Innsbruck and the Austrian Alps

As we were walking out of the train station in central Innsbruck the first thing I saw was a couple a little younger than Lisa and I exiting the station speckled with mud, decked out in bike gear and walking alongside a couple of carbon fiber full-suspension enduro mountain bikes. Then on the walk to our apartment in Innsbruck there was a custom ski factory on the adjacent street, where you could go on the weekends and manufacture your own set of planks. I knew I was going to like Innsbruck! Nestled at the head of the Inn Valley, Innsbruck reminded me a little of France’s Chamonix, just on a much larger scale. With a population of over 300K – including 30K full time university students – the place verges on a mountain city rather than a mountain town. Its quaint old town alongside the River Inn was home to more outdoor, ski and mountain bike stores than one could poke a stick at, all intermingled with beautiful Baroque-Rococo buildings nestled below the towering Alps. Innsbruck lives and breathes outdoor sports: there’s no less than 13 ski resorts in the mountains surrounding the town, and in summer the 400+ marked hiking trails and almost endless mountain biking routes through the Alps keep everyone’s ski legs in shape for winter.

Arzler Alm

With the arrival of autumn we battled some inclement weather on our first couple of days in town, and poor Max was also a little out of sorts with either something he ate or a stomach bug. But when both stomach and rain cleared we took advantage of some of the trails in the mountains behind our apartment, hiking up to Arzler Alm to enjoy the views over the Inn Valley as well as the playground below the restaurant. The Austrian alms – “alm” literally translates to “a high mountain pasture where animals can graze in the summer time” – were littered with quaint mountain restaurants providing hikers with excellent spots to stop for a bite, grab a beer and enjoy the view. Unfortunately Azler Alm was closed on Mondays, but we still enjoyed a snack on the deck as well as the lounge chairs setup alongside the main outdoor eating area. On our way up and down from Arzler Alm we passed under the Nordkettenbahnen: a cable car that climbs from downtown Innsbruck to the peak of Hafelekar 2300 meters/7400 feet above sea level. Some amazing engineering to construct all the cable cars dotting the mountains around Innsbruck… The Nordkettenbahnen transports mainly hikers and sightseers in the summer months, but in winter it forms the heart of the Innsbrucker Nordkettenbahnen ski area. Pretty awesome to be able to leave one’s apartment in a town the size of Innsbruck and be transported to a first class ski area in under 20 minutes!

Finstertaler Scharte

While Innsbruck certainly qualifies as a mountain town, its elevation at 574 meters/1883 feet isn’t that high in the scheme of things when it comes to the Alps. At the suggestion of the very helpful young lass at Innsbruck’s tourism office, we took the bus up into the alpine to spend the day hiking in Kühtai. I do want to note that the Innsbruck tourism office was an exceptional resource for our time in town. Not only did the website (linked above) provide an excellent guide to anything and everything in the Tyrol region, but the staff at the physical office in central Innsbruck were extremely knowledgable about everything one could want to know about the area. Pretty much all activities during our stay were a result of my 15 minute chat with one of the tourism office’s employees, and none of our adventures disappointed!

Kühtai is one of Austria’s highest ski resorts, situated at over 2000 meters above sea level with the bulk of its upper runs above tree line. The hour long bus ride from Innsbruck was an incredibly picturesque journey through the Tyrol region, with waterfalls and rivers lining the road and quaint mountain villages dotting the route every 10 or 15 minutes. We couldn’t see much as we ascended up the road toKühtai, but the mountain biker sitting next to me with whom I chatted on the route assured me that our hike would take us above the clouds for some incredible views of the Austrian Alps. Fingers crossed. It was quite a cold start to our climb – it was only 3°C/37°F inKühtai when we hopped off the bus to the eerie fog and empty ski resort – but we’d all dressed well and were soon stripping off layers as we started the 986 meters/3235 feet of ascent to Finstertaler Scharte.

We’d actually originally planned to hike a different route from the base ofKühtai, but changed our plans after chatting with the aforementioned mountain biker on the bus from Innsbruck (his Propain Tyee CF was a beast of a machine). He took a look at Lilia and Max, asked how fit they were and then suggested instead of climbing to the summit of Gaisskogel we instead go around Speicher Finstertal and summit Finstertaler Scharte. “Better views of the Alps, not as steep,” he said in his twangy Austrian-accented English. Sounded good to us.

After the first part of the climb in the fog up to Speicher Finstertal we’d all worked up a good sweat and were stopping for a breather above the turquoise water of the reservoir, which at that time was just barely visible through the fog. I looked back up the trail at Lisa and Max, behind them the clouds were starting to part and vistas of Zwölferkogel and the towering peaks around Speicher Finstertal were coming into view. As we hiked the skies continued to clear and when we were about halfway around Speicher Finstertal the entire panorama of mountains reveled itself. I’m not a spiritual person, but the immensity of the Alps towering above the mirrored surface of Speicher Finstertal was a somewhat spiritual experience. Absolutely incredible views, the stillness of the air and water with not a sound but our feet on the rocks was an awe inspiring experience. And given it was a weekday with all the local kids back in school, we had the entire Speicher Finstertal basin to ourselves! Quite amazing.

