by helmut on February 5, 2010
It has been a long waiting. December and January were horrible months for powder-seeking skiers in Eastern Austria (and in almost the whole Northern Alps). However, a significant dump during the last two days satisfied all our desperate needs for powder. About 50-60cm of fresh new snow turned the hills of Eastern Austria into a winter wonderland. It was a pleasure riding the long awaited snow and enoying being back on the planks.
Fresh powder and winter sun - ingredients for a great outing
Our chosen location, the Niederalpl proved to be a good spot for harvesting the fresh powder. No crowds whatsoever and a fine combination of open runs, treeskiing and some bushwacking. Of course, due to the high degree of avalanche danger we had to stick to mellow terrain or fairly thick woods.
Powder in the woods around Niederalpl
by helmut on November 17, 2009
Imagine a small village deep in an alpine valley. A single cable car going up high into the mountains. No groomed runs leading downhill. Only off-piste runs, perfect for the days after a big dump. And, of course, a huge alpine backcountry with gnarly couloirs and all this stuff.
“Bingo!”, you’ll say, “that’s La Grave in France, for sure.”
“Hold on”, I would say, “that’s Hirschwang at the Rax, just some 80 kilometres south of Vienna”.
And I would be laughing at you for your ignorance and I would tell you my fairy tale of an epic powder day.
Rax massif, seen from the valley around Reichenau, the cable car area is seen in the right part of the picture, photo credits see below
The Rax is a huge mountain massif forming a plateau just above 1500m and peaking in the Heukuppe (2006m) in the westernmost part of the massif. Steep walls surround the whole massif offering some of the best possibilities for alpine climbing in the Vienna region. Hirschwang is located at the easternmost part of the mountain.
Rax cable car near the valley floor, Hirschwang, Lower Austria
The Rax cable car was built as early as 1921 and thus being Austria’s oldest cable car. The total vertical of the cable car is about 1020m! The terrain around the cable car is rather steep with some chutes and couloirs leading down into the woods. At the mellow plateau itself there is a single T-bar offering some beginner slopes and some terrain for park-oriented skiers.
There are various downhill runs which have been skiing for decades now (Schöllergraben, Lahngraben, Seilbahngraben, Maschingraben). All these runs offer fantastic off-piste skiing if the snow is fresh and deep enough. Add some touring possibilities from the top of the railway station (for example Grosser Kesselgraben for the beginners or Grosser Wolfsgraben for advanced skiers) and you get a quite versatile off-piste ski “resort”. Of course, there are dozens of other ascents and descents around this huge mountain but most of them do have different starting points.
Skiing deep powder in the Maschingraben, Rax
Skiing deep powder in the Seilbahngraben, Rax
However, there is one significant caveat. Due to the minimal elevation of the valley floor (just about 520m around the valley station of the cable car in Hirschwang) the snow is only plenty and good enough at certain times during the winter. So the 1000m vertical runs in the vicinity of the cable car are to be enjoyed only a few times during a winter. So you have to be lucky enough to be there in the right time …
Photo credits Rax, view from the valley floor
