Salzburg Skiing Austria

Austria’s Salzburg mountains are a vast network of independent, big ski resorts, unless you follow the World Cup these are places the majority of skiers have never heard of! Everyone thinks of Austria’s Tyrol – The Arlberg of St Anton and Kitzbuhel, Ischgl in the Paznaun Valley, or Innsbruck and The Zillertal Valley.

But with over 80 ski areas, Salzburg makes an excellent place for an Austrian ski safari – easily reached from Salzburg or Munich. Ski passes that cover most of the big and small ski resorts in the province include the Super Ski Card, and the Ski Amade pass which covers quite a few as well.

The Salzburg Alps are beautiful, with stunning peaks, pretty alpine villages, and farm alms in the valleys below. Modern ski trams, gondolas, and fancy heated bubble cover chairs connect multiple villages and neighboring ski areas for a true Alps experience. As for the alpine lifestyle, charming cozy mountain chalets await for ski in ski out lunches, lively après ski is a daily occurrence with music, schnapps and a fun Austrian vibe. The resort villages have four and five-star all-inclusive hotels with lavish spas and gourmet meals, or chalets for rent, and basic motels as well.

These big and medium size ski resorts have family skiing, ski schools and lessons, freeriding and ski touring, and interconnection to numerous villages for fun ski exploring at Ski Circus Saalbach, Ski Gastein, Schladming, Snow Space Salzburg, and Obertauern ! Ski resorts like lakeside Zell am See have slopeside lodging at Sporthotel Alpin, and from here you make easy day trips to ski Kitzteinhorn and Rauris.

The more famous ski resorts in the Salzburg mountains are Zell am See, Saalbach and Obertauern, even Hochkönig. Nearby are more large ski areas outside the province of Salzburg, such as Kitzbühel in the Tyrol and Schladming in Styria.

We loved skiing Hochkönig, Kitzsteinhorn glacier near Zell am See, and enjoyed several days exploring sprawling Obertauern. We especially like the humble but fun ski area of Rauris. Great freeriding is available at Saalbach’s Skicircus Fieberbrunn, and near Snow Space Salzburg at Zauchensee, even the cool family resort of Tauplitz has exceptional off-piste skiing.

This Salzburg region has moderate elevation, not as high as the French or Swiss Alps, or The Arlberg. However, you can still find great ski terrain, miles and miles of interconnected ski villages and peaks served by modern high-capacity lifts, and big freeriding opportunities. When there is not a bounty of natural snow (lower elevation), and the freeride, off-piste, terrain is not well covered, the pistes/ski trails in Salzburg can become dangerously crowded, but that is true throughout much of the Alps.