Austria: Skiing in the Alps I – Dachstein West, a Village Type Ski Resort

Winter Reading Is Brought to you By:

There are many options for skiing in Austria - many small resorts which are either secluded or part of a bigger whole where you can use one ski pass and use its shuttle service. Some people prefer large ski resorts connected by many cable ways so nobody would lose attraction in it. There are many of such centers. Just pick one. but lets take a look at some.

Dachstein West is located on the northwestern slopes of  Dachstein. Russbach is something like an entrance gate to pistes. Right at the main road in Russbach, there is lower station of the cable car of Hornbahn. This one takes you hundreds of elevation meters up and other stop in the village of Gosau where you can hop on the cable car. Panorama Jet Zwieselalm, is a new cable car and a station where you can get on it is at the first car park adjacent to the ice lake Gosausee. the last village within this resort is Annaberg im Lammertal. Free ski busses provide transport from nearby villages and towns like Bad Ischl, Hallstatt and others.

This small ski resort is 6 hours of ride away from Prague. Once there you realize it is like if you were in those perfect mountain posters. and the views of Gosausbach (limestone mountains) and Dachstein, the famous glacier, are truly epic. we certainly like the surroundings of the resort. There are some state of the art cable ways but others are visibly more technically older. you can ride in cable cars, cable ways with seats or ski tows. Unfortunately, Dachstein has no piste of black difficulty. on the other hand there are plentiful red pistes. Just choose the direction you want to ride to and go. Not enough inclination variations is counterweighted by number of snowparks, snowcrosses, bump covered pistes, practice tracks, racing tracks and free style parks. Any visitor can downhill on these.

Cross-country skiers can run on tracks from Gosau village down to Gosau Hintertal. the track ends at a small lake Gosaub. in case you would prefer a valley track you should get to Annaberg. There at Lungötz village are two circuits several dozens of kilometers long.

Where we go skiing next time? Well, this will be a surprise...

GPS: 47°33'56.4"N 13°29'51.7"E

Text and photos: Martina Brožková