Alpine ski touring is getting more and more popular in the mountains of Vorarlberg. Although the most western province of Austria offers several hundreds km of slopes and dozens different ski lifts, ski touring is more than skiing. It is like a century ago: the first ski course ever took place in the Arlberg area.

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A very nice tour - suited also for beginners - starts in Damüls, a mountain village in the Bregenzer Wald, one of the most beautiful regions of Austria. This is just a valley away from Mellau (I wrote once about a mountain bike tour there) From Dornbirn, it's about 35 mins by car. The best time to start is in the early morning, around 9.00 am. You will walk up a trail for around 2 hours and enjoy full sun as the way uphill is on the south side of the top (called Ragazer Blanken).

The way is not to steep and offers great views over the Alpine mountains as far as Switzerland and Germany. At the top, enjoy the 360 degrees panorama and drink a hot tea you brought with you. It may be windy up there.

After a short break, cross the pass towards the Portlerhorn, the next bigger peak "just across the creek". Depending on your skills and condition, you can ski tour up to the Portlerhorn, the last meters shouldering your skis. Somewhere in between, on the other side of the creek (which is a north slope), we found very nice deep powder snow for our descent, which will take you as far as the base station of the ski lift and the parking lot where your tour started. On our tour it was just great, we met only one guy there - so it was all ours for a few hours!

Please remember: ski touring can be dangerous depending on the snow and weather conditions. Always, always check the avalanche report, and go with a local if you're not experienced or not sure about local conditions! It may save your life!

A possible extension to this route to the Ragazer Blanken is to continue to the Portlerhorn, a peak just across a deep creek. This takes you about 30-40 minutes to climb up the "hill". The last steps must be done without skis. An even more dramatic climb is at the neighbouring Gehrenspitze.

On the peak itself it was just beautiful sunny and warm. You will enjoy great views, and the best has yet to come - the downhill descent. You can choose between northern or southern slopes, steep ones and very steep ones, to rejoin finally a prepared ski slope.

If you're lucky and the snow is fresh, this is the best powder you can have. Otherwise the snow tends to melt in the sun a little bit and it gets heavier, few days later it will be frozen on the surface and break in when driving. Just keep your ski nosed down and take up speed!

I added more pics here...