t’s not the first thing
you’d expect to find amid
the sleepy slopes of the
Austrian Alps. Rising
from the ground like a
plumped-up pair of curved,
white, butterfly wings,
the gondola station that
whizzes snow enthusiasts
up the mountain to the
Nordpark ski area is the kind of free-form structure that
wouldn’t look out of place in Copenhagen or Barcelona.
Designed by Iraqi starchitect Zaha Hadid in 2007, its ultra-
modern shape is intended to resemble the patterns left by
ice when glaciers melt.
You might question what such an eye-catchingly
futuristic design is doing in the land of quaint, timbered
chalets and glühwein, but Innsbruck is not your average
winter resort. For starters, where else can you hop on a
cable car in the centre of a city and be skiing in some 20
minutes? And where else can you cut through powder
while soaking in the stunning urban vista of the city
stretching out below you? Throw in that the nation’s
highest ski resort, Kühtai – with over 85km of runs and
some of the best off-piste in Austria – is just an hour’s bus
ride away and it all starts to make sense.
This is at the core of what locals call the urban Alpine
lifestyle – where city and mountain sit side by side. It all
makes for a pretty special experience and means you can
combine all the benefits of a snow escape with those of a
proper city break. And, with so many fantastic destination
hotels, from five-star celebrity haunts to historic city-
centre charmers, along with other night-time hotspots –
there’s a wider range than usual of après ski to enjoy.
Take the cocktail lounge at the Penz Hotel - with its
stylish interior and jazzy beats, it attracts a sophisticated
crowd for sundowners and there’s nary a ski boot in sight.
Then there’s Hofgarten (
der-hofgarten.at
),
a pavilion in
the city park of the same name. There are gigs there most
nights, and it’s a lively bar and a café in one, so you can
have dinner before partying. Of course, there are more
traditional venues too, such as Stiftskeller (
stiftskeller.
eu
),
where delicious Augustiner beer flows and a beautiful
open fireplace will warm you – though it’s better not
to show up in your salopettes. Up on the mountain in
Nordpark is the newly opened Cloud9 bar (
nordkette.
com
),
a Friday night must-do. Based in a huge igloo, where
beat-dropping DJs provide cutting-edge contrast to cuddly
sheepskins on the floor – it’s fast becoming an institution.
The thing about skiing here is that, since it takes
place against the backdrop of a living, thriving city, you
really get to meet the locals on their own turf, both in the
bars and on the slopes, where they can often be found
grabbing a couple of hours’ skiing on a sunny day. Some
even pop up in their lunch break during the week. Now
that’s a lifestyle we could quite easily get used to.
0 8 0
S K I F A S H I O N
I N N S B R U C K
