do a morning at Serlesbahn, eat lunch in the car and make it to Elfer in time to ski all the while throwing in a few tobaggan runs at the end.

Elfer has three tobaggan runs, one of which is like nothing I have ever seen before. It runs 7.5 km through a valley of the most prestigious mountains I’ve seen yet. Half way down you can find a beautiful alm where you can get full hot meals and drinks to the sound of a nearby gurgling creek. It’s situated at the edge of sweeping untouched snow covered pastures, in the shadows of the natural rocky towers above. I couldn’t get enough of it! And the photos don’t come close to doing it justice.

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Day two had us making the trek to two further ski areas called Hochgurgl and Obergurgl. These ski resorts are located just up valley of the famous Solden resort where the last James Bond movie “Specter” was filmed. Alas our passes aren’t good at Solden however, we were able to catch a glimpse of the upscale restaurant Ice Q and its connecting gondola and then travel up valley to the much quieter resorts outside of the village Gurgl.

Located on the border between Italy and Austria, these places are huge, above the timberline, and spectacular. There is a bar that is perched on a mountain knife edge that left one wondering how strong the wind would have to be to send the whole thing careening off the cliff. Ice Q has nothing on this place. I don’t care how good the food and fanfare is. I have seen nothing like it in my life. If it tipped south, you’d perhaps be rescued by Italians, north and the rescue team would be Austrians. Scared of heights? Maybe this one isn’t for you.

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We found a really cool playground/obstacle course on one mountain top. And there are multiple terrain parks across both ski resorts. In Austria, the parks almost always have at least one with a short t-bar or chairlift to access it and a hut nearby. This means that while your kids want to do laps on the boxes and jumps, you can sit and warm your feet by the fire and drink a beer over a rack of ribs. It’s brilliant.

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#winter #skiing #everydaylife #weekends #roadtrip #culture #food #fun #views #family