Who better to show us the ski resort of Alpbach than a local? That's exactly why we meet up with Christina Moser at the valley station of the Pöglbahn cable car in Inneralpbach. Christina has lived in Alpbach all her life - the ski piste is practically on her doorstep.
We start our day's skiing by taking the Pöglbahn cable car up to the Gmahkopf and carving from there to the "2000er", as Christina calls the Hornbahn 2000 chairlift. It's already sunny in the morning and the piste is almost deserted at this time of day. "I've been doing the first run of the day like this since I was a child," says Christina. An excellent tip for the start of the ski day. Christina makes her first carving tracks on the wide pistes, with Inneralpbach below us. The view into the valley takes in the alpine pastures, which also make Alpbach a popular destination for ski tourers. Particularly striking: the Großer Galtenberg, at 2,424 metres the highest peak here in Alpbachtal.
In between, we pay a short visit to Manfred from the Alpbach ski school and treat ourselves to an "elevenses". What is that? As a former ski instructor, Christina knows the answer of course: it's a shot of schnapps, which ski course participants from England like to treat themselves to around eleven in the morning. You can get a schnapps almost anywhere if you ask nicely. Even at the lift stations. We leave it at a small sip and say goodbye to Manfred.
The Kafner Ast, a family-run ski hut that has only recently been renovated and is also popular with locals, is a great place to stop for lunch. Over baked mountain cheese and grey cheese soup, Christina tells us about the former rivalry between the Alpbachtal and neighbouring Wildschönau. Today, this is history - perhaps the gondola lift to the Schatzberg, which has connected the previously separate ski areas since the winter of 2012/13, has contributed a little to this. Since then, the ski area has been known as Ski Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau.
After lunch, we take the gondola over to the Schatzberg, which offers beautiful views over Inneralpbach. At the top of the Schatzberg, the Wurmegg Hut opened in 2016 and is famous for its giant schnitzel, as Christina tells us. She actually wants to show us something else here, namely the view from the Schatzberg. We only have to trudge a few metres uphill from the lift station to get there. A hot tip for a nice summit photo without too much effort.
A snowball's throw away is a rustic wooden building - the Schatzberghütte, which can also be hired as a private group for up to 12 people. We learn this from a man who is just entering the hut. A few metres further down, you can stop for a meal at the Gipföhit. On the descent back down, we always have Alpbach in view - but we can't see the famous Alpbach Congress Centre from up here. Strange. This question would be answered later.
Before we explore Alpbach, we make a short detour by car to Hannes Lintner's Alpbachtal sports shop next to the Wiedersberghornbahn valley station. Our guide Christina swears by the excellent ski service here, as Hannes is a true professional. He and his team look after the equipment of young racers, and Hannes has also worked as a service man at the Ski World Cup in Sölden. As Christina tells us, people even travel here from the Inn Valley especially to have their ski boots fitted. Of course, Hannes also hires out skis and snowboards to ski guests who come to Alpbach. The current trends? "Freeriding and ski touring," he says. That's why there is now also a floodlit piste in Reith im Alpbachtal, which opens on Tuesday evenings especially for ski tourers. Another tip from Christina is Sport Connys.
We leave the skiing for today, as we want to explore Alpbach a little more. We stroll between old wooden houses - but the facades of newer houses are also made of wood. The reason: in 1953, the Alpbach local council issued building regulations that stipulate that new buildings must also conform to the typical Alpbach architectural style. Only the ground floor may be made of masonry, the upper floors must be made of wood and there are even precise regulations for window widths, balconies and roof pitches. Not every house builder here is happy about the many specifications, as Christina tells me, but Alpbach has already been voted "Austria's most beautiful village". We think it is definitely one of the most beautiful villages.
One of the few architectural exceptions in the village is the Congress Centre Alpbach, the venue for the annual European Forum Alpbach. It has been held here every August since 1945 and brings together participants from all over the world. Topics include science, business, politics and students meet experts in an unusually relaxed atmosphere. This is where the name "Village of Thinkers" comes from. Physics Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger liked Alpbach so much that he spent his last years here. Thomas Kahn, an employee of the Congress Centre, gives us a tour of the building and tells us that it was extended in 2016. It is hardly noticeable from the outside, as the roof is covered in greenery and the building extends underground into the slope. That's why we could hardly recognise it from the ski area.
Inside, we notice an oversized glass cone. It is modelled on a rock crystal and symbolises the capture of external influences, but it is also a mouthpiece to the outside world. It also scatters daylight throughout the building. The walls of some of the seminar rooms are made of rammed earth, as Thomas explains to us. Everything here is geared towards sustainability, he says: "The clay stores moisture and absorbs sound, which is ideal for a seminar room. Heating and cooling is provided by a geothermal system, while a photovoltaic system in the glass façade produces electricity." The Congress Centre doubled its capacity in 2016. From the outside, it is hard to believe that there is room for a good 1,200 people here. However, we look in vain for really large hotel buildings on our walk through Alpbach, as the many small accommodation providers have come together here and practically everyone in the village rents out rooms.
We end the day in one of Christina's favourite places, the Jakober. It has a pizzeria, a cosy Tyrolean inn and a pub in the same building. The food is excellent, with everything from Alpbacher Zerggln and Schlipfkrapfen to classic Tyrolean Gröstl. Most of the guests in the pub actually speak English, as we discovered. Live bands perform there from time to time - Christina and her band are also regulars, so you may well find her there with a guitar in her hand on your next visit to Alpbach.
