Schladming Intermediate
Much of the skiing here is ideal for intermediates and families. In fact, depending on your point of view, one of the region’s strengths – or weaknesses – is that so much of the terrain is within the capabilities of the average skier.The central and busiest mountain, Planai, is a veritable cat’s cradle of red runs interspersed with almost as many blues – 25kms of the 32kms of runs are intermediate.
The pattern is similar on Hauser Kaibling (where almost the entire mountain is easy-to-intermediate), Hochwurzen (which has no black runs at all in its 15kms of skiing) and Reiteralm (where 21kms out of 27kms are intermediate, with skiing up to 1860m).
The Reiteralm ’round trip’ is a six-kilometre downhill run starting from the Gasselhöh top station, moving on to the Holzer slopes, the Reiteralm piste itself and then finally down the ‘Finale Grande’ – up to 80m wide in places – right next to the new Silver Jet cable car.
At Planai-Hochwurzen there are wide, long slopes which the resort says, poetically, “will make a carving fan’s heart beat faster” There’s night skiing there too with the three-kilometre floodlit racing slope.
The connection between Hochwurzen and Planai has vastly improved with the opening of the new “Goldenjet”, which transports skiers to Planai in just a few minutes.
Even on the Dachstein Glacier, intermediates rule: most slopes are lower-intermediate friendly. Of the total 18 kilometres of skiing at Ramsau/Dachstein, 14 kms are easy-to-intermediate.
And even on the Fageralm (930m – 1885m), the mountain beyond the Reiteralm, there are no black runs either on this sunny and scenic plateau.
The Mitterfager run there can be skied by the whole family. It’s a blue run, with a vertical drop of around 200 metres, which can even be attempted by relative beginners.
There’s breathtaking scenery too, with wonderful views across to the Dachstein.