Bad Kleinkirchheim Ski Area
Bad Kleinkirchheim’s ski area includes 64 miles of well groomed ski runs served by 26 lifts. Artificial snowmaking covers 97 per cent of the runs.The top lift station is at 6,740ft with over 3,000ft vertical down to Bad Kleinkirchheim at 3,580ft. Around 75 per cent of ski runs are graded red for intermediates, 17 per cent blue for beginners and just 8 per cent are classified black for advanced skiers. There is no terrain park yet which is perhaps indicative of the target audience – solid skiers rather than freestylers.
Apart from the uppermost runs, the ski slopes are mostly well wooded and the way they dip and dive through the forest, wide and groomed, has more than a hint of American skiing about it albeit that the altitude here is more comfortably modest. If skiing in a white out, it’s a good place to be as tree-lined ski runs help give perspective in bad visibility.
Most of the slopes nearest Bad Kleinkirchheim tend to be shady for much of the day but, because they are north-facing, they hold their snow well. The sunnier, more open slopes are situated above the nearby village of St Oswald with the skiing all interlinked. For days in the sun and long lunches on mountain restaurant terraces, head for the runs above St Oswald.
If you are at all worried about the somewhat low altitude, it’s a comfort to know that 97 per cent of the slopes are covered by 700 snowmaking machines with the rest to be catered for soon. This network of snow guns is, interestingly, said to provide the equivalent of 50 centimetres of natural snow.
But relatively low-lying as it is, the combination of weather systems, from north and south, to which Bad Kleinkirchheim is subject throughout winter has brought a reassuringly good snow record. The resort is on the edge of the Nock Mountain National Park and separated from much of the rest of Austria’s skiing by the Tauern mountain range.
This means that the Bad Kleinkirchheim area can frequently experience totally different weather to the rest of the country. Often it is said that if it is raining in Venice, it will soon be snowing in Bad Kleinkirchheim. And, similarly, snow may rush down too from the north.