Innsbruck - Nordkette

What reviewers love is the freeriding and how close it all is to town - roughly twenty minutes from central Innsbruck to the top by cable car. The upper section at Hafelekar holds some of the steepest marked descents in the Alps, the Karrinne couloir runs to a seventy percent gradient, and the north-facing terrain above keeps its snow. The Seegrube park, the long valley descent and the city views from the terraces also get singled out.

Criticism lands on how narrow the appeal is. Prepared pistes are scarce, Seegrube has effectively one blue and the rest is steep, so beginners have no business here. There are only two chairlifts, the cable cars run every quarter of an hour and get packed because nothing caps the numbers. With no snowmaking and closures for avalanche control, a lean winter leaves almost nothing to ski. Anyone coming purely for groomed runs finds the lift pass poor value.