Sonnenkopf Intermediate Skiing
Two thirds of Klostertal’s Sonnenkopf ski area is designated for intermediate skiers, but with less than a dozen red runs totalling just 20km, competent skiers can ski all of the local pistes in a day, and will be wanting to take the bus to Stuben and explore the rest of the huge Arlberg ski area.
After riding the gondola to the Bergrestaurant Sonnenkopf, intermediate and advanced skiers and boarders can take the Sattelkopf drag lift and ski down to the 4-man Obermurl chairlift which rises east towards Glattingrat. From the top of Obermurl, ski reds 2 and 4 then ride Obermoos and Glattingrat chairlifts to 2,300m, which is the highest point in Sonnenkopf ski area.
From Glattingrat it’s an 8km long, 1,200m vertical descent via red runs 9, 4 and 4a back to the bottom of gondola in the valley or to Klosterle village. And when riding Obermoos chairlift, look right to view black 10, which is quite steep, straight and reasonably challenging.
Sonnenkopf is good fun, but with just a dozen groomed runs and three ski routes and only two mountain restaurants, there’s not enough skiing to entertain good skiers and boarders for more than a day or two, unless you include the off-piste.
Fortunately, there’s masses more piste skiing nearby in the other Arlberg ski area resorts – St Anton St Christoph, Stuben. Lech-Zurs and Warth-Schroecken. Sonnenkopf and Klosterle are less than 10km from Stuben, which is connected by lift and piste to all the other resorts and buses run between the Sonnenkof base station and Stuben (with stops at Klosterle, Danofen and Wald) every 30 minutes or so.
Stuben’s own red runs are an excellent start to this wider area: you can ski a non-stop 1000m vertical all the way on red runs from the top of the Albona to the village, or there’s an even larger 1200m vertical, shared between a red and a blue run, if you ski into the Stuben from the top of Schindlergrat. But this is just the apperetif. There are dozens and dozens of pistes in the Arlberg ski area – far more than anyone could ski in a week.