What an unforgettable experience!!!! If you are a skier and plan to visit Austria then visiting the glacier should be on your list  🙂

On this morning, we woke up at 7:30 a.m. and followed our morning routine: had a delicious breakfast, dressed up, put on our “oh-so-nice-and-warm” boots from the ski room, and at 8:44 we were on the H4 bus line from the station Shormis to the Horbergbahn gondola. From Horbergbahn gondola we took the C green bus line (you can also take the D purple bus line) to the Mayrhofen Bahnhof (this is the central station of the town, from where you can go by train or by bus to all ski resorts from Zillertal area). At 9:20 we took the Green-line bus (this bus runs every 20 minutes from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.) from Mayrhofen Bahnhof to the Tux Parkplatz Gletscherbahn, situated at the base of the Hintertux Glacier, at 1500 m altitude.

All in one, the travel by bus from the Pension Landhaus Tipotsch to Hintertux Glacier took about 1 hour.

Below you have the routes and the schedules of the bus lines.

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At 10:00 a.m. we started our ascension with Gletscherbus 1 gondola from 1500 m to 2100 m (a 7 minutes lift), where an impressive view (valley surrounded by mountains bathed in sunlight) arised. The weather was sunny, but strong winds blew snow from the peaks to the ski slopes, creating an unique ice show.

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So there we were in the heart of the Hintertux Glacier (the highest ski area of Tyrol-Zillertal Alps), simply amazed by the white landscape and the multitude of ski slopes on our disposal.

Here is a full map of Hintertux Glacier resort, full of modern lifts and >150 km of blue, red, and black slopes, making it the biggest ski area in Zillertal:

In order to easily accomodate with the high altitude air, we first decided to explore the blue slopes. Amazing!!! 2 hours of skiing combined with short photo breaks and video sessions. Aaaand on blue line  17 we also tried something fun and full of adrenaline 🙂 the Funslope Hintertux – the adventure starts from the Sommerbergalm at 2100 m altitude with a speedboost with turbo noises, getting all the skiers and snowboarders in the right mood to master the course. It doesn’t matter if you are young by age or young at heart, everybody is guaranteed to have a great time, and the course gets more exciting with each meter. Next up is an eight-shaped element: a monstrous snow feature which resembles a lying eight, with two optional courses with several snow tunnels to cross over or pass through – one of the first ever built in Europe. But no matter which way you choose, it’s the right one towards the next fun feature, the notorious giant fun twister!

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After this „warm-up” ski, we took the Gletscherbus 2 gondola (from 2100 m to 2600 m) and then the Gletscherbus 3 gondola (from 2600 m to 3250 m) up to the Panorama Terrace – the highest point in the Zillertal Alps – this is where you will literally enjoy a bird’s eye view of everything.

Maybe it is important to mention that the lift with the gondolas was very exciting (due to strong blizzard, the gondolas were swinging from side to side, creating a state of dizziness). Buuut our desire to reach the top was so strong that we got over these „obstacles” and succeeded. 🙂

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Unfortunately the windy weather did not allow us to spend too much time on the peak, so we took some pics, looked again at the map and quickly started the loooong ski descent to the valley.

We experienced unique moments on this 1 hour descent on a red line – the winds blew the snow causing very low visibility on the slopes, but along with few other „crazy” skiers, continued undisturbed our descent, fascinated and hypnotized by this extremely spectacular natural phenomenon. The views, the cracking sounds of the ice under our feet while skiing + the feeling of being on top of the world, kind of made us think we need a ranking for ski slopes, as this one beat them all.

Hint: on this glacier you can ski even if you are a begginer using the blue lines, but keep in mind though that you are >3000 m and the weather can be tricky.

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Like any high-class ski resort, Hintertux Glacier offers access to 8 mountain restaurants, huts and snow bars, which offer delicious and nourishing meals, including national and international dishes as well as traditional Zillertal home cooking. Freshly prepared, seasonal dishes using the best regional products form the basis of these tasty delicacies.

With so many offers to choose from, we decided to have lunch at the Sommerbergalm restaurant, where we ate a goulash soup, cordon bleu with fries and an apple strudel with vanilla cream (yummy traditional homemade recipe :wink:) and we drunk Almdudler (traditional carbonated soft drink) 🙂

With tears in our eyes at the sight of the empty strudel plates, we’ve gathered our forces and hit the slopes for another 2h.

At 4:00 p.m. we left the resort on the same route and returned to our accommodation, Pension Landhaus Tipotsch. We were tired but happy that we had the opportunity to explore for the first time the amazing Hintertux Glacier ski area.

Arrived in the room, we had 2 hours of well deserved rest and then had a quiet dinner at a local restaurant called Sonnengartl – we had a mixed-grill and Zillertal draught beer (tasty food&beer and really nice traditional setup 🙂 ).

Stay tuned for more info on the ski areas of Zillertal & Tyrol and our visit to Innsbruck!