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Austria has a fine set of skiable glaciers and all kinds of bases to ski them from. See our favourite resorts for summer skiing below - you’ll find high, snowy slopes to ski all morning as well as oodles to do in the afternoons.
We’ve thrown in our favourite glacier ski areas too. While they don’t tend to be skiable in the height of summer, they do stay open far longer than anywhere else, with fabulous ski conditions at the beginning and end of the winter season.
Austria: Top Summer Ski Resorts & Glacier Ski Areas
The Hintertux glacier’s a mere 30 minutes from Mayrhofen - a little more than your usual gondola ride but well worth the commute. Up at a stonking 3250m, skiing in the sun couldn’t be prettier, with glorious views stretching to the Großglockner and the Dolomites. There’s a medley of runs to choose between, including a bunch of beginner blues, lovely long reds, and some testing blacks - and they’re known to be skiable all 365 days of the year. With claim to Europe’s steepest glacier pistes, this is also a top training spot for national teams in the summer months. Bring non skiers along on the bus ride – a spectacular labyrinth of natural chambers and dangling ice crystals, the natural Ice Palace is almost as much of a draw as the skiing…
Austria’s first resort to have glacier skiing, little Kaprun’s at the foot of the enormous Kitzsteinhorn - the only skiable glacier in Salzbergerland. Slopes tend to stay open until the end of July, only closing a couple of months each year due to weather or maintenance. A string of gondolas take you up above 3000m, where there are 15km of slopes - mainly reds and blues. The area looks over the stonkingly pretty Hohe Tauern National Park; don’t miss the viewing platform while you’re up here. If legs need a break, it’s all about the Ice Arena where you’ll find a snow beach (complete with deck chairs), igloos, snow slides and an uber-cool ice bar.
The Dachstein Glacier’s usually open eleven months of the year and has a pretty good powder dumping throughout. Access is just a 15 minute drive from Filz, then a bubble ride from the Ramsau Plateau. 18km of red and black runs, and the motto of ‘Whatever you feel like’ equal epic skiing up here at 2700m. The Superpark has all manner of jibs, kickers, rails, tubes and boxes – making it the biggest park in Austria in the summer season. If there’s time, ditch the planks and brave the suspension bridge that hangs above steep mountainsides to then take the ‘stairway to nothingness’. The steps lead down onto a sheer glass platform 400m above the rock race – it’s spectacular.
Leave the beach towels at the lakeside and hop on the bus – it’s ski time. As Kaprun’s larger, livelier neighbour, Zell has super access to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier’s ski area, with its fabulously scenic, snowy 15km of runs. It’s not unheard of for the slopes to stay open all year round up here, but most years see them skiable in May, June and July then closed for a couple of months to prepare for winter. The sights over Lake Zell and the national park are phenomenal, especially from the viewing platform that hogs the highest spot in Salzburg. But you don’t HAVE to ski to enjoy the snow here, thanks to the Ice Arena’s snow beach, snow slides and igloos.
Neustift’s the closest resort to Austria’s biggest glacier – the Stubai, which is reachable in about 20 minutes’ by car. Standing regally at 3210m, its season isn’t as long as other summer ski areas but still stays open yonks longer than most mountains, usually running until early July then re-opening in September. The Snowpark holds its own for sunny shredding at 3100m, and some wonderful blue runs pour down from Schaufelspitze – the ‘Top of Tyrol’. Keep your eyes peeled for ski teams, who often use the area for slalom training out of season.
Very rarely does a ski area have TWO glaciers, but that’s exactly what you get in Solden, where the Tiefenbach and Rettenbach glaciers are just a bus or car ride away. The panoramic Ötztal Glacier Road leads to both of them, which in turn are connected by ski lifts and the fabulous Rosi Mittermaier, the highest road tunnel in Europe. Totalling 34.5km, most runs are blue, with the odd red or black option throwing some steepness into the mix. And whatever their gradient, the snow is usually amazing – while summer skiing hasn’t happened here yet (we wouldn’t be surprised if it did sometime soon), the season’s a long one, starting in September on a good year and running well into the spring. 10 lifts can carry 20,000 people an hour in this area alone, making light work of early and late season crowds. And if all that leaves you hungry, each glacier has its own restaurant…
Austria - best summer & glacier ski resorts
| Resort | Best features |
|---|---|
| Mayrhofen | Hintertux glacier – open year-round |
| Kaprun | Kitzsteinhorn glacier – usually open to the end of July |
| Filzmoos | Dachstein glacier – usually open 11 months |
| Zell am See | Kitzsteinhorn glacier – usually open to the end of July |
| Neustift | Stubai glacier – usually open until late July, then reopens in September |
| Solden | Tiefenbach & Rettenbach glaciers – opens in September |
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