Travel
SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental: A sustainable, scenic haven of skiing
Stunning mountains meet sustainable skiing
SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental is one of the largest ski areas in the world. It’s also a resort which has put sustainability at the top of its agenda, something which should be a matter close to the hearts of any skier or snowboarder. After all, if there’s no mountains and no snow, there’s no skiing or snowboarding, and it doesn’t take an expert to work out from the phrase that ‘global warming’ won’t be good for snow sports.
The resort is made up of nine idyllic alpine villages: Brixen im Thale, Ellmau, Going, Hopfgarten, Itter, Kirchberg, Scheffau, Söll and Westendorf.
SkiWelt installed the first solar lift in the world back in 2008 - the Brixen “Sonnenlift” - and now 83 of their ski lifts are operated with renewable energy. Technically-produced snow, when it’s needed, is 100% eco-friendly and powdered by a local hydropower company. One gondola station, which runs two gondolas – Choralmbahn and SkiWeltbahn – even has a heat recovery system which is used to heat a nearby mountain restaurant, the Choralpe. There's also another lift station with numerous charging points for electric cars.
Skiing in the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
© SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental / Tim Marcour
SkiWelt was named the Ecological Ski Resort of the Year in 2017. There’s no doubt that the resort has gone above and beyond with their sustainability offering - and the skiing is pretty special, too.
With 114km of blue runs, 120km of red and 36km of advanced black runs, it really isn’t just rolling out an old cliche to say that there’s something here for everyone. Beginners can learn the trade in any one of the 22 ski schools, while families will find that kids are able to get their first attempts at skiing in for free on the practice lifts in the valley. There’s also ample childcare.
Back on the slopes, enjoy the wide family-friendly pistes, with the option to make a stop every 3.5km in one of more than 80 family operated huts. Kids also love the three fun parks and the ski movie routes. There are two of these, one in SkiWelt Scheffau and the “Red Viper” boardercross run in Söll. After you’ve skied or snowboarded down the runs, you can head to skiline.cc and watch your runs back, plus you’ll see data from the day.
Freshly groomed slopes in the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
© SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental
SkiWelt is a resort with 270km of pistes, so it’s comfortably big enough that you’re always going to be able to spend the full day skiing without having to take the same lift or ski the same run twice (unless you want to, of course). And there are various add-ons to make it even better - from Early Bird skiing that lets you on the slopes first to the night skiing under floodlights, on freshly groomed descents. The very top of SkiWelt is the Fleiding at 1,892m, and a new eight- seater chairlift was recently installed which can get you up there in five minutes.
Perhaps the best way to discover such a vast resort is by following the newly-signposted 'SkiWelt Tour'. With 19 valley runs to choose from, the SkiWelt offers more variety than any other ski resort. There’s tree lines, there’s steeps, there’s freestyle and fun parks, beginner runs and mountain huts aplenty. There’s quaint runs back into town past cute cabins and big mountain blacks that’ll make your stomach turn.
Elsewhere, the new KitzSkiWelt Tour – the largest skitour in the world - connects SkiWelt resort with the KitzSki area, going from the slopes beneath the Wilder Kaiser across the Kitzbühel Alps to Hollersbach and back. This is a resort which is hard to match in terms of variety and scale of terrain. It’s a resort for skiers and snowboarders who simply love being out on the snow.
Lifts:
83
Pistes:
270km
Nearest Airports:
Innsbruck (84km), Salzburg (79km), Munich (148km)
Elevation:
620-1,957m
Highest Mountain:
Fleiding, 1,892m
Skiing with the family in the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
© SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental
There’s a real focus on authentic hut culture and regionality here - so expect to find traditional specials in rustic huts at lunch. For a special treat, head to the peak of Hohe Salve, where you’ll find the world’s first 360 degree revolving restaurant looking out over more than 70 peaks exceeding 3,000m. This also happens to be the starting point for the longest run in the resort - 7.3km down the valley. Time your visit right, and you can finish your day on that long run, skiing back down to town while watching the sun set over the mountains beyond.
Off the pistes the Schnitzel is tasty and the Käsespätzle cheesier than a Eurovision greatest hits playlist. The toboggan runs go day and night, snow groomer tours are run regularly and for those looking for something a little more extreme, the SkiWelt paragliding experience lets you truly fly. Maybe use the flight to scope out some awesome tree lines for the next day?
For a special treat, book yourself and your pals onto a prosecco evening in a gondola, where you and a few friends can indulge in a glass of prosecco with a view - looking down on the resort lit up in the darkness, with the twinkling lights of Söll visible beyond (possible during the night skiing session, and also throughout the day).
Winter hiking - SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
© SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental / Alex Gretter
If you come at the right time of the year, you might even be lucky enough to bump into a festival, too. There’s plenty of them in the region. The Christmas markets open in December, as does the Kufstein Light Festival, when an audiovisual production takes place on the old fortress in the centre of Kufstein. The Winter Woodstock Brass event in Brixental and the Rock am Berg (Rock the Mountain) music festival at Alte Mittel in Westendorf are both held in March.
The ALPENIGLU igloo village is home to a chapel, bar and ice sculptures, for those who like to keep things cool, and the beautiful old town and fortress of Kufstein are nearby.
Back on the slopes, over 1,700 environmentally-friendly snow machines also mean that 229km of slopes at SkiWelt can be artificially covered, including 120km (and their connections) which can be ready to ski in three days. So if the worst happens; you book a ski holiday and then it doesn’t snow (an albeit unlikely scenario in the Austrian Alps), you’re still guaranteed a ski trip in the nine idyllic villages of at SkiWelt - and you’ll have a lot to explore.