For anyone who has seen the Top Mountain Star restaurant above Obergurgl-Hochgurgl or the glass cuboid Gaislachkogl top station in nearby Soelden, the latter whose use in the James Bond SPECTRE film has been mercilessly exploited by the lift operator, will already be of the opinion that the boundaries of conventional alpine design are not…
Kitzbuhel’s Schloss Lebenberg: Rarefied surroundings or a Castle in the Sky?
Much has changed in Kitzbuhel since the imposing Schloss Lebenberg first held court over the town, some 400-years ago. Now a hotel designated as a somewhat confusing 4 Star Superior there is little to suggest by its overall performance, at least during my recent 11 day stay, how it successfully sets itself apart from the…
Kitzbuehel: Hiking from the Bichlalm
Stymied by inclement weather for much of my first week on vacation in Kitzbuehel I was understandable eager to hit my stride, and belatedly acquire my mountain legs. A fine day was forecast; an archetypal autumnal mist hung over Kitzbuehel of the kind that easily evaporates once the sun gets to work. After a fifteen-minute…
Kitzbühel: Shopping, Skiing, Hiking. In that order.
The allure of Kitzbühel to the well-heeled is there for all to see. A short survey of the main street immediately highlights the Tirolean town's slavish devotion to luxury brands, and how those sashaying along its pristine thoroughfares are tacitly judged by their own attention, or lack of, to high-end couture and jewellery. For a…
Oetztal: Crumbling Hochwildehaus hut a sobering, but unheeded, example of local Climate Change
The fate of the iconic Hochwildehaus mountain hut high in the Tirol's Oetztal should serve as a warning to those who continue to deny the onrushing effects of Climate Change, and the short-sighted within Austria's insatiable ski community who insist upon putting financial interests ahead of the core values that have sought to protect unique…
Innsbruck Airport announce long overdue expansion plans
Innsbruck Airport have finally acknowledged what most who've recently travelled through its modest terminal will attest: modernization, ergo an enlargement of especially the post-security side of its operations, is desperately needed. Architectural design tenders are expected to be submitted during 2019, with construction slated to commence in 2022. Although a welcome development the announced timescale…
The Tirol’s Neustift Rebuffs Further Cableway Expansion, But For How Long?
The seemingly inexhaustible desire for further, bigger, longer, and higher cableways in the Austrian Tirol and Salzburgerland provinces is to many a distasteful, unquenchable process that will never be sated. The marginal net gains promised by many projects fail to justify the financial outlay but crucially, the environmental scarring of landscapes to facilitate further pistes,…
Austrian Tirol: Nauders to benefit from improved cableway infrastructure and mountain restaurant
A near €10 million investment in the Tirolean resort of Nauders has this week been announced, the majority of the outlay earmarked for regeneration of a forty year old lift system which will see a remodeled valley station for the in situ Bergkastelbahn as the centrepiece attraction, architecturally designed to theoretically blend in with a…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 
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