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Family skiing Almenwelt Lofer

Family Adventure on the Piste

A ski course for the children to get them ready for blue pistes; priceless hours for Mum and Dad to spend together carving up snowy slopes and the highlight of the day, a downhill run together with the children: all of this can be found in one place in Austria’s family-friendliest ski area which entices with wide, open pistes at fair prices!    

“Mum, Dad, how do you make snow glow?”, our youngest child asked us before our holiday in the Salzburger Saalachtal with a mischievous twinkle in the eye. “By making swift turns and whizzing over the pistes so quickly that the snow under the skis becomes hot!” my husband and I reply. Our daughter Theresa adds, “But first we need to take a ski course! Otherwise there’ll be no swift turns and no glowing snow!”

Ready for the Pistes with the Ski Professionals

Brand new this year is the consortium “3 Länder Freizeit-Arena“. In addtion to the Almenwelt Lofer and the lifts in Heutal, the new combination ticket allows us to ski the areas Waidring/Steinplatte, Reit im Winkl, St. Johann in Tirol, Pillersee/Buchensteinwand, Kirchdorf and Erpfendorf. Nevertheless, the Almenwelt Lofer is the perfect destination for our family ski day and offers fair family prices. And so it is finally time! Florian and Theresa, cheeks bright pink with excitement, stand in front of their ski teacher for their very first ski school course. During our previous winter holidays here in the Salzburger Saalchtal, my husband and I helped them to make their first turns in the snow, but today the ski professionals will get them fit for the pistes. We look on proudly as they carry their skis confidently over their shoulders and follow their lovely ski instructor to the generously laid out Kinderland at the mountain station of the Almbahn II. A 140 metre long covered “Magic Carpet“ provides a comfortable and safe ascent for the mini-skiers. Here the children can learn to ski through play in this secured area.

Perfect Unison in the Winter Wonderland

We watch both of them from a safe distance because we don’t want to distract our children from their eager attempts at skiing. Our 5-year old Florian proudly shows his teacher what he can already do – with an almost perfect “pizza slice“ he judders around a fairy-tale character and grins from ear to ear as he receives a lot of praise. 8-year old Theresa is a little braver and makes rapid turns over the terrain. With a loud laugh she gives her teacher a high five at the end of the slope and we are reassured, “Our two little ones won’t start to miss us too soon here. They feel completely at home in the Kinderland. The rest of the morning belongs to us alone!“

An absolute luxury! It is a long time since my husband and I have had time to do something alone and now two hours of fun on the piste stretch out in front of us. The weather is a dream! From Schwarzeck there is a magnificent panorama of the Salzburger Saalachtal basin. Not a single cloud mars the deep blue sky and the glistening white peaks of the Loferer Steinberge seem close enough to touch. I breathe the fresh, cold air and feel the mild winter sun on my face. “Let’s go! We’ll meet at the bottom at the lift“, my husband teases and carves up the first few metres of the freshly prepared slope. “No wait, I’ll catch you in a moment“, I shout, laughing and I also raise a cloud of powder snow under my skis.

While my husband likes to challenge himself on black pistes, I feel at home on the blue and red slopes of the Almenwelt Lofer. We enjoy the togetherness descent by descent. By midday we are ready for a break and I decide, “Come on, let’s collect the children and enjoy this dream ski day together!”

The children are bubbling over excitedly with news of their sporting successes this morning as we collect them from their ski instructor. “They are both real sporting aces. They are ready for their first descent of the blue piste!” praises the ski instructor and the kids cheer enthusiastically, “Now we are ready to make the snow glow!” “First we must recharge our batteries because ski legs need power!“ announces Dad with a twinkle in his eye and leads the children by the hand to the nearest ski hut.  We settle down only too gladly on the sunny terrace and order a huge pan of “Kasnockn”, or cheese dumplings and for dessert, a pan of “Kaiserschmarrn”, a sugared pancake with raisins. While we get stuck into the steaming Kasnocken, which were placed in the middle of the table in a griddle plan, we make plans for our downhill run after the meal.

Via the Motorway to the Fairytale Forest

“I want to go on the motorway!“, says Florian while Theresa sulks, “But I want to go to the fairytale forest!” Laughing we agree with both of them and I say, “No problem – and even if Dad wants to try out a black piste in between we won’t lose sight of one another here in the Almenwelt Lofer!” Feeling satisfied after our meal, we decide to take a ride on the “Family Express“, to try the “Autobahn” or “Motorway” first. This magnificent and broad downhill leads us to the lower station of the Schönbühelbahn. We are surprised how well the children do on this slope as they link turn after turn. After a short ascent with the lift we catch sight of the “Märchenwald” or “Fairytale Forest” – the piste which brings us back to the mountain station of the Almbahn II. “Enough for today! Tomorrow is another day and then we’ll ride with the cool 8-person chairlift – the Almen 8er Schwarzeck!“, I conclude because the little ones have skied enough for the first day.

Tired, we let the gondola of the Almbahn II bring us downhill and on changing to the Almbahn I we catch the “Silverliner“ – a gondola boasting a particularly special design, completely silver. The kids are astonished and want to know who the young man in the photo on the gondola is and Dad explains, “That is Roland Leitinger who learnt to ski here in the Almenwelt Lofer. Today he is one of the top 15 giant slalom skiers in the world and won the silver medal at the world championships. That’s why this gondola has been dedicated to him.“ With a furrowed brow Florian thinks for a while and says, “Can we go up to the Almenwelt Lofer really early in the morning? I have to practise, then maybe I’ll also get my own gondola.” Everyone laughs and we agree to ride up the mountain with the very first gondola in the morning!

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