Saturday, January 24, 2009

Schladming

Schladming

One of the most popular Austrian winter resorts attracts skiers from all over Europe for a reason...

Schladming, the center of Dachstein-Tauern region, is situated on the border of the Steiermark region. With its rounded tourist offer, it is an ideal vacation, sport and entertainment destination all year round.

schladmingSpeaking of skiing, Schladming offers 115 km of trails situated on four connected hills: Hauser Kaibling, Planai, Hochwurzen and Reiteralm. Connecting of these four hills resulted in a great resort that comprises slopes of various difficulty levels, with its only flaw being indentedness. You need to be very careful in estimating the time needed for coming back to your starting point, especially if you're skiing from one side of the resort to the other, or you might end up on the "wrong" hill. The resort spans from 745 to 2015 m (Hauser Kaibling peak) above sea level, with most of its trails being marked as red. Schladming is almost 100 percent equipped with snow-making system, which is very important, considering the low altitudes of the trails that lead to the valley. Ski lifts include mostly modern cable cars and bubble chair lifts. However, there are a couple of old chair lifts and T-bar lifts on which you will experience an unpleasant jolt of speed as you mount. Queuing on the ski lifts and crowds on the trails are somewhat more often on Planai, while there are almost none on Hauser Kaibling and Reiteralm.

schladmingAs for the interesting trails, red slope No. 31 and No. 40, from the top of Hochwurzen to the valley, about 7.5km long, is definitely worth mentioning. Also, there is an excellent red run No.5 on Reiteralm. The one that will pose great challenge for more experienced skiers is a black trail leading to the center of Schladming. Each January, this trail is the scene of the Men's WC night slalom event. The Swinging Piste on Planai is special for the jukebox at its start; there, you can ski in the rhythm of your favorite song. Most of the trails are wide enough for uninterrupted carving, and what is also very important, they are well prepared so you could encounter bumps only in the late afternoon. The trails are positioned mostly on the northern side of the resort, which account for more snow days, but also for skiing in the shade in the lower parts of the resort.

schladmingFor those seeking excitement besides the groomed trails, there are marked off-piste routes at your disposal, as well as moguls run, fun parks, 7km long sledging course, backcountry routes, pacesetters race ski courses, snow kindergartens...Families with kids are recommended to stay in Schladming-Rohrmoos, situated at the lower part of Hochwurzen. The snow kindergartens there are adjacent to hotels and apartments, and are near the roads.

Apart from this "smaller" part, the region of which Schladming is the center, abunds in additional resorts (167 km of ski runs in total). For those in search of less popular destinations, you can visit smaller resorts Fageralm, Galsterbergalm and Stoderzinken. Dachstein glacier, with its top at 2700 above sea level is also worth visiting. Apart from magnificent view, there is a heaven for snowboarders - Dachstein Superpark!

schladmingAfter skiing, you can ski again! You have at your disposal 3 km of night skiing runs. There are also night sledging, ice skating, curling, ballooning, horse tandem ride, pools, saunas, restaurants...The price of a six days ski lift pass is about EUR176 in the season, and it is worth for the whole SkiAmadé area (860 km of ski runs), of which Schladming is a part. Ski pass is in a chip card form, and you'll get it for EUR3 deposit.

At the foot, there is a lot of sports equipment stores, ski services, and ski and board school. Parking lot is free of charge for the visitors who own the valid ski lift pass.

Free ski buss is circulating the valley. The food and drink prices are the following: Frankfurter with French fries - EUR6, Vienna steak - EUR9, Germknödel - EUR6, Kaiserschmarn - EUR8, beer – EUR3-5, coffee - EUR2.5. After the ski lift stop operating, Tenne apres-ski bar in Schladmingu gets most lively.

schladmingSchladming is easily accessible by A10 Salzburg-Villach highway (20 mins from the highway exit) if you're coming from the west. From east, from the direction of Vienna, Schladming is reachable by A9 highway (45 mins from the highway exit). The nearest airports are in Salzburg (90 km) and Graz (185 km). Schladming has a railway station.

Much more space would be needed for listing the complete offer in Schladming and its area. The best advice we can offer here is: come and see it for yourself!

www.ski-mag.com



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