Family friendly ski holidays with so much variety to explore.
The skiing areas in and around the Salzkammergut are especially great for families and provide some fantastic beginner pistes to make those first turns on. Our local resort the Feuerkogel and slightly further afield, the Postalm, make for excellent introductions to the world of downhill skiing.
Our local ski school has been helping wannabe skiers and snowboarders make those first turns for many years. Whilst the ski school website is not provided in English, they can teach in English with no problems, though please bear in mind that lessons need to be booked at least a week in advance.
For those who have already made their first turns skiing, there is ample opportunity for testing yourselves on the Feuerkogel, and when you’ve had your fill you can head to the excellent intermediate pistes of Dachstein West where some 130km pisted runs await. If the little ones fancy a change from skiing then there is a kindergarten facility at Russbach, part of the Dachstein West area, which provides child care and lunch.
And for the freeride adventurers out there, the Krippenstein Freesports Arena with easily accessed and well monitored off piste awaits.
Wherever you decide to ski, all these resorts are accessible on the same lift pass (when purchasing a Dachstein West lift pass lasting over 1.5 days) and at a glance include: Feuerkogel, Dachstein West (Gosau, Russbach and Annaberg), Krippenstein Freesports Arena, and Abtenau Karkogel.
Which ski resort?
To check out the pistes simply click on the mini piste map.
Feuerkogel
At 1592m our local resort the Feuerkogel, which is just a 5 minute drive away, offers some breathtaking scenery as the cable car whisks you up to the plateau. Despite being off the main ski radar it has recently had a 16 Million Euro investment program including a new 8 man gondola, a 6 man chairlift and 2 new drag lifts. The slopes here are mostly easy to medium, though there are a few more challenging runs including a difficult off piste ski route back to the village. Don’t worry, that’s not the only way back down!
To give you a small taster of our local mountain, we have uploaded a video to YouTube which you should be able to see below.
Dachstein West
With it’s huge lift system the Dachstein West area offers 130km of skiing for all abilities and can be reached by car in about 30 minutes. As well as skiing the 44km Dachstein Tour, a variety of snowshoe hikes are offered, whilst down in the scenic Gosau valley cross country skiing on well prepared routes await.
Krippenstein Freesports Arena
For those wanting to experience some of the best off piste skiing there is, then the Krippenstein Freesports Arena has recently been chosen as a hot spot in Europe and can challenge the best there are. There are 20km of pistes including the longest descent in Austria, as well as 30km accessible off piste where freeride heaven awaits. At 1500m the snow-assuredness of the Dachstein glacier area is the place to head to for powder snow. This area is about 40 minutes to reach by car.
Abtenau Karkogel
Whilst it cannot boast 900km of piste, Abtenau Karkogel does have a 3km night toboggan run and is about 50 minutes to reach by car. Whilst the resorts above (including Abtenau) are all included in a ski pass of 1.5 days or more (with Dachstein West ski pass) the resorts that follow require another ski pass but are all reasonable value.
Kasberg
The Kasberg is also only a 45 minute car journey away and features some lovely pistes and the much loved Caos Crew Snow Park. The Caos Crew and Kasberg also host an annual party for one of the youngest lessons for toddlers on snowboards!
The Postalm
One of the best beginners ski areas in Europe, being situated on an alpine plateau free from avalanche dangers or intimidating steep slopes, the Postalm area is a skiing and cross-country paradise and is around 45 minutes by car.