Tirol Snow Card might set a new record for the amount of lifts and piste kilometers ever offered on one season pass. With it you can use 938 different lifts to ski down 3600 piste kilometers in 77 different resorts, including four glacier resorts in Tyrol. Good news for non-Tyroleans as this pass is available for anyone to buy, unlike the previous season regional season passes such as the Innsbruck Grossraum Ticket & Tirol Regio Card that were only offered to locals. Rumor is that this might be because of the EU regulations that force providing equal services to all EU-citizens and not just one local group.
I personally like the this new pass since it includes some of the better resorts that were left out from the old Tirol Regio Card. The Tirol Snow Card is valid in nearly all of the Tyrolean ski areas, some of the most well known ones being Mayrhofen, Zillertal, Hintertux Glacier, Kitzbühel, Fieberbrunn, Obergurgl-Hochgurgl, Pitztal Glacier, Stubai Glacier and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. The resorts near Innsbruck are also covered by the pass. (Check out Ville’s great article on them here.)
The Tirol Snow Card costs 590 euros for non-Tyroleans and a bit less for Tyroleans, making it an alternative also for those who are planning on doing a one longer or couple shorter ski-vacations in Tyrol. That’s about two hundred euros more than the Tirol-Regio card which has been available to locals for some time but does not cover as many areas as the Tirol Snow Card. There has been a lot of critique especially from the Austrian families about the season passes getting more and more expensive. For skiing enthusiasts this might be a good tradeoff, getting more ski areas but paying more, while the Tyrolean families might still stick with the older alternatives.
The only big resorts missing from the pass that I could spot are Sölden and Ischgl, which are not included in any regional season passes. There are many little and less known resorts in the pass for someone who prefers less crowds. Achtung freeriders, some of the smaller areas are great for getting pow turns off the lifts days after the storm.. For someone who regularly skis in Tyrol this card is a great alternative, the biggest upside of course being freedom of choice in where you want to ski on a particular day. If you ski a lot and can spend the extra money it makes little sense to pay over 400 euros for a season pass to a single resort.
For more information and a full list of resorts included in the ticket check the Tirol Snow Card webpage.
3 Responses
[...] The base of the ski area is not in a village. There’s just a big, ugly parking lot and one hotel. Most of the guests skiing Stubai stay further down the valley, in villages such as Neustift or Fulpmes. There’s a free skibus running from the villages to the glacier quite often. The ride takes about 20-30minutes depending on which village you stays in, but during high season the bus can be very packed. If you’re staying in the Stubai valley there’s couple other resorts that are included in the Innsbruck Superski pass and are close by, such as Schlick and Elferlifte. Stubai Glacier is also part of the Snowcard Tirol. [...]
[...] The base of the ski area is not in a village. There’s just a big, ugly parking lot and one hotel. Most of the guests skiing Stubai stay further down the valley, in villages such as Neustift or Fulpmes. There’s a free skibus running from the villages to the glacier quite often. The ride takes about 20-30minutes depending on which village you stays in, but during high season the bus can be very packed. If you’re staying in the Stubai valley there’s couple other resorts that are included in the Innsbruck Superski pass and are close by, such as Schlick and Elferlifte. Stubai Glacier is also part of the Snowcard Tirol. [...]
Your Comments- Great article. Thanks. I am thinking about coming over from the states the end of january to snowboard. Where would you advise staying. Innsbruck – or staying in resort towns. Any advice on places to stay and where the best riding and parties are would help.
Thanks,
Neil
neiltonkon@yahoo.com