It’s fine when your favourite ski resort announces the upgrade of that cold long uncomfortable lift in the shade of the mountain.
Or when the news breaks of a new link to another ski area, suddenly doubling the available terrain.
But all of that has, naturally, its price. And ski pass costs have risen inexorably over the past few winter seasons. Here is a breakdown of the most expensive ski passes in Austria:
Ski Lift Passes – Day Tickets
1) Kitzbühel
Kitzbühel heads the list with a daily price of €58 for a lift pass in the high ski season. Sure, it’s a big area and, yes, it has a lot of new lifts, but it isn’t by any means the biggest or the newest. Just the most expensive.
2) The Gastein Valley
The resorts of Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein rank, somewhat unexpectedly, in second place with a day ticket price of €57 during the long high season period. Dorfgastein down the valley is marginally cheaper with a cost of just €56 for its link with the Großarl valley.
3=) The Arlberg Region
Heading up a group of joint third place ski areas is the massive Ski Arlberg region over in western Tyrol and Vorarlberg. To be fair, the lift link between Lech and Zürs and St Anton has now exponentially increased the area on offer to visitors at a price of €56,50 in high season.
3=) Saalbach-Hinterglemm-Fieberbrunn
Another large ski circus which has continued to expand over the years – at a cost. And the price for a day ticket in high season this year in Saalbach-HInterglemm and Fieberbrunn will also be €56,50 in high season.
3=) Zell am See – Kaprun
Kaprun has seen the introduction of the impressive cable car link from the town to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier planned for this winter, while neighbouring Zell am See is slowly expanding its reach towards the Saalbach-Hinterglemm valley. Still, all that investment comes at a day ticket cost of €56,50 in the main season.
Six-Day Lift Passes
When it comes to 6-day ski passes, an almost completely different set of ski areas enter the fray:
1) Ischgl
Hovering just outside the top five when it comes to day passes, the Paznaun valley resort of Ischgl leaps into first place with its six-day high season lift pass price of €307,50.
2) Snow Space Salzburg
Yes, step forward Snow Space Salzburg – that’s Flachau and Wagrain to you and me, with a cool price of €307 for a six-day adult pass in high season.
3) Sölden
Next up the ski resort of Sölden and its glaciers with a 6-day cost of €302,50. Here and Obergurgl below the 6-day pass offers skiing in the whole of the Ötz valley.
4) Obergurgl
Joined by its Ötz valley neighbour Obergurgl with a six-day adult ski pass also at €302,50 for valley skiing.
5) Ski Arlberg
The Arlberg region makes another appearance at a surprisingly low spot with a six-day pass cost of €300.
And The Cheapest Lift Pass?
Of course, there are plenty of villages with small areas and low lift pass costs. But of the ski resorts that we cover fully on this site, the cheapest for day tickets are two near Innsbruck: Schlick 2000 in the Stubai valley (€40,50) and the high-altitude resort of Kühtai (€41,50).
When it comes to six-day passes, it’s the same two resorts again with costs of €207 and €210 for a six-day pass respectively.
Best Value For Money
On a purely subjective valuation, if you look at the ski area available and the cost of lift tickets, it was an unexpected pleasure to see the SkiWelt resorts such as Söll and Ellmau (day ticket €53,50 | six-day pass €261,50) with a relatively reasonable pricing policy.