Hintertux - Austria
The small mountain resort of Hintertux sits at the head of the Tux Valley, an offshoot of the Zillertal with its own culture and traditions. There is little more than a collection of hotels around the foot of the main cablecar but the lower villages of the Tuxertal provide more options in terms of accommodation and a varied après ski scene. The ski bus is very effective and connects all the villages to the access lifts in minutes.
The snow-sure slopes of the Tux glacier offer some of the most challenging and varied runs in Austria and are ideally suited to intermediate and advanced skiers. Beginners will find the area daunting and snowboarders are put off by the high volume of drag lifts, made necessary by the frequent poor weather conditions on the high slopes. The lifts on the glacier are open 365 days of the year and a lot of big names can be spotted training here in summer.
At a glance
| Resort altitude | 1500m - 1500m |
|---|---|
| Highest lift | 3250m |
| Lowest lift | 630m |
| kms of piste | 86km² |
| Black pistes | 3% |
| Red pistes | 14% |
| Blue pistes | 6% |
| Green pistes | 0% |
| Snow parks | 1 |
| Glacier | Yes |
| Snowmaking | No |
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Five to try
- Try some floodlit tobogganing from one of three start points
- Dig deep and treat yourself to lunch at the Gletschershutte. Its not every day you get to admire such spectacular views.
- Join the natives in a game of Hammerschlagen in any of the local bars. It basically involves hitting a nail into a tree stump and drinking a lot – you’ll soon get the hang of it!
- Nocturnal snowshoe tours run most nights are a romantic diversion from the usual apres ski scene (see www.natursport.at)
- Whilst skiing on the glacier why not take an hour out for a guided tour of the fascinating ice palace at Gefroene Wand. (www.tux.at/en/glacier/nature-ice-palace.html)
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Planning your trip
At under 90km from Innsbruck airport, which is now served by Easyjet, Hintertux is surprisingly accessible despite its location at the head of a remote valley. The road transfer is around an hour and a half and it is very easy by train as far as neighbouring Mayrhofen which has its own station at the more...
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Where to stay
The first thing to say is that Hintertux itself is little more than a collection of upmarket hotels at the foot of the cable car, so in planning to ski Hintertux you should consider whether you are happy to take a bus every day to the slopes in exchange for staying in one of the bigger villages of the more...
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Food and drink
In a strange way, the Hintertux experience is about so much more than just ‘Hintertux’. The village itself is very limited when it comes to apres ski and nightlife, and the vast majority of restaurants are to be found in the hotels at the foot of the more...
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Things to do
For all that this is a skier’s resort, for less keen boarders and skiers there’s plenty to do with sledging, hiking trails, indoor tennis, swimming or relaxing at the spa. Whilst there isn’t a huge choice of shops or throbbing nightlife, the resort does offer a small selection of restaurants, pubs and bars to more...
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On the piste
Hintertux is definitely a skiers resort and experts will love the variety of steeps and seemingly endless off-piste on a powder day. The three-stage ‘glacier bus’ cable car is a superb modern development that allows skiers to access the perennial snowfields of this magnificent area in under more...
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MadDogView
A selection of traditional villages where you can base yourself for snowsure glacier skiing.
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Map
- Download piste map
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Our favourites
Bichalm
This mountain hut in Hintertux has live music every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a fondue night on Fridays. The views of the Glacier are wonderful from their terrace so enjoy a drink and a bite to eat and just relax after a hard day skiing.
A taxi from the village will take you up here and then you can toboggan down, day or evening. Great fun for everybody and very popular. -
Useful stuff
