Bad Gastein - Sportgastein

The praise is for the snow: Sportgastein sits far above the rest of the valley and holds natural powder long after the lower slopes are skied out. Reviewers call waist-deep days fairly routine and note that when fog covers Bad Gastein you can ski above the clouds up here. Freeriders rate the three marked off-piste routes and the information point at the top station showing avalanche levels.

The thin lift network draws criticism: almost everything depends on one gondola and a very long T-bar, and that gondola still queues by midday. The area is small and open, mostly red pistes with black sections, so beginners are sent to other parts of the valley. The toll road annoys visitors too, charged per person with the last stretch running through two unlit tunnels. There is no lift link to the rest of Gastein.