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TRAVEL | AUSTRIA

The 2 EATING The food is hearty. For lunch,
THE SKIING Generations of British
families ski here year after year. The link
Tiroler gröstl, a bacon, onion and potato
started with a retired army major, who 4 urge with a fried egg, is a winner at
spl
white lived here and founded the Alpbach Visitors Ski GipföHit (gipfoehit.at), the best place we found
on the 1,903-metre summit of the Schatzberg.
Club (avsc.org.uk) in 1968 to develop racing for
stuff British children, many of whom have gone on to By evening, we were so ravenous we could have
eaten a moose, so we booked a table at the
represent Great Britain. But if, like me, you are
losing your bottle, these slopes need not induce Rossmoos (rossmoos.at), as the food sounded
JONNY BEARDSALL REVEALS FIVE sleepless nights. Although off-piste skiing super-sustaining. We took a horse-drawn
REASONS WHY ALPBACH IS THE abounds and there are some vertiginous black sledge, steeply zig-zagging to this mountain-
NO-NONSENSE DESTINATION runs that thrilled our two teenage daughters, side restaurant set almost a mile above the
FOR A FAMILY SKIING HOLIDAY the greens and blues are still super-duper. Like rooftops. The interior is festooned with grinning
everything else here, the skiing is unpreten- taxidermy – from chamois to badger – and
THE VILLAGE As a child, I would shake tious and the main gondolier is reached via a dishes are red in tooth and claw. We feasted on
my snow globe enclosing a mini Tyrolean short, free shuttle-bus journey. No one looks venison shot by the host and, warmed by
vill
1 age and blink in wonder. I assumed that too self-satisfied or is dressed in overly smart schnapps, descended in a blizzard.
what was emerging in the churning maelstrom clobber. When you fall over, others are more
was fantasy. Until, that is, we visited Alpbach in amused than exasperated. TOBOGGANING While a toboggan
Austria’s Kitzbühel Alps in winter. Around the THE HOTEL Few things are quite as 5
sounds like an overwhelmingly jolly
pretty St Oswald’s Church, 2,500 locals live thing, it sure can shift, induces white
eaves overhang balconies garlanded in fluffy 3 knuckles and creates wild-eyed family terror.
in traditional wooden chalets, where carved
lovely as a family-run hotel. At the four-
star Böglerhof (boeglerhof.at), which
snow. It is a scene from the lid of a jigsaw puzzle. dates from the fifteenth century, our host is the Yes, they are user-friendly, but the big fun is in
not braking, so only a controlled display of grim
There was no road here until 1926 and the comely Michaela Duftner, the third-generation bravado gets you to the bottom of a run without
village still has an out-of-the-way feel. Strict owner. She wears a dirndl every day, the trad- incident. The six-kilometre Reiterkogel is the
building regulations have ensured it remains itional mode of embroidered bodice, blouse longest run, while the four-kilometre Bischofer
retro-chic. It also has a uniquely pastoral vibe. and apron worn by Alpine peasants – think is floodlit at night. Hold tight
With close to 100 farms around the village – the Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Go for
figure was the same a century ago – a ski a snug wood-panelled family suite and eat in
instructor is likely to double as a livestock the Fuggerstubbe, an intimate dining room
farmer or woodsman. Perfect. unchanged in 500 years. Enjoy the enticing Jonny Beardsall travelled as a guest
spa. Keeping it rustic, I detoxified with a of Crystal Ski Holidays (020-8939 0726;
Sunrise over Alpbach’s slopes – an meadow experience, which was a first: lolling crystalski.co.uk), Austrian Tirol
idyllic setting for skiers of all abilities, on a water bed, I was packed with hot wet hay, (tyrol.com) and Alpbach (alpbachtal.at)
from beginners to snow bunnies which clears the airways and cured my cold.

ALPBACHTAL SEENLAND TOURISMUS

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK NOVEMBER 2015 219