SkiWelt

The SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental is Austria’s largest linked ski area, set in the rugged Kaiser Mountains of Tirol. Nine villages share its 280 kilometres of pistes and 90 lifts. Brixen im Thale, Ellmau, Going, Hopfgarten, Itter, Kelchsau, Scheffau, Söll and Westendorf form the network, linked by chairlifts, cable cars and drags. The area grew from small postwar lifts to a single ski pass in 1977. Early pioneers like Westendorf’s 1946 lift and Hopfgarten’s 1954 chairlift laid the foundations. By 1985 every village pooled its rides, and snowmaking arrived in the 1980s to keep runs open. Today it carries more than two million skiers each winter. Visitors find wide sunny slopes beside steep couloirs for experts. Mountain huts serve Kaiserschmarrn and glühwein, and the Hartkaiserbahn funicular in Ellmau climbs to panoramic views. From Söll’s Hochsöll gondola the whole range stretches east to the Wilder Kaiser’s jagged peaks.