Winter Sports in the Alps: Hochzeiger, Tyrol, Austria
Welcome back on the blog and to another ‘Winter Sports in the Alps’ blog post. This week, we’re headed to another amazing Tyrolean valley: the Pitztal. Here, you can find great skiing areas, and one of them is the Hochzeiger, which I’ll bring you closer to today. Buckle up and let’s get right into it!
This ski resort is located in the Pitztal valley. The skiing area is reached in less than an hour from Innsbruck and the first ski resort you see when driving through that valley. There’s also a glacier in the valley, but more on that another time.
As you might have realised when reading about Obergurgl-Hochgurgl in the Ötztal valley, there are lots of valleys in Tyrol, but this one is way less busy than the Ötztal, so you can also go there on the weekends without getting stuck in traffic. The road through the valley is a one-lane road, and only the very last part might get closed on days with bad conditions or snow (but this happens very rarely!), so I’d say that 90 % of the time you do not have to worry. There’s a vast parking area, and a shuttle bus brings you from this area to the gondola within 2 minutes.
The ski resort has a medium or big size, depending on what you are used to. There are 22 different lifts or gondolas, and you can choose from 50 different slopes of all kinds of difficulty levels. The name of the resort comes from the mountain Hochzeiger, the one you can see on the very first picture of this blog post. What I particularly like about this resort is the panorama of the endless mountain ranges of the Pitztal valley. I’d say the Pitztal is a bit underrated, compared to the earlier mentioned Ötztal valley. But that does not make it any less enjoyable! There are so many slopes, you can’t get bored there.
Of course, there is lots to do at the Hochzeiger. The resort offers more than just regular slopes. There’s a fun park for those of you that like to do jumps, a ski school for beginners and learners and a speed racing run, where you can test your limits and try to ski the run as fast as possible.
No matter what kind of restaurant you are looking for, you’ll surely find one place to eat that you really enjoy. There are huts as well as big self-service restaurants. I opted for the main restaurant near the peak station of the gondola, as I liked how central it is. I was able to continue my snowboarding day to my liking afterwards as a vast number of lifts was reached easily from there. I enjoyed some awesome Tyrolean dumplings - and yes, I know I eat that all the time while I am on the slopes. I just can’t help it!
You surely have realized that we Austrians are crazy about ski sports. In Austria, successful Alpine World Cup racers can become really famous and popular. Someone that became really famous a few years back was Benni Raich. He was born in the Pitztal valley, and therefore you’ll be reminded of this fact (and about many other ski stars that lived or live there) when driving through the valley, or in this case, while skiing. There’s actually a slope named after him. It’s a slope that is marked as difficult, and while it is undoubtedly not an easy one, I wouldn’t say it’s the most difficult one I’ve ever seen. But I remember, years ago, when I was little, it sure seemed like one hell of a slope!
If you are planning on heading to the Hochzeiger, I suggest you check out the following link, to be informed about open slopes and lifts and I hope you’ll have a great time there!
The SNOW CARD TIROL, REGIO CARD TIROL & GLACIER PARK CARD WINTER are valid for this resort.
Of course, not everyone likes the same kind of ski resorts. Therefore, you can here a link to all my other blog posts about ski resorts in the Alps. I hope you have fun checking them out and if you are looking for another specific resort, I’d be glad if you let me know. I’m sure you’ll find a skiing are to your liking.
Little disclaimer: none of these posts are sponsored. Sponsored posts are clearly marked and if you are curious about how I handle that, I suggest you read about that here.