Mayrhofen local slashes through powder. Image: Brett Ploss.

Report from January 6-7, 2024

Europe has experienced a long, dry, and warm period. It was abruptly put to a stop by more than 36 hours of continuous light to medium snowfall.

The Resort

Mayrhofen trail map. Image: Mayrhofen website.

Mayrhofen is a large resort part of the Zillertal region, about a two-hour train ride from Innsbruck.

With 48 lifts and 157km of slopes, there are endless pistes to explore. Especially Harakiri, the steepest groomed run in Austria, with a 78% incline.

Including a popular summer skiing glacier, Hintertuxer, there are three different areas not connected by lifts. The largest being Penken, smallest Ahorn and Hintertuxer.

There are no US-based ski passes that work here, but a day ticket runs about $78 USD. They are simple to purchase online and pick up by QR code at a machine, then go straight to the lift.

Skiing

Train to Mayrhofen with fresh snow. Image: Brett Ploss.

Waking up in Kitzbühel it was finally snowing. I headed to Mayrhofen by train, which took about two hours.

I was lucky to stay next to the Penkenbahn, the main gondola from the center of town. There are large cliffs surrounding the village, making it impossible to ski to the base of the gondola.

The Penkenbahn gondola at Mayrhofen. Image: Brett Ploss.

Although with the nonstop snow, visibility was never more than a few hundred feet.

I explored the far skiers’ left, then moved my way to the right, where the visibility was low. Being such a high ski area, it was necessary to ski low in the trees to see.

The next morning, I decided to explore the much smaller Ahorn area, with only a tram and two sit-down lifts. It was the right move. After getting over 24 hours of continuous snowfall, it was deep.

I found some woods and a few buildings with enough snowfall to ski.

Up top, there were one to two feet of light snow, finally bringing some good coverage to anything off-piste. By the end of the day, it started snowing harder, and tracks were gone by the next ride down.