After we circled around Speicher Finstertal the meat of the climb began: 460 meters/1500 feet of vertical to the Finstertaler Scharte summit. The views of Speicher Finstertal behind us were beautiful on the way up, but our lungs could definitely feel the elevation and at times I felt like I was just plodding one foot in front of the other across the scree. It had snowed a tad a few days earlier at the upper elevations, and the shaded sections of the trail were covered in a couple of inches of snow as we neared the summit. I lost count of the number of times we had to stop to make snowballs, Max’s passion bucket was on complete overflow. The snow, however, made it quite slow going in sections where there weren’t any footprints to guide us forward. A mere 100 meters/330 feet of vertical from the top there was a section of the trail that was shaded and passed through some crags with sheer drops below, the snow and ice covering the trail made it very sketchy going and we decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to tackle with the kids. I scrambled through and made it toFinstertaler Scharte solo while Lisa and the kids ate lunch below the crest, I felt bad for them after they’d conquered almost the entire route from the base ofKühtai, but we figured better safe than sorry (and we would have been very sorry if someone had slipped!). In some of the last shots in the gallery below, Lisa and the kids are visible at their lunch spot amongst the rocks. The views from the summit were mind bending, I could see for what seemed like forever to the south across the Austrian Alps, a never-ending patchwork of rocky spires and lush green valleys stretching off in the distance. I took a couple of pano shots from the top, but the photos here really don’t do the view justice.

The route back down took us about two-and-a-half hours versus three-and-a-half on the way up. Much easier going downhill! It was a good thing we made better time on the way down, as we were keeping an eye on the time: there was only one bus every two hours back to Innsbruck, and we were on track to make it for the last bus of the day. WhileKühtai ski resort was all but deserted, the general store in the center of the ski village was open and we enjoyed some ice creams for the kids and beers for Mum and Dad whilst waiting for the bus. Mum and Dad massaged sore feet and legs while the kids played tag, I don’t know where they get their energy (the hike was986 meters/3235 feet of ascent and 13.5 kilometers/8.4 miles long). While we were sitting there sipping on our Oettinger I was thinkingKühtai looked to have some exceptional terrain up there above tree line, so snuck a look at the lift ticket prices posted on the base of Hochalterbahn chairlift. US$50 for walk-up adult day tickets and US$35 for the kids. Just like the good ol’ days at Sugar Bowl…30 years ago! We might have to head back to Austria to ski one of these days.

Pizzas at Trattoria-Pizzeria Due Sicilie were devoured in short order on our way back to the apartment from the bus. I can say everyone slept very well that night. Such an awesome day! So impressed with the kids, definitely our most grueling hike of the trip thus far and so rewarding with such incredible views of the mountains.

Muttereralm and the Mountain Carts

Again at the direction of the knowledgeable staff at the Innsbruck tourism office, we mixed in some adrenaline with hiking on our last day in town. The STB tram took us up to the quaint village of Mutters nestled on a highland plateau above Innsbruck, a beautiful ride through the Alps with farms and dairies dotting the landscape on both sides of the track. From Mutters we hiked up to the top of the Muttereralmbahn gondola, a grueling trek up mostly fire road through the shaded base of the Muttereralm ski resort. The hike traversed the trails of Bikepark Innsbruck and had us all pining for our bikes as we watched riders hammer down the machine-formed trails, full of berms, jumps and whoops. Some seriously fun looking riding dropping more than 730 meters/2400 feet of vertical from the top of Muttereralmbahn gondola.

We enjoyed lunch at Mutterer Alm after we finished our uphill trek, some well-earned beers went down nicely with sandos and pommes frites out on the deck with the cragged peaks of the Alps behind us. There was an excellent water-themed playground for the kids at the top of the gondola, where Lilia and Max spent more than an hour messing about with all the features while Lisa and I relaxed in the sun. When we told the kids we weren’t walking back to Mutters but instead hopping on the off road mountain carts we’d seen hurtling by us on the hike up, both of them immediately yelled, “I want to ride with Mum!” I don’t know why I get such a bad rap, my driving is much more fun… Anyway, both their anxiety at hurtling730 meters/2400 feet of vertical down an unfenced dirt track to Mutters was replaced by sheer glee within a few seconds of beginning our descent. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Both kids were too short to ride a cart by themselves so sat between Lisa and my legs, the carts were quite easy to control and the kids ended up piloting them almost the entire way down after becoming comfortable with the hydraulic braking system. Other than skis or a bike, I can’t think of too many more fun ways to get down a mountain!

The bike rental shop at the base of the gondola was a feast for the eyes, with some amazing full-suspension rigs available to rent. It was certainly tempting to grab some bikes and try our hand at the trails we’d been eyeing off during the day, but once we priced out the bike and gear rental, gondola tickets and park tickets it was going to be more than 500€ for a few laps up and down the trails. A bit too steep for our traveling hip pockets. Max’s last bike cost less than that! The lower section of Bikepark Innsbruck had some incredible dirt kickers for the exhibitions held at various times during the summer, would be awesome to see the pros launching off them firsthand.

I know I keep saying that I want to go back to a lot of the places we’ve visited, but I really would love to visit Innsbruck again with more time on our hands (and more outdoor toys at our disposal!). You could spend months in the Innsbruck region of the Tyrol exploring all the hiking and biking trails the place has to offer. A brilliant part of the world for anyone who loves the outdoors.