To compare it to the biggest interconnected ski areas in North America: Vail, Park City/Canyons, and Whistler are all approx 6 miles wide, Big Sky/Moonlight is 5 miles wide, Mammoth and Killington are 4 miles wide.
Approaching the region from the east, it was a bit gloomy in the valley following the four-inch dusting that had fallen overnight.
After paying $54 for a walk-up day pass (the most expensive on this trip/all of the previous walk-up tickets were in the $37-44 range), I took the gondola from the village of Mühlbach:
Five minutes later, I was relieved to see the bluebird panorama up top.
To clarify, Hochkönig is the towering massif you look at the entire time, not what you actually ski. Measured by prominence, it's the sixth tallest peak in the entire Alps with the summit at 9,600 feet/2,900 meters. By contrast, the ski area itself is definitely in the lower-elevation category, topping out at 6,200 feet with a vertical drop of 3,600 feet.
Only a 50-minute drive from Salzburg: while becoming increasingly popular, it's comparatively on the less-traveled side of destination resorts and not even close to the number of tourists who visit Alps big boys such as Saalbach-Hinterglemm just to the west.
Throughout, there are callouts to the "king" theme, including the circuit's name "die Königstour": the King's Tour. For example, at the top of each of the five individual sectors are "kingdom gates" made out of trees, some of which have allegedly been used by eagles as nests.
Along with wooden thrones, popular for photo ops:
Since it was already 10:00 by the time I was booted up at the car, a British gentleman in the gondola warned me that if I wanted to cross the entire area and return before the lifts close, "you mustn't dilly dally!" (not to be confused with the UK expression "shilly shally," which means to be indecisive). Fair enough and always entertaining to be reminded of expressions that never made it across the pond to our side.
They provide a lot of signage and maps throughout the circuit to keep you moving in the proper direction:
It's almost not worth posting the trail map here because it's so compressed, you'd think you were at a comparatively tiny place. Here's a link to the online version, which allows you to zoom in; however, it still doesn't convey the breadth of the area nor does it include many unmarked trails.
By 11-ish, the school-break crowds had already chewed up the four inches of snow that had fallen the night before on the groomers leaving steeper pitches scratchy in spots:
The smartest thing to do was ski the offpiste baby bumps directly next to the trails, which were soft as could be:
All but one of the main lifts in the entire area were high-speed detachables. Many had posh leather seats (none were heated, for the record):
Gorgeous vistas everywhere:
Sometimes you had to take long connecting sections to cross to the next sector:
Going full speed, with lifts all ski-on and not taking any breaks or doing repeat laps on terrain pods, it took me more than 2.5 hours to go 80% across the circuit, where I decided to stop for lunch:
This rock-star cat has a great gig, sitting in the sun all day while gazing out over the mountains. Everyone stopped to pet him and absorb his "what me worry?" vibe, including me:
By the time I finished lunch, it was already 1:30 and I had to get moving back to my car. Unfortunately, this meant leaving a lot of skiable terrain on the table, including the extensive above-treeline Aberg sector on the far looker's right.
This is only remaining fixed chair in the entire joint. They've already installed the the towers for the new gondola to replace it this coming summer.
Similar to Tony's experience at Morzine/Les Gets, due to the low elevation, most of the forests are too dense to attempt to ski. Moreover, as I understood it, there are species of mountain goats that burrow in the snow during the day and skiers have reportedly hit them. Hence these signs throughout:
A large economy-sized hut at the top of two lifts playing Euro disco, not my scene. I prefer the smaller low-key huts.
With oversized pillows to relax on:
Snoozing in the sun:
And a chapel with a view:
I pulled into Mühlbach at a little after 4 pm, pretty exhausted from how many miles I covered. In short: easily a place you could spend a good three days exploring; one day was sufficient only to scratch the surface. Moreover, there was some legitimate black terrain in addition to all the intermediate-cruisers. I'd definitely go back for more.
