Skiing the Narrndattl Couloir (Schneeberg)

The Schneeberg (literally translated: Snow Mountain) is remarkable in many respects.

First, with an evelation of 2076m it is the Easternmost 2000er of the whole Alps.

Second, it is the highest mountain of Lower Austria, the province surrounding Vienna (and, btw, the largest province in Austria).

Third, it offers a splendid view from the two summits which ranges from Vienna in the North to the Lake Neusiedl and the hills around Sopron (Hungary) in the East and the mountain areas in Styria in the South and West.

Fourth, it offers a maximal vertical of downhill skiing of 1500m, which is the highest vertical of the whole region.

Fivth, the number of backcountry ski runs is high enough to devote a special ski mountaineering guide book only for this mountain containing about 160 different ski runs.

Sixth, this mountain offers a truly high alpine experience (with extremely heavy storms up to 200 mph and the resulting wind chill).

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And this list could even go on. Indeed, the Schneeberg is a mighty mountain massif. It is also easily reachable from Vienna both with car as well as with public transport. The entry point to the Schneeberg is Puchberg, a nice traditional spa town, worth a visit by its own right.

There are many ways to climb the Schneeberg. The easiest one is going by the old cog railway leaving directly from the Puchberg train station to the Hochschneeberg plateau, 1798m. From there it is only a skin (or hike) of about 40 minutes to the two summits (Klosterwappen and Kaiserstein). However, this option is only available in spring (usually late April) since the train is not operated during the winter month due to avalanche danger.

During winter the standard option to climb the Schneeberg starts in Losenheim (780m), a small village and ski resort with only one chairlift and an accompanying drag lift. If you are lazy enough, using the chair lift which goes to a saddle North-West of the Schneeberg massif spares about 40-60 minutes of skinning or about 400m vertical ascent. Directly at the chair lift’s top station starts the ascent called “Fadenweg” which is relatively safe during the whole winter.

Last spring there were ideal corn snow conditions at the Schneeberg. When the cog railway opened its operation at the end of April we decided to make a round trip involving some warm up skiing in the Bockgrube and the Hackermulde. The Bockgrube is a huge bowl, south of the main summit of the Schneeberg and the Hackermulde is a nice bowl just between the two summits.

Then it was time for the final downhill for which we chose the so called Narrndattl couloir. A narrow and quite steep couloir providing access to the Breite Ries, the huge bowl at the East side of the Schneeberg massif. The descent was in perfect conditions and it was possible to ski down to about 1200m. The change of scenery from the snowy mountain to the green meadows around Schneebergdörfl back in the valley near Puchberg was really amazing.