Bad Kleinkirchheim Advanced
Bad Kleinkirchheim is not the toughest ski resort as far as challenging skiing is concerned – but what challenging skiing it has it cherishes.One of the best and most testing blacks is the Franz Klammer World Cup run, which takes you from Strohasack to the gondola base. Well, if you’ve got a Winter Olympic gold medallist in your ranks you might as well flaunt him.
His own named run is a FIS World Cup course and rated as among the most spectacular and challenging on the circuit – and you can even have fun on it with Kaiser Franz himself on certain days during the season. The old master, Carinthia’s most famous son, is still a fanatical skier and he hosts the occasional skiing day through the season when anyone is free to take a run or two with him. If they can keep up!
Klammer learned his craft here. He was born at the farming village of Mooswald, nearby and his mother still runs a gasthaus at the village of Fresach, about 12 miles from Bad Kleinkirchheim, with his brother and sister-in-law. Klammer went on to win the World Cup Downhill title five times, coming first in a record 25 World Cup downhills in the process – as well as enthralling the watching world with his Olympic gold medal triumph with a spectacularly reckless run at Innsbruck in 1976 in the famous yellow catsuit.
That catsuit is now at his mother’s gasthaus, along with most of his trophies. And the Kaiser is still happily racing around the Bad Kleinkirchheim runs. ‘I’ll never tire of skiing, especially in the wonderful surroundings of Carinthia,’ he says. ‘It’s the absolute best. I get to the top of the mountain and I know I want to ski until I’m 80 – at least!’ He adds: ‘I still ski the same way I always did – but I just choose what mode to go in now: nice and easy or turbo.’
There are a few other designated black runs in the Bad Kleinkirchheim network, with two short and sharp ones below the Kaiserburg and another under the Wiesernock quad chairlift. But the masses of red runs can also be fun for advanced to hone their skills.
And there are a number of off-piste adventures to be had, with guided off-piste tours arranged through one of the ski schools. These will involve a bit of climbing and hiking and can include striking out towards the Mallnock and Klomnock peaks, a tour which starts from the top of the gondola from St Oswald.
Another popular area for off-piste is the Falkert mountain, a short taxi ride from Bad Kleinkirchheim. A T-bar takes skiers some way up the Falkert, where you need to hike before the real fun begins.