Hahnenkamm Gondola with Kitzbühel town in the background. Image: Brett Ploss.

Report from January 2, 2024

Resort Overview

Kitzbühel is a world renowned Austrian ski resort located about a two hour train ride from the Munich Airport. Along with Niseko, it is part of the IKON pass giving American skiers an incentive to visit.

The town has many luxury storefronts much like Aspen. It’s not uncommon to see a Louis Vuitton store, or eight Ferraris parked outside of your hotel.

The resort is massive. There are three main towns people stay in, Kitzbühel, Kirchberg, and Mittersill. Kitzbühel and Kirchberg are easily accessible by train with Kitzbühel having a stop feet from the Hahnenkamm gondola, the main lift from town.

Conditions Report

I started off the morning of January 1, 2024, touring in Niseko, Japan, before driving to New Chitose Airport to fly back to Tokyo. Finding out that the same flight had been involved in a crash the very next day was surreal, to say the least. From Tokyo I flew to Munich, where I boarded a train, and by 2 p.m. the next day, I was on skis in Kitzbühel.

The flights went smoothly, but leaving the snow in Niseko was not easy. Along the ride to the Austrian Alps, many smaller resorts at lower altitudes were barren.

Barren resort in the town of Oberaudorf along the train route. Image: Brett Ploss.

This is quite the contrast to the snow the Alps received to start the season.

With an IKON pass, getting on the slopes was easy. KitzSki’s ticket scanners have been programmed to work with them. I was able to skip the lift ticket window to save some time.

Train station in Kitzbühel. Image: Brett Ploss.

In stereotypical fashion, groomed runs were icy and packed full of people. Off-piste runs were untouched in many spots which made for some nice laps.

With my limited time, I was able to grab laps off the Hahnenkamm Gondola, C1, C2, B4, and B5. Since Kitzbühel is such an extensive area, this may not be fully representative of the conditions around the resort.

I finished the day with a nap to account for the +8hr time jump. Amazing experience to ski in two locations one-third of the way around the world on consecutive days.