Tauplitz - Bad Mitterndorf

Snow leads the praise - the area ranks among the most snow-sure in Styria - and the slopes stay uncrowded with it. The price-to-quality ratio is rated well. Freeriding gets attention: there is plenty of it, routes are signposted and hazard information is clear. Lift and restaurant staff are spoken of warmly, as are the low on-mountain prices. The terrain between Lawinenstein and Schneiderkogel is a family all-rounder, noticeably modernised of late.

The lifts take the brunt of the criticism. One visitor who has skied some thirty resorts wrote he had never met a worse system: drags and platters still outnumber the chairs. Flat slopes plus fiddly lifts make the place poor for snowboard beginners. The walk in is another gripe - from some hotels it is 350 to 400 metres uphill on foot in full kit. The village is small with nothing to fill an evening, and the pass is considered expensive.