Kaunertaler Gletscher

Kaunertaler Gletscher
The long road to the hideaway

A Capricorn adorns the 10-person gondolas of the Weißseejochbahn, which takes you to 3,044 meters. Calm colors, original loden benches - everything is done to focus attention on the bizarre surroundings. But as beautiful as the ride up is, it only serves one purpose, namely to glide down. The area around the Weißseejoch opens up countless new possibilities for skiers and day-trippers. Whether on or off the piste. The long journey over the seemingly endless glacier road was ultimately worth it - everyday life has remained in the valley.

Am Falginjoch (3,113 m) the new cable car has been inviting people to a completely new version of the summit climb for several years now. The 32 tow lift supports are gone, and now there are spacious slopes! The two gondolas of the particularly wind-stable Funifor cable car have space for a hundred people.
New slopes were created together with the railway, including the Black Ibex, one of the steepest in Austria. From September onwards, you can see snowboarders and freeskiers enlivening the glacier from the gondolas. At the end of the long toll road, it makes sense to park at the first chairlift at the Gepatsch reservoir and save yourself the 650 metres of climbing to the glacier car park, but instead use the two sections of the Ochsenalmbahn. A "red" awaits you on the way down - and the fun can begin. Even if hardly any other regions are in operation during the early start to the ski winter, the only areas that are crowded are the glacier areas, where up to 70 teams train on peak days in autumn. Otherwise, hardly anyone crosses the wide carving slopes on overcast weekdays. But boarders are particularly at home here. To the left of the Weißseeferner lift, the competition-ready 120-meter halfpipe is being prepared, and also in 2019, the Kaunertal Snowpark entered a new era: runs that merge with nature - "Natureruns" and "Jib Line 3.0" are what the shapers conjure up in the landscape.

Who jumps and tilting bars ignored, the challenge remains the piste number 6, created three years ago. It goes up from the glacier car park with the gondolas of the Karlesjochbahn, which are particularly pleasant at this altitude, directly to the Italian border. Right from the start, there is a pleasant gradient. When it's cloudy, the turn-off, which is only marked in black on the left-hand side, is not easy to spot. Then you go through the 140-meter-long and necessarily illuminated Wiesejaggl ski tunnel. With a gradient of ten percent in the tunnel, it is probably the steepest of its kind. The hard surface leads towards the tunnel exit, where - if there is enough snow - there is a decent kicker for freaks to the right.

For freeriders After the tunnel there are excellent deep snow slopes, while piste enthusiasts can enjoy the really black run in this sector. Finally, there is the particularly wide 12-metre ski bridge over the glacier road, before piste number 6 to the Ochsenalm becomes more comfortable. You can carve to the valley station of Ochsenalm II, but since you've only just got going, it's better to go straight to the lowest lift station so that you can enjoy the 1,000 metres of altitude in one go, which is unusual for a glacier ski area. The total length of the run is an impressive 2.2 kilometres. On the whole, the rather easy pistes are otherwise glacier-like. If it gets too frosty, the not-so-small Fendels ski area down the valley remains a weatherproof and fairly inexpensive alternative.