A spectacular new £50m+ cable car has gone in to operation at Austria’s Stubai glacier, which is already open for the ski season.
The brand-new and innovative Eisgrat cable car at the glacier ski area close to Innsbruck in the province of Tirol went in to service at the weekend after two years of construction.
The new lift is of the modern ‘3S’ design which allows multiple large queue-gobbling cabins to circulate, hopefully making the queues that built up at peak times for the old cable car to become a thing of the past.
In fact the sophisticated tri-cable gondola is the longest of its type yet to be built in the Alps, and has entered the history books as at a cost of €58m (£52m) it’s believed to be the biggest single lift investment made by any ski resort.
Its 48 modern cabins are capable of transporting 3,000 people per hour, with each journey taking 11 minutes.
Every cabin offers panoramic views and WiFi. The new cable car has increased access to the glacier, and created a new run called Fernau – a 3.8 kilometre descent into the valley – for keen skiers and snowboarders.
Austria’s biggest glacier snowsports area, the Stubai has 104 km of pistes and reaches a height of 3,210m.
The centre is located a short drive from Innsbruck (approx. 35 minutes) and included in the Innsbruck area pass.
Skiers can stay in one of the three large Stubai Valley villages of Neustift, Fulpmes and Mieders which have their own wooded ski areas in winter and links to the glacier.
Currently a week’s stay at Ferienwohnung Leitgeb Josef costs from €166 pp / £148 pp (€665 / £592 total) for four people sharing a self-catered apartment. Return flights (London to Innsbruck) cost from £107 pp with British Airways. Food, lift pass and ski hire extra.
