Hochkönig

The Hochkönig is a limestone massif rising to nearly 3,000 m whose sheer south wall fills the view from every piste in this area, and the three villages beneath it — Maria Alm, Dienten and Mühlbach — are linked into a single ski area of around 120 km that stretches along the foot of the mountain. It is one of the quieter corners of Ski