Info:      

Web:
www.innsbruck-tourism.com

Phone: 011-0043-0512- 5985

Email: info@innsbruck.tvb.co.at

Trails: 167 miles of marked trails

Maximum Vertical Drop: 4,687 ft.

Lifts: 76 in total in the region

Ski Season: mid-Dec.—early Apr.

Air Access: through Munich, Germany, about two hours' drive away; or, direct flights from Frankfurt, Paris or London. Ski Europe organizes full itineraries: www.ski-europe.com; 800-333-5533.

Lodging: in the city means 1- to 2-hour rides to the slopes, but a free shuttle bus system is efficient. Igls is closest, about half an hour by bus or. Lodge in a holiday village, and you'll need a car to explore the city during the evenings.

Dining: runs the gamut from affordable and family-friendly to gourmet.

Night Life: This is a college town with plenty of all-night dancing, drinking and entertainment.

Club Innsbruck Card: available free in many hotels in both town and holiday villages, offers: discounts on sightseeing; free lantern-lit hikes; free child-care at Igls and Kühtai; and discounts on lift tickets.

The Innsbruck Card: offers unlimited access to cable cars and public transportation in Innsbruck/Igls and Halls, plus entrance to 18 major sightseeing attractions. (€25 for 24 hours, €30 for 48 hours and €335for 72 hours, half-price for ages 6–15).

Skiing Innsbruck, Austria                              

History, Big Mountains, Olympic Venues, Urbane

by Mitch Kaplan
photos by Mitch Kaplan

The snow underfoot was magnificent. We knew because we could feel it. Problem was, we couldn't see it. That happens during storms in places like Innsbruck, Austria. Why? Because more often than not, you're skiing above treeline.

Skiing at elevations where the trees can't grow can generate draw-dropping awe. Vast snowfields spread everywhere. Painterly peaks fill distant horizons. Turns are made at will. The alluring off-piste acreage seems endless.

But, when you're up there in a snowstorm, snowsliding degenerates into blind creeping on unpredictable, unseen surfaces. Ski poles function like a sightless person's stick, feeling the way. Without trees to diffuse light and cast dim shadows, perspective disappears. A nightmare.

So it was on our first-day welcome to Innsbruck skiing. The fog hovered thickly. Trail markers disappeared. Gauging speed proved deceptive. Vertigo set in. I felt useless.

Disappointed and cranky, I called time out. With two colleagues, I retreated into a classic slopeside Tyrolean inn to sulk over hot chocolate. Not even the fairytale ambience of rough-hewn, half-timbered architecture, or happy accordion music salved my wounded skier's ego.

Innsbruck is a skiing icon. Twice a Winter Olympic site (1968, 1976), it holds eight individual ski areas. Moreover, tucked into a narrow valley between sharply rising mountain ranges, it’s a sophisticated city, population 120,000, and home to a major university. The old city, rich in Rococo architecture and twisting cobbled streets, vibrates with history. At the height of their reign, the Hapsburgs built a huge palace here.

Innsbruck, indeed, mixes snowsliding with art, culture, history, traditional folklife and entertainment.

But, that mollifies little if you can't see where you're skiing.

Sudden Visibility                   

We skied that first day at Kühtai, an hour's drive or bus ride from the city. Set in one of Innsbruck’s 25 small, outlying "holiday villages." Architecturally, Kühtai displays the traditional Bavarian/Tyrolean style. Indeed, all the region’s towns—resorts and villages alike—express that style: masonry lower levels, wood-sided upper stories decorated with complex, scrolled woodwork, and peaked roofs.

Typical of these holiday village, Kühtai holds a handful of modest-sized hotels and a few restaurants. Little shopping is found there, but visitors tend to come for weeklong stays. Village vacationers drive into Innsbruck to shop and explore the culture. In-town visitors drive, or ride free ski busses, to the ski areas.

After brooding through lunch, I revisited the slopes. While ascending the lift, the fog lifted. Holy cow. Those vistas? Those pointed peaks? The vast terrain? It all suddenly appeared.

Guided by Bernhard Schlecter, Ski/Snowboardschule Innsbruck's director, we skied with renewed energy and excitement. We sped down groomed pistes where we'd previously proceeded with fearful caution. Suddenly, impetuously, we veered into the powdery expanses beyond the circle-shaped trail markers. For a thousand vertical feet, and for the remainder of the suddenly too-short day, we floated off-piste through knee-deep snow.

Gone to Town              

In an hour-long, guided Old Town tour, we learned that in Roman times, Innsbruck was a major stop on the main route linking northern and southern Europe. Later, it served as the center-point of the Holy Roman Empire. The place is rife with cobbled streets, antique inn and shop signs, and architecture dating from the height of the Hapsburg reign.

It's this rich cultural/historical texture, that makes this destination special.

In Stowe or Vail, you won't find buildings like

• the 16^th century Goldenes Dachl, a royal house topped with gold-plated, copper roof shingles; 
• the Hofburg Palace, home to Maria-Theresia and Marie Antoinette's birthplace;
• the baroque St. Jakob’s Cathedral, with its seemingly multi-dome ceiling (all but one are painted illusions);
• or the Tyrolean folklore museum.

And, that's just dipping your toe into the history. 

By contrast, there's the ultra-modern: an eye-arresting ski jump complex, and a new funicular that directly connects the Old City with the Nordpark ski area, home to some of Innsbruck's steepest slopes, both designed by the international renowned architect Zaha Hadid.Snowsliders are almost compelled to abandon the slopes. There are 18 museums to explore. Trolleys to ride. Myriad restaurants in which to dine on schnitzel, bratwurst and other traditional fare, or cafes in which to indulge in strong coffee and rich pastries.

For those who have the stamina, there's nightlife ranging from clubs and concerts to dinner followed by an amusingly kitschy, tourist-pleasing Tyrolean Night of folk music and dances.

And, shopping? Of course. Shops selling everything from trinket-laden tourist souvenirs to high couture and Swarovski crystal will happily accept your money.

If crystal is your game, make the trip to the town of Wattens, site of Swarovski Crystal Worlds. This spectacular collection of colorful glass is highlighted by the world’s largest crystal, a 122-meter long wall filled with 12 tons of crystal, and a series of art-and-sound exhibitions that hearken back to the psychedelic '60s.

Back to the Slopes                     

Skiing the last day at Axamer Lizum, where Billy Kidd won America's first Olympic alpine medal, we fought variable visibility all morning.

Emerging from a mountaintop lunch at one of the most impressive, modernist glass-and-stone mountaintop lodges I've seen, a cloud literally engulfed us. Bernhard added to the visibility challenge by insisting we follow the hill's steepest trail, site of the Olympic women's downhill start.

Okay, I thought; one run and done.

But, after a few hundred feet below it was a sunny day. Glancing back, we could see why: the mountain’s knob-like top was enveloped in cloud. But, only the knob.

With full visual acuity, we followed Bernhard into a powder playland. By day’s end, I was winded and wore a lunatic smile. This was what I'd come to Innsbruck to experience.