We’d thought Whistler, Banff, and Utah had amazing ski resorts, but we were quite blown away by the enormity of the Stubai Glacier in Innsbruck, Austria. Towering more than 3,200 m above sea level, the ski resort was way, way above the trees, so we were just surrounded by nothing but endless horizons of snow capped peaks.
The skiing was phenomenal on the first day – the skies were a brilliant blue and the snow bathed in a glorious glow of white light. There were the groomed trails to ski on, alongside fields of pure, virgin powder. We slid down the powder in wondrous childish delight, finding the simple joy in the quiet swishing of the skis on the snow and the bite of cold wind on our skins.
Jeff says: Innsbruck has many nearby ski resorts, and the free ski shuttle buses makes it very convenient to stay in Innsbruck and still make it to the slopes with plenty of time to ski. We stayed at the Hotel Weisses Kreuz, which likes to advertise that Mozart spent several nights there when he paid the town a visit. The hotel is located right in the old town at the heart of the main shopping area and home to many restaurants, including our favorite, the Goldener Adler. The tourist office, ski rental shop and shuttle bus stops are all close by as well.
We got a three day pass to the Stubai Glacier. Although we originally wanted a three day Glacier pass that gives us access to all 9 area resorts, we figured that the Stubai Glacier was big enough to spend all three days at. The first impressions of Stubai is that it is big. Like very big. I have to say it feels even bigger than Whistler, even though the trail map doesn’t seem to list as many trails. There were multiple gondolas that go halfway up the mountain and another gondola that takes you all the way to the top. Most of the skiing is above the tree line, so that meant that trails were wide open and unobstructed by trees. There are usually one or two marked routes that take you down the mountain but you can roam free left or right of the marked trail and kick up some fresh powder. It was the best powder I’ve seen anywhere, and the joy of making fresh tracks in such a wide open field of virgin powder was unmatched.
On the first day, we started off at the top of the mountain and took a blue trail that led us to a wide powder field which we happily crissed-crossed until we hit a fork in the trail, and chose to go right, heading into a red diamond trail. At that point, we were still a bit unsure about the rating system, except we had a vague idea that blue = green and red = blue. But this red diamond trail was no blue – we had gone from a red circle to a red diamond, which was equivalent of a blue to a black. The dropoff was steep, and the trail was marked with rocks. It took us another hour to get past this area, and P was exhausted for the next two days 
. But luckily that day was nice and clear, and even though it was tough, it felt fun to take the trail off the beaten track and make it through to the bottom. That day we did some more blues and reds, one which I remembered was very windy and twisty.
The second day of skiing presented a completely different story however; it was snowing heavily on the mountaintop, and visibility was down to a mere five meters or so. At certain points in time, I couldn’t quite see past the tips of my skis, which made for really scary ski conditions. I wonder, if that was what vertigo felt like – the complete whiteout hurt my eyes and made my head literally spin in circles for I couldn’t get a hold of my equilibrium. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite having a ball of a time. My inability to adjust to the conditions, coupled with my screaming calve muscles, saw me sit out the skiing most of the day.
Jeff says: On the second day, the blue skies gave way to snow and clouds, and by the first few runs, we were encountering white-out conditions and could not see the terrain in front of us nor the trail markers. On the gondola ride up, we could not even see the gondola ahead of us. This created a very disorienting sensation, as you could not tell up from down, you could not tell how steep the hill you were skiing down was, and you would hit unexpected bumps. For me, it felt suffocating because everything was white and silent. P started to feel vertigo, so she had to stop and rest. I continued skiing for the rest of the day, but decided to stay in the lower sections. The one time I decided to take the gondola all the way to the top, I wanted to try some of the routes that I hadn’t tried before. But then I ended up skiing down the wrong area. At that point the conditions were really bad, and I basically went really slowly, following a pack of other skiers so as to not get lost. On the way down from the last run, I was in a flat traverse area when I started hearing the beeping from a grooming machine. But I couldn’t see where it was! So it was a frantic couple of minutes as I tried to maneuver my way to a safe position before the machine appeared 100 meters from me out of nowhere.
Anxious to get in the optimal ski conditions on the third and last day of skiing, we decided to forfeit our pass on Stubai Glacier to go to the lower altitude Stichk Ski Resort in the hopes that there would be better visibility (Alas, on our return trip to Innsbruck, we found out from some other skiers that the visibility had in fact been perfect on the glacier that day, contrary to the belief of most other skiers who had bypassed the resort in favor of others, like us). Somewhat unfortunately, the clouds had moved lower that day, so that for parts of the trail, we found ourselves floundering in the thick fog, and had to cautiously move our way forward. But when the skies did clear though, what a sight that took our breaths away.
Jeff says: On the last day of skiing, we were weighing our options as we sat on the bus to the Stubai Glacier. It was another overcast day and after the experience of a day before, we wanted to make sure we had a good day of skiing. Since the bus made a stop Schlick 2000 first, we decided we would go there even though we would have to pay extra money, because being a lower mountain we hoped the visibility would be better. The visibility turned out to be better at Stubai than Schlick, as we heard later from a couple of skiers who were at Stubai that the visibility was great. In contrast, it seemed like the clouds descended lower on the third day so that parts of the mountain at Schlick were shrouded in fog. Still, Schlick was a very fun mountain to ski, and big in its own right. It had long runs, and you can take a blue run all the way from the top to the bottom, with a twisty section at the bottom. The highlight for me though was the trail with the half-pipe and off-piste bumps and rolling hills that went through the trees. It was great to practice skiing on the bumps and doing several jumps, and I must’ve skied that route at least four times. The view from the top of the mountain of Schlick was also very nice, with several photos to attest to that fact!
In general, I think the ratings at the Innsbruck ski area translates like this: blue circle is between a green and a blue, red circle is between a blue and a black, red diamond is a black and black circle is a double black diamond. The ski area all uses RFID cards an automatic gate system with turnstiles at the lifts and gondolas similar to the system used at Alta. This makes it pretty efficient and easy, as you can keep your pass in your pocket and you don’t need workers to scan your passes every time.
I really needed to be out and about, to enjoy the bonanza of snow instead of swearing under my breath every time I tried to navigate the sidewalks. So we made the short 2 hour drive to Berrien County Michigan, for a spot of cross country skiing.
