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Latest in Kitzbühel
St. Johann in Tirol Replaces 45-Year-Old Chairlift With New 10-Person Gondola for 2026-27
A two-seater chairlift from 1981 is making way for a 10-person gondola in St. Johann in Tirol - and if you never rode the old Jodlalm double chair, you missed something. Construction is underway now, capacity jumps from a crawl to 2,400 people per hour, and the new gondola runs direct to the Harschbichl summit at 1,603m without a transfer. Opening planned for winter 2026-27. The chairs from the old lift were sold off - someone's getting a unique garden feature.
Franzoni Claims Maiden Kitzbühel Downhill Win as Odermatt's Streif Drought Continues
Giovanni Franzoni delivered a career-defining performance to win the Kitzbühel downhill by seven hundredths of a second over Marco Odermatt, who remains winless on the sport's most famous course despite three runner-up finishes. The result caps a remarkable January breakthrough for the 24-year-old Italian.
Kitzski Kitzbühel Review: Why This Austrian Resort is Ranked Number One in the World
After a decade on my bucket list, I finally made it to Kitzski at Kitzbühel - ranked number one out of 6,000 global resorts. Having skied Mt Buller, Lake Tahoe, and Hokkaido, I approached the claim with scepticism. But after two days exploring 233 kilometres of pistes and skiing sections of the legendary Streif downhill course, I'm convinced. This might truly be the most complete ski resort experience on the planet, combining world-class terrain with authentic alpine village life.
Marco Odermatt's Gets A Gondola at Kitzbühel
Swiss ski champion Marco Odermatt was honoured with a personalised gondola at Kitzbühel Ski Resort, commemorating his 2025 Super-G victory on the Streif.
KitzSki and SkiWelt Merger Talks: Creating Austria's Largest Ski Area
Discussions are underway to merge KitzSki and SkiWelt, potentially forming Austria's largest interconnected ski area with over 500 kilometres of slopes.
Kitzbühel's Sound | Escape Festival Boosts Late-Season Tourism
Kitzbühel's Sound | Escape electronic music festival has successfully revitalised the resort's late March weekend, attracting visitors and boosting local businesses. The event featured top DJs and free admission across various venues.
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More from the SnowStash desk
Spain Moves to Ban Smoking at Ski Resorts Under New Tobacco Law
Spain's government has approved a draft tobacco law that would ban smoking across a wide range of outdoor spaces, including sports venues - a category Spanish winter sports media expect to cover ski resorts, potentially extending to slopes and lifts themselves. The rules would also apply to e-cigarettes and vaping devices, even nicotine-free ones. The bill still has to clear the Spanish parliament before any ban, signage, or fines can take effect.
South Tyrol Approves New 16-Person Ciampinoi Gondola in Val Gardena
South Tyrol has approved a full rebuild of the Ciampinoi cable car in Selva di Val Gardena, replacing the current 12-person gondola with a 16-person cabin and a new mountain-station restaurant. Capacity is capped at 3,200 people an hour rather than the 3,600 the operator wanted, and 250,000 euros must go toward compensatory measures. No construction or opening date has been set, though the upgrade is partly aimed at clearing bottlenecks before the 2031 Alpine Ski World Championships.
Resort Spotlight: Hoshino Tomamu - Corporate Japan's Mountain Playground Revisited
Hoshino Tomamu is the ski resort equivalent of a conference hotel that happens to have excellent powder. Built for corporate retreats and package tourists, it offers genuine Hokkaido snow on surprisingly limited terrain - 29 runs spread across 585 vertical metres.
La Thuile's New Cable Car Replaces Two Ageing Chairlifts
La Thuile is spending 38.7 million US dollars on a new 10-person cable car linking Les Suches to Chaz Dura, replacing the La Combe and Chaz Dura chairlifts after nearly forty years of service. Built by Leitner, the new cable car runs 1,950 metres to a top station at 2,576 metres, carrying up to 3,000 people an hour with a six-minute ride. It also improves the connection to La Rosiere in France via the Petit-Saint-Bernard Pass, and is on track to open for the 2026/27 season.
The Remarkables Adds Scarpa Bowl to Its Inbounds Terrain
The Remarkables is adding new inbounds terrain for winter, bringing the Scarpa Bowl - known locally as the Toilet Bowl - into its lift-accessed network after years as backcountry-only ground. The roughly 500 metre run is reached by bootpacking from the top of the Sugar Bowl chairlift, with a shuttle picking skiers up from the road at the bottom. It's a smaller, faster addition than the resort's planned Doolans expansion, though the new terrain hasn't opened yet due to a lack of snow this season.
Ski Portillo Cut Off After Storm Dumps More Than 4.5 Metres of Snow
Ski Portillo remains isolated after an extended storm buried the Chilean resort under more than 4.5 metres of snow, with both ground and air access suspended since Tuesday while crews monitor avalanche hazards and worsening weather. Resort officials say further snowfall is expected in the coming days and haven't set a timeline for reopening the mountain road. Once access resumes, the scale of the snowpack could set up a strong season at one of the Southern Hemisphere's most historic ski resorts.
Resort Spotlight: Lotte Arai - Japan's Corporate Ski Anomaly With 22 Metres of Annual Snowfall
Lotte Arai receives 22 metres of annual snowfall - exceptional even by Japanese standards - but its corporate ownership model and limited terrain create an unusual cost-benefit equation. Here's what the numbers actually mean on the ground.
Resort Spotlight: Banff Sunshine Village - Nine Metres of Snow and a Season That Runs Until May
Banff Sunshine Village sits at 1,660m base and receives 9.27m of snow annually. Inside Banff National Park, it offers a six-month season and terrain split that skews heavily advanced - though the crowds and lift infrastructure tell their own story.