Ellmau

Ellmau forms part of the massive Ski Welt which is said to be Austria’s largest linked area located in the Tirol and only 90 minutes from Salzburg. 250km of linked piste covered by 92 lifts should mean utopia, but unfortunately this place is not hot. The resorts low altitude means that good annual snow is not a feature of this place although to be fair the place has a good snowmaking set up to help when the real stuff is lacking.

As for the slopes this is a mountain that tends to suffer from a good selection of advanced freeriding areas, come to that, it lacks good natural freestyle terrain as well. The biggest let down here or the most annoying thing are the hordes of novice ski groups clogging up the place and littering the slopes with ski and poles as they fall over all over the place. This is a very popular ski resort with the Dutch, which on the one hand means long lift queues but on the other and in the resorts defence, this is also an affordable destination.

In Ellmau it’s a short walk to the nurcery slopes or a bus to the often busy funicular while from Scheffau it’s a short bus ride from the village to the lifts, which are across a main road and next to a huge car park.