Chillertal in the Zillertal | Document Snowboard

Rider: Tom West
Location: Zillertal Arena
Photographer: James Bryant

What’s the deal with the Zillertal?

This place gets smothered in media coverage, loads of riders lay their hats here for the winter, and if we could print just half the stories of philandering and debauchery emanating from the valley, we could fill our very own Document Viz – but you’re not interested in that, right?

The following is an extract from Document Snowboard Magazine, issue 61. Photography by James Bryant

The Valley

Finally I’m getting out of this hellhole. The media and industry circus that is the winter ISPO in Munich is just one of those things you have to do when you’re working in the ‘snowboarding industry’. As entertaining as it is, the late-night boozing and stuffy over-crowded halls are a far cry from the lure of the mountains. Luckily I’ve managed to bag a ride with Henry Jackson. Loaded into the back of his Skoda, Chris Kröll and I are getting a cheap evacuation from the depths of cosmopolitan Bavaria to the relative wilderness of the Zillertal.

We’re heading 110km south to Mayrhofen, a popular resort that has become a regular starting point for any foray into the neighbouring Zillertal Alps, and is situated, strategically – if not geographically – mid way along the Ziller river.

The area has taken some big hits with media coverage over the years. Maybe in part to the ease of getting here (it’s less than 50km from Innsbruck airport), or the diverse terrain on offer, or the infamous crew of trannny-finders: the Aesthetikers.

Whatever the reason, Mayrhofen makes a stable base for a number of Brits, and attracts in its wake the photographers, filmers and writers who feed on the exploits of the young and the foolhardy.

Our car journey was punctuated with epic tales of ‘the best snow in ten years’, so I was a little put-out when, on approaching the northerly entrance to the valley at Jenbach, any imminent hope of face shots and pillow drops were snubbed by the Föhn wind.

From time to time this mountain weather system eats away snow by raising temperatures on the leeward side of windswept valleys. In some cases it has been known to rise temperatures by as much as 30°C. Thankfully we weren’t gonna need the Bermuda shorts and sunnies in the depths of February and as it happened there was still some fresh if you knew where to look.

The Zillertal itself stretches from Jenbach and Strass in the north to Mayrhofen 30km south. At Mayrhofen the valley branches off into four subsidiaries: the Tuxertal, Zamsergrund, Zillergrund and Stilluppgrund. The different resorts are bundled together to form various overlapping ski areas that aim to offer a little something to everyone. The groupings can look a little confusing at first but a quick browse of a map will make it all crystal.

And if you can’t be bothered, or you just have super legs then why not sample the whole lot: the Zillertaler SuperSki. This whole valley option encompasses every inch of the area from the lifts of Hochfuegen in the north all the way to Hintertux in the south.

This ticket is only available for durations of four-days or longer, but with it you have access to the second largest winter sports area in Austria, claiming 55 peaks at over 3000m and 640km of groomed trails, four snowboard parks, a spring, summer and an autumn park and a whole load of everything in between.

The place is loaded with stuff to ride and the locals have been reaping the rewards of this backwater valley for years, in the eloquent words of ex-pat Henry Jackson, “They realise they’re sitting on some of the best terrain in Austria and don’t want to share it. In an effort to keep those who make it there off the slopes they lower prices of beer to ridiculous levels to keep everyone permanently hung-over. However, now they’ve realised they can’t stem the flow, so they’ve built one of the best terrain parks in Europe to keep us out of the pow.”

The Zillertal Arena

The Zillertal Arena takes its main launch point at Zell am Ziller. Having caught the wrong end of the stick writing off ‘bad weather days’ only to later hear tales of head-high pow from beaming house mates, I resolved to get up there. In a beat-up old Mercedes, with James Thorne (recovering from knee surgery), Brit skier Joe Tyler, and the ghetto car’s proprietor, David Odencrants in tow, we made the quick trip up the valley from our Mayrhofen base to Zell.

Not for the first time we lucked in. The Zillertal Arena revealed pow on the pistes, pillows on the trees – all be it a fair amount of dust on crust. There was loads of stuff to ride and the further we explored, the better it got. Being skiers, Joe and David found some ridiculous cliffs with really flat landings to drop. James erred on the side of caution but found some cool hits, pillows in the trees and even found time to answer nature’s call deep in the woods.

Once we were done, and reserving a little energy for the upcoming days when we hoped we’d get to see a bit of sun, my riding buddies and I heaped back into David's clapped out Mercedes. We boosted up the valley towards Fuegen where everyone feasted on the filth of the Golden Arches – what is it with cheap crap food and snowboarding? On the way back I quizzed Joe on the pull of this valley, why does he come back year after year?

“It's just a great place to go riding: you have the best park in Europe, The Vans Penken Park, as well as a multi-resort pass that means can find something to ride whatever the weather’s doing.”

We stopped to grab a picture of the iconic smoke-puking timber mill at Fuegen. I’m sure a number of shredders have eyed up the stacks of logs, searching out some kind of creative line or other – but then again apparently they’re quite heavy and make pancakes of unwary explorers.

