Graukogel - our stand-alone ski mountain in Gastein

When you go skiing at Graukogel you feel that you should really be lacing up your leather boots and strapping on a pair of wooden ski’s using cable bindings. It seems as though you are going back in time to a more unpressurised era.
 An era that existed before multi-kilometre ski circuses and linked resorts spread across the Alps. Graukogel is a place where you take a couple of leisurely chairlifts lifts to the top of the mountain and then take your choice between steepish blacks, an undulating red or a blue down a forest track. Or you can ski down, and T-bar back up, a wide red slalom training slope. There is no man-made snow, no snow guns spewing their icy shrapnel across the pistes. This is probably to avoid contaminating the special Gastein Water that is sourced from deep down in the mountain. It means the snow cover depends on the weather and you feel you are only having the very lightest touch on the environment. Even the slow chair lift means you have time to study the animal tracks and the wonderful zirben pines as you climb.

As you would expect in Austria there are a couple of mountain huts, one at the top and one half-way up at the middle station to refresh and refuel..

Scandinavian tour company in residence
 at the half-way house

Even getting there from our modern resort of Bad Hofgastein is a journey back in time. The Lackner Bus leaves every hour and winds its way up the Gastein Valley through Bad Bruck, stopping along the way to pick up locals going shopping or tourists staying out in the sticks. The driver might stop on the way to buy smokes, or if you catch the 11:30, he might just drop into the Kindergarten to pick up some wee tots to share your bus. The bus will stop in Bad Gastein and wait for connecting buses and pick up other skiers. But not too many skiers; Graukogel is a place without crowds. Most skiers don’t take the time venture away from the main area, often you can complete a run without passing or being passed. The corduroy often lasts all day.

It’s rumoured that the area is uneconomic and the lifts might close which would be tragic. It would mean taking to Alpine Touring Ski’s or snow-shoes to enjoy the winter splendour of our little old stand-alone ski mountain in the Gastein valley. It would still be worth it.
Look back in time....
1958 World Championships on the Graukogel and a new lift in 'Hofie'