Kaunertal: The Tirol’s Secret Glacier Ski Area

13th December 2023

Last modified on December 16th, 2023

Soelden, Stubai, Hintertux & Pitztal may be better known, but Kaunertal is the real deal – a high-altitude alpine gem. PlanetSKI is converted.

The approach to the high-altitude glacier resort is an ultimate alpine experience in itself – the Kaunertal Glacier road.

It’s a 26km toll road that starts at 1,273m and goes to 2,750m.

Where, incidently, there is the highest bus stop in Austria that sees two buses a day.

It struck me as the most beautiful dead-end road I had ever driven on.

The Toll Station:

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

It snakes round the 6km long Gepatsch reservoir:

Kaunertal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

It’s a 45-minute drive on a private road that hugs a narrow single-track road in places (with passing points) along the side of the lake and then snakes up the mountain side in the distance to the ski area itself.

There are 29 hairpin bends.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

It is quite simply stunningly beautiful as one drives deeper and higher into the mountain wilderness.

Until the middle of the 19th century the valley was virtually cut off from the outside world.

In 1991 a prehistoric ritual burning site was discovered at an altitude of 1,600m.

More than 3,500 years ago humans gathered to light fires and offer sacrifices.

It is certainly one of the most remote roads to a ski resort that I have travelled on, and ranks alongside driving through the Canadian Rockies.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

At the main base area there are lifts fanning out and a Day Lodge that bears more than a passing similarity to ones found in Canada.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Full of ‘real’ skiers that have made the effort to get here.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Inside there are several skiers with a disability – Kaunertal is a centre for adaptive skiing.

More of that later.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

There is no accommodation up here at 2,750m.

It is a ski centre only with all accommodation and shops back down in the valley.

The numbers are modest.

55 kms of marked slopes with 11 blues, 7 reds and 5 blacks.

Though the Ibex (Black 11) claims to be the steepest piste in Europe with a gradient of 87.85%.

There are around 36kms of off piste slopes.

It looks fairly unremarkable on the piste map.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria.

Never has a piste map been so unable to convey what a resort really offers in its skiing and character.

These were my feelings after a few hours on my first ski trip to the mountains of this season.

So, why was I so excitable?

Well, I like heading to resorts that are off-the-beaten-track and offer an altogether different ski experience.

Especially on a power day at the start of winter.

Kaunertal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Here’s looking back up a main piste.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

And here’s looking down it.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Notice anything?

There’s no-one else around.

The scenery is simply stunning with three peaks above 3,000m.

It borders Italy with an off piste descent off the back that requires a taxi at the end to get you back to your hotel.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

There has been a significant improvement to the infrastructure since I was last here in 2019.

In 2021 the Weisseejoch lift was installed.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Two years earlier in 2019 a new lift, Falginjoch, was put in to take people to the highest point in the resort at 3,113m.

Kaunertal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

And at the top when I went up it was blowing a gale.

Kaunertal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

And in the storm of wind-blown snow were these brave souls.

Kaunertal, the Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

There were sightly calmer conditions lower down.

The resort has been a mecca for skiers with a disability for decades with exceptional facilities.

In fact the hotel I was staying at, the Weisseepitze near Feichten, has been leading the way in facilities for adaptive skiers for decades.

There are the usual wide doorways, lifts and facilities in the rooms.

Then this:

A ramp up to the low-level bar so people in a wheelchair can be at the bar on the same level as the barman and other guests.

The valley has 1,900 beds so the ski area never really gets crowded except perhaps at weekends when the locals pour in for the unique mountain experience on offer.

Back up the mountain the resort has also been leading the way in sustainability.

There is the aforementioned Falginjoch lift that recharges itself as the descending cable car heads over the final pylon with the braking energy recovered as electricity.

The Weisseejoch lift has solar panels at the bottom and top stations.

The energy is fed back into the energy cells that power part of the resort.

Solar power covers 40% of the energy required to run the lifts and the rest comes from renewable energy.

The foreign visitors to Kaunertal are primarily from Germany followed by Poles, Czechs and a handful from the Benelux countries.

Some ski racers from Ukraine were also here on my visit.

Do not expect to hear English spoken here – The Brits make up about 4% of visitors.

At this time of the season there are many race teams here – the ski racers of the future perhaps.

Kaunertal has a long season stretching over six months from September/October through to May with skiing on its glacier.

As global warming takes its seemingly inevitable course the glaciers at Kaunertal are likely to be some of the last to vanish in Austria, with the main one is still 160m deep at its thickest point.

The last Ice Age was 20,000 years ago with only the highest peaks protruding from the ice.

The Otztal Alps are the most heavily glaciated mountains in Austria with 213 glaciers covering 170 square kms.

One other distinctive feature of the resort is that there no apres ski bar here – the only Austrian resort I have come across without the obligatory umbrella bar pouring beer and beating out the sounds at the end of the day.

But then a 45-minue drive down the access road is not to be undertaken with alcohol in the veins.