Zillertal Arena

Zell im Zillertal is situated in the spectacular Zillertal Valley and it’s under an hours drive from Innsbruck. Zell linked in with the villages of Gerlos and Konigsleitten gives you over 200km of well maintained intermediate slopes called the Zillertal Arena. All the villages that form the Arena have something different to offer but in general this area can best be described as suiting intermediate freeriders and km logging lovers of the piste. What you don’t get here are the Brits the place is loved by the urdy gerdy music loving Dutch. When the boarding’s over for the day the drinking starts with bad music spilling echoing around the valley, but if you join in you might just find yourself forgetting your street cred and before you know it your doing a conga round the bar with your new found Dutch friends.

Zell and its neighboring resorts are all well designed and spread out giving a nice sense of open space but note, this open space attracts quite a lot of weekend skiers from Innsbruck, although in general lift lines are not very big apart from the early morning first gondola ride up from the village which is accessed by bus unless you’re staying in Konigsleitten. If you find a big queue at the Gerlos gondola take a bus further up the valley to the bottom of chair 8a and miss all the waiting around.

Zell’s terrain is spread out above the tree line offering some wide open runs and some nice off-piste powder areas. Most of the upper runs are graded red, but some of them are a bit over rated and there’s not a great deal for expert riders to ride down, although the off piste while not steep offers plenty of little rock kickers for those who like to mix it up.