Kappl

Easily the best and really only freeriding can be accessed from the Alblittkopfbahn chairlift. The Route Blanka is the one official freeride route and located at the top of the lift. It has a nice steep start but mellows out as you run along the valley floor and runs parallel to the Schlafbühelabfahrt black run (8) straight back to the bottom of the lift. There are a few short steeps located off the first part of the Alblittkopf-Abfahrt piste which drop under the Alblittkopfbahn chair back onto the piste.

Off the sides of the 8km Lattenabfahrt (9) provides some nice gentle and fun freeriding, and if you traverse skiers left after you return to the front-side of the mountain, you can access some steeper stuff running back onto the piste. There is also an out of the resorts boundary route which takes you near to Rendl in St.Anton in the next valley, it is not marked and a guide and the correct equipment is essential.

Left off Gongall Abfahrt (3) is short lived but can be nice but unfortunately all the wooden areas that the home run (4) meanders through are too tight, steep and messed up for it to be shredable.

There is a surprise at this unassuming family resort; the terrain park is pretty decent. It is served by the t-bar Alblittlift or the longer Alblittkopfbahn chairlift which takes you to the peak of the resort. The park is divided into two sections; the advanced line hits you as you enter the park, and an easier line off to your right. For the advanced line, the usual setup is a few rails followed by a big/smaller kicker side by side and then some more random bigger jib features. The beginner section starts to your right. A line of rollers gets you started and then 3-4 kickers in a row. Each kicker has an easy and intermediate launch on it.

The park is maintained daily by the park team in Ischgl, so it’s well thought out, and built professionally. The kickers all have good smooth run-ins and nice steep long landings which are almost impossible to land flat on, and there’s just enough time to prepare between jumps. They tend to get the park up and running within a few weeks of the resort opening and keep it going until the resort closes.

The 40km of pistes aren’t going to take you too long to get your head around, but there is some good variety and mix to them. The gondola takes you up from the base up to the real start of the resort. You can take the Talabfahrt Kappl (4) piste from here back to the base, but it is nothing more than a weaving cat-track. The pistes from the mid-part of the main face (Alblittbahn chairlift), are nice wide and equally good for learning or layout some nice fast curves on. The top of the front face (Alblittkopfbahn  lift) accesses one of the few real testing black pistes, an easy red, and the 8km Lattenabfahrt piste, which is a good fun leg burner.

Learners with an aversion to using t-bars and have progressed past the dedicated beginner area, are going to get pretty used to the Alblittabfahrt piste (5), as that is the only chairlift served beginner piste. The top section is nice and wide, and the lower section is a fairly narrow hairpin track. Move onto the t-bars and the Mardina-Abfahrt West piste is a fine beginner slope. Very few of the red pistes are particularly testing.