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Visited December 2008
Hintertux is one of the large glacier ski area’s in Austria [Trailmap glacier area]. Three big stable “Glacier Bus” gondolas take you effortlessly all the way to the top of the mountain (1500-3250m).The glacier area has 75 Km of ski runs and some of those are open 365 days a year. The glacier area is not linked to the other ski area in the valley.It can get pretty windy, wild and cold on the glacier and the conditions can be vastly different then the bottom of the valley. Sometimes thats good, sometimes you have to prepare, good goggles, clothing and know which run you take.As most of the glaciers it has some surface lifts but also some good high speed chair lift.
The Tuxer valley, Zillertal, has several other ski area’s Lanersbach – Eggalm – Finkenberg – Mayrhofen, together called Gletcherwelt Zillertal 3000 [Overview trail maps]. These 4 are linked together if the snow conditions allow. If its early season or bad snow conditions the glacier area will be pretty crowded, otherwise the crowds will be much more spread. Mayrhofen hosts the sleepest prepared run in Austria, the Harakiri (see picture in slide show).
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For some great apres ski party goto Tenne. Its just off the gondola in Hintertux. Lanersbach is pretty quiet in complete contrast to the much bigger and party center Mayrhofen.
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Favorite runs:
Hintertux: 4 (Gefrorene Wand) + 3 (Tuxer fernerhaus), for full speed carving
Finkenberg: 2a Rastkogel Grauer Spitz, for nice powder turns without venturing too much off piste.
Penken (Mayrhofen): 7a Penken (beautiful run with a nice restaurant at the top specially for Sunny days)
For photoslide show click [here]