Staring on at the industrial construction it’s hard to imagine that it’s actually on some kind of eco trip: producing millions of tonnes of bio-fuel each year. If the locals were to ditch their traditional oil-burning heating systems in favour of bio-fuel it’d apparently save thousands of tonnes of CO2.

But then we could have done that had we taken the Zillertalbahn and not David's relic of Mercedes. The little train line was opened in 1902 providing a vital link between Mayrhofen and the outside world and handily now offers free transport up and down the valley.

Mayrhofen

After a fun little day in the clouds at Zell I had my backpack glued to me for the rest of the trip. And it was a busy one. From shooting down the valley, to Ginzling, in the dead of night and watching Jon Addison slay a dirty 45 degree ledge in the middle of nowhere, or John Weatherly hammer himself trying frontside wall rides to an icy drop; to the sublimity of a perfect day on the Ahorn, with some epic snow, booming sunshine and smiles all round.

On the second night we had witnessed Chris Chatt’s fateful leg break on a street rail mission to Bavaria. The injury was the most serious I’ve ever witnessed at work or play and left bad vibes for the trip.

It was a welcome relief to spend the next day spanking pow pillows on the Ahorn with Will Tarbet – something that didn’t feel ‘dangerous’. Not at least until Will started sessioning a rainbow tree he’d had his eyes on for ages, missing trees on the out-run by a whisker.

Mayrhofen (the biggest town in the valley) is just a little further south than Zell and the Zillertal Arena. It incorporates the Penken and Ahorn mountains. It’s worth having a good look at the terrain you want to ride to figure out if you want to hit just one small area like Mayrhofen or the bigger Ski- and Glacier World Zillertal 3000 which offers shredding from Penken mountain all the way up to the Hintertux Glacier through Eggalm and Rastkogel.

If you’re only starting out, the snow’s good, or you just want to ride a park, then the Mayrhofen zone of Ahorn and Penken mountains will probably be enough to sate your diet. Both are super easy to get to via their respective gondolas. Don’t board the Penkenbahn if you’re scared of heights though, it traverses a massive valley drop.

The valley now holds snowboard parks in four areas over the course of a year. The infamous Vans Penken Park in Mayrhofen is without a doubt the best winter instalment. Since Vans added the clout of their budget to it a couple of seasons ago the park has expanded to take hold of a massive area, still incorporating the epic pro line jumps but also a loads of jibs, rails, mini jumps, medium jumps and a kind of ode to a pipe.

For the inter-season and the summer, the Betterpark in Hintertux, shaped by Wille Kaufmann, is pretty epic – if you want confirmation. Hotzone.tv also now have a park running in Gerlos and the winter Betterpark at Hochzillertal (Kaltenbach) was getting props this season.

The spring comes early to Mayrhofen and by early to mid April the park can turn into a slush fest. They’re not allowed to salt the jumps here ‘cos it’ll ruin the butter apparently. Dairy is booming and culturally primordial trade in the valley and too much salt in the snow will change the grass, which’ll then change the flavour and purity of the milk.

In fact they’re so concerned with the purity of the environment and what the cows are going to be eating that the water used in snowmaking has to be of a drinking standard. As an area whose economy has profited so heavily from winter and summer tourism the region seems to have taken an active stand in maintaining the quality of the wilderness.

But, they still like to party. Though Mayrhofen is a little town it has a big appetite for booze and techno. Each year it hosts the annual Snowbombing winter music festival getting inundated with ‘too famous for their own good DJs’ and gurning shredders. But on any given night, of the week you have to duck and weave to avoid the après ski techno beats from the Ice Bar and Niki’s near the Penken gondola.

SAS is the name of the game if you want to get rowdy: Scotland Yard Pub, Arena Nightclub, Schlussel Alm nightclub. That little concoction should keep you busy from about 6pm to 6am. For after-shred munchies you don’t have to look any further that Gasser right by the Penken gondola, after our day mixing it up on Ahorn pillows Will reckons a smoked gammon sarnie is just the ticket!

Hochfuegen-Hochzillertal

Towards the end of the trip, and in search of some big jumps to get busy on, we rolled up to Kaltenbach. From here you can access the Hochfuegen-Hochzillertal region. It’s a large linked zone with challenging slopes and top-to-bottom runs to both Kaltenbach, and this winter to Aschau.

For the day’s jaunt I was joined by Tom West, Jon Weaver and Gary Greenshields. All of who know how to handle themselves on a jump. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t with us that day: the park was shredded and speed for the big jump was somewhat of a mystery.

Despite the beaming sunshine I could see neither sight nor sound of the spectacular backdrops we’d been promised. Just for fun we blasted around the mountain, slashing every little pocket of powder we could find. And it was actually pretty good. Gary attacked a gnarly little chute over a blind ridge, hopping rock mines in the middle, but as the wind picked up we baled for lunch and shelter.

It was one of those days where despite a few good runs we felt the weather was against us, that the day wasn’t to be ours. Nonetheless, after a bit of food we took the chair up one more time to get a top-to-bottom run. As we did, we noticed some untracked nooks and crannies. So as the sun went down we were scoring gold, on our own, at the top of the mountain. And when we were done, we got a mighty run down to the valley floor laid out before us. Good times.