This was a day that James would have appreciated. With the current weather/conditions, it seemed worthwhile to ski Austria’s highest lift service. But the Pitztal Valley is long with only small towns along it to stay. Thus we reasoned correctly that it would be the most low key place to ski on a Saturday.
I looked on Google Maps for any possible lodging options to shorten our driving and was pleasantly surprised to find the Alpenhof Pitztal Hotel only 10 km from Rifflsee. The Alpenhof room and dinner were comparable to what we had at the Bergland in Sölden for less than half the price due to the more obscure location. There was no swimming pool and the steam room was out of order, but we did get a nice sauna before dinner.
We parked at Rifflsee about 10:30 and got combined lift tickets including the glacier. I count these as two areas due to both completely different character and the option to ski only one of them. Rifflsee is very quiet. Here’s the top Grubenkopf lift up to 9,200 feet and its two mostly east facing pistes of about 2,000 vertical.
Here’s the eponymous lake:
There’s a cross country ski track on the far side. We also saw a couple of AT skiers ascending the pistes.
Even under the radar places like this have major league snowmaking in Austria.
There was also the Muttenhopf lift, south facing and a modest 700 vertical. However its two pistes had butter smooth corn when we skied them around noon due to minimal skier traffic. We skied every numbered piste in about two hours and then exited the long and occasionally mushy #1 piste down to the Mittelberg base.
From Mittleberg an 8 minute funicular ascends inside the mountain from 5,700 to 9,300 feet to the Pitztal Glacier. From there the Wildspitzbahn gondola is Austria’s highest ski lift, topping out at 11,283 feet. To no surprise in the Alps, there’s a stairway ascending to the best viewpoint.
View down the pistes at lower right and down the Pitztal Valley at upper left:
More mountains and glaciers to the south:
View down to the top of Pitztal’s second gondola Mittelbergbahn and piste below it.
We skied three runs from Wildspitzebahn and two from Mittlebergbahn.
An interesting feature was this snow machine just below Wildspitzbahn.
Halfway down the pistes,
Yes, there is winter snow after a dry month if you go high enough.
Liz liked this view of a manmade snow pyramid.
The gun is behind it so it looks like a smoking volcano. There were at least three other snowmaking piles scattered about. It was evident to me that the snowblowing was to stockpile snow that could be spread out near the gondola bases later in the year. However it struck me as strange that Pitztal’s season is mid-September to mid-May. Why is it open in September vs. June/July with a deeper snowpack and corn snow? I asked Fraser and he said most of the summer/fall glacier skiing in the Alps is for race camps. The racers prefer the harder snow in September to midsummer conditions.
The Mittelberg sector had a fun set of rollers just looker’s left of the piste, with larger park features beyond.
Oddly, there is an exit trail down to Mittleberg not posted on the map. We saw enough people heading out that we decided no “weak sauce” riding the funicular down for us! Liz at warning sign:
Start of 3,700 vertical descent:
Soon we pass an ice cave, likely at the toe of the glacier.
Some skiers hiked over there to look inside.
View down the canyon:
Liz coming down the home stretch:
We skied 9,400 vertical at Rifflsee and 14,800 at the Pitztal Glacier.
We drove 3.5 hours after skiing to just past Zurich, then 5 hours Sunday to Val Thorens. On Sunday we took an hour break in Bern, noted for its unusual 15th century medieval fountains. This one, the child-eater, is most infamous and would be appreciated by modern day Q-Anon.
I looked on Google Maps for any possible lodging options to shorten our driving and was pleasantly surprised to find the Alpenhof Pitztal Hotel only 10 km from Rifflsee. The Alpenhof room and dinner were comparable to what we had at the Bergland in Sölden for less than half the price due to the more obscure location. There was no swimming pool and the steam room was out of order, but we did get a nice sauna before dinner.
We parked at Rifflsee about 10:30 and got combined lift tickets including the glacier. I count these as two areas due to both completely different character and the option to ski only one of them. Rifflsee is very quiet. Here’s the top Grubenkopf lift up to 9,200 feet and its two mostly east facing pistes of about 2,000 vertical.
Here’s the eponymous lake:
There’s a cross country ski track on the far side. We also saw a couple of AT skiers ascending the pistes.
Even under the radar places like this have major league snowmaking in Austria.
There was also the Muttenhopf lift, south facing and a modest 700 vertical. However its two pistes had butter smooth corn when we skied them around noon due to minimal skier traffic. We skied every numbered piste in about two hours and then exited the long and occasionally mushy #1 piste down to the Mittelberg base.
From Mittleberg an 8 minute funicular ascends inside the mountain from 5,700 to 9,300 feet to the Pitztal Glacier. From there the Wildspitzbahn gondola is Austria’s highest ski lift, topping out at 11,283 feet. To no surprise in the Alps, there’s a stairway ascending to the best viewpoint.
View down the pistes at lower right and down the Pitztal Valley at upper left:
More mountains and glaciers to the south:
View down to the top of Pitztal’s second gondola Mittelbergbahn and piste below it.
We skied three runs from Wildspitzebahn and two from Mittlebergbahn.
An interesting feature was this snow machine just below Wildspitzbahn.
Halfway down the pistes,
Yes, there is winter snow after a dry month if you go high enough.
Liz liked this view of a manmade snow pyramid.
The gun is behind it so it looks like a smoking volcano. There were at least three other snowmaking piles scattered about. It was evident to me that the snowblowing was to stockpile snow that could be spread out near the gondola bases later in the year. However it struck me as strange that Pitztal’s season is mid-September to mid-May. Why is it open in September vs. June/July with a deeper snowpack and corn snow? I asked Fraser and he said most of the summer/fall glacier skiing in the Alps is for race camps. The racers prefer the harder snow in September to midsummer conditions.
The Mittelberg sector had a fun set of rollers just looker’s left of the piste, with larger park features beyond.
Oddly, there is an exit trail down to Mittleberg not posted on the map. We saw enough people heading out that we decided no “weak sauce” riding the funicular down for us! Liz at warning sign:
Start of 3,700 vertical descent:
Soon we pass an ice cave, likely at the toe of the glacier.
Some skiers hiked over there to look inside.
View down the canyon:
Liz coming down the home stretch:
We skied 9,400 vertical at Rifflsee and 14,800 at the Pitztal Glacier.
We drove 3.5 hours after skiing to just past Zurich, then 5 hours Sunday to Val Thorens. On Sunday we took an hour break in Bern, noted for its unusual 15th century medieval fountains. This one, the child-eater, is most infamous and would be appreciated by modern day Q-Anon.
