It's not just morning grouches who sometimes feel like unpacking their skis, snowboard or even cross-country skis in the evening.
"They only come out at night" is what people say about aliens or revenants. However, these are less common on the floodlit slopes. When people hit the slopes in the dark, it's less likely that they're the lazy ones who get busy in the evenings, but rather people who combine sport and fun. After work has distracted the hard-working people from the truly important things in life, they pack their skis or boards in the car - and evening entertainment is guaranteed. Night skiing has established itself as an additional activity in Austria, not just near cities, but in numerous ski resorts, and is offered at different times.
OFTEN ONLY MINI LIFTS ARE LIT – and then only on a few days of the week. This winter, the floodlight masts could remain dark even more often. Perhaps one or two ski resorts will even do away with evening sports altogether, which are more energy-intensive than daylight. Even so, only a few of the larger night skiing areas have had floodlights on every day, and now even Söll in the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser has a Monday and Tuesday off. The Magic Mountain, or rather the Hirschenkogel area on the Lower Austrian side of the Semmering, is planning a full program. Here, night turns into day. 14 kilometers of slopes shine in dazzling light, a signpost visible from afar. Very important: the slopes are freshly groomed before evening operations.
With a few exceptions, night skiing tends to complement daytime activities. The situation is most comparable to the Semmering region in the Wilder Kaiser region, where working people from the Munich area come to ski after work. This is why Söll in the Wilder Kaiser region, for example, has extensive floodlit slopes that leave nothing to be desired. The Nightslope in Zell am See also deserves a mention. It's also fun on smaller slopes such as those in Hochficht, Dachstein West, and Schladming's Hochwurzen, which glows just as orange as the night slopes in Galtür in the far reaches of the Paznaun Valley. Night-time enthusiasts can be found not only on the slopes but also afterwards in the Hohenhaus Tenne. But it's not just night-time alpine skiers who are active, which is why floodlit trails are becoming increasingly popular. The latest hit is the first self-sufficient, solar-lit night trail in Hochfilzen, which reduces ecological reservations about nighttime winter sports.
MORE ACTION is promised by night skiing resorts like Saalbach, where the illuminated fun parks are among the main attractions of the social scene. But there are also countless – often very short – illuminated slopes, such as in Kleinlobming. And there are farewells, like Hof near Salzburg or the remote Imst. Twenty-five years ago, there were up to 1,200 night skiers there, but recently there were between 50 and 300. The floodlights were in need of renovation. Now the emergency stop has been pulled.