Dhe fastest slope in Ratschings is uphill – with a snowmobile. Landlord Roland Pixner throws it on when the guests of the Flecknerhütte have eaten their Kasnocken and donuts in the warm tiled stove and washed them down with a glass of elderberry liqueur and want to go back to the ski area.
Then Roland Pixner helps his customers onto the snowmobile with their skis and sticks and races with them over narrow tracks and steep crests in roller coaster curves up to the slopes. “I rode slowly today,” he says, jokingly to the guests whose wild tour has made their eyes water.
Despite this, or perhaps because of that, everyone likes to come back – after all, there is a trip like this, a trip like this rustic hut and such open-minded innkeepers not every day. The gastronomic competition is great. If, like the young Pixners, you want to survive with a hut without lift and slope connections, you have to offer something special.
No lift necessary: guests of the Flecknerhütte are brought back to the slopes personally by the landlord with the snowmobile
Source: dpa-tmn/Manuel Kottersteger
A truism that applies to the whole ski and snow business. Nowadays (almost) every ski resort in the Alps has modern lift systems, artificial snowmaking and beautiful slopes. Some have so many of them that the average holidaymaker can hardly ski them all in a few days of skiing.
Ideal for families – the Ratschings-Jaufen ski area
The South Tyrolean ski area Ratschings-Jaufen, ten minutes from the Brenner motorway, can also boast a respectable range of eight cable cars and lifts, which, thanks to an intelligent route, open up around 30 kilometers of varied descents. The lifts are great, the slopes perfectly groomed. No wonder with a ski area right on the doorstep of the renowned Vipiteno company Leitner, which is one of the largest lift and snow groomer manufacturers in the world.
The Ratschings-Jaufen ski area is certainly not one of the big ski areas. But for families with children it is a real insider tip
Source: dpa-tmn/Manuel Kottersteger
Piste gluttons who want hundreds of downhill kilometers in one go will certainly not be impressed by all this; but for pleasure skiers and families who like it a little smaller, cozy and well arranged. The people of Ratschings are concentrating on exactly that.
The ski area between Jaufenhaus and Saxnerhütte at an altitude of 2000 meters is ideal for this target group: the wide slopes up there invite you to relax and carve. The runs are mainly in the easy to moderate range, without being boring. There are two ways to go all the way down. Both are a bit challenging and lead to the valley station of the new Ratschings-Jaufen-Bahn – the really comfortable way to get in and out of the Ratschings area.
The longest floodlit toboggan run in Italy
If you arrive there in the morning, you can park your car in the large garage and take the escalator to the lift without having to walk long distances. Those who are leaving can change their clothes and even take a shower in the cabins of the service center before heading home. A rather unusual offer, but one that day guests and all those who have to pack their bags at the hotel in the morning but like to romp on the slopes until the evening appreciate.
The Rosskopf, Sterzing’s local mountain, is also known to locals as the Vipiteno viewing terrace
Source: dpa-tmn/TV-Sterzing
Ratschings is the undisputed ski center of the South Tyrolean Wipptal. But two other areas of the region are also worth a visit: the tranquil one Ladurns, which lures with a crisp black descent, but is above all a starting point for skiers who are at the beginning of their careers. And of course the horsehead, which everyone knows who drives south over the Brenner Pass – and yet usually rushes past it.
From the center of Vipiteno, the gondolas of the Rosskopf – or as the Italians say: “Monte Cavallo” – sway directly over the motorway. From there it is almost 2000 meters up to the wide mountain plateau and four other lifts, which open up a good dozen blue and red pistes.
The toboggan run down from the Rosskopf is one of the longest floodlit toboggan runs in Italy
Source: dpa-tmn/TV-Sterzing
As everywhere in the Wipptal, there are well-organized ski schools on the Rosskopf, which have also and especially developed an attractive course and care system for children. Also: many huts that invite you to stop every few hundred meters, as well as a ten kilometer long toboggan run. This makes it the longest illuminated and snow-covered toboggan run in Italy.
In Vipiteno, regional cuisine meets star cuisine
The view from the Vipiteno viewing terrace, as the locals call their local mountain, is at least as beautiful as the medieval town in the valley. Thanks to the silver from the Ridnaun mines, it once became rich and could afford magnificent churches and town houses and a mighty town tower – the Tower of the Twelve, which still dominates the town today.
Strolling through the Sterzinger arcades and shopping in the pretty shops is a must for anyone vacationing nearby. Of course, you can also stop off at one of the inns and restaurants, where they sometimes cook lavishly Tyrolean, sometimes traditionally Italian or, alternatively, finely Mediterranean.
The cozy city center of Vipiteno invites you to go for a stroll
Source: dpa-tmn/Klaus Peterlin
With a creative mixture of these and some ingredients from Asian cuisine, Burkhard Bacher has in his “Little Flame” one of the coveted Michelin stars: he conjures up scallops with strong chili polenta, fried crabs with tea leaves, duck breast and rack of lamb in his show kitchen. He grows all the herbs and spices himself in the courtyard of his gourmet temple.
The innkeeper high up in the Flecknerhütte has little to do with Burkhard Bacher’s award-winning cuisine. But the love for regional products is common to both: At Roland Pixner, the bacon comes from the local farm. Bread, butter and cheese are of course homemade and the milk is guaranteed to come fresh from the udder. House guests are even allowed to milk the cows themselves – assuming they have reasonably steady hands after a fast-paced day of skiing and wild snowmobile rides.
-> Tips and information for South Tyrol
Getting there: By car via the old Brenner road or the (toll) Brenner autobahn on the Italian A22 to the Sterzing exit. A cable car runs from the outskirts of the town directly to the Rosskopf ski area. State road 44 also leads from the Vipiteno exit to Ratschings. The region is also easy to reach by train via Vipiteno train station.
travel time: In the Ladurns ski area, the lifts are open from mid-December to mid-April. In the Ratschings-Jaufen and Rosskopf ski areas, the lifts open earlier. From the beginning of December, skiers can go up the mountain here.
Information desk: ratschings.info
So you can get as much vacation time as possible with bridging days
Even if many public holidays fall on a weekend again in 2022, you can still arrange your vacation days in such a way that you have as many days off as possible in a row. With these tips you can use the bridge days as efficiently as possible.
Source: WELT/ Viktoria Schulte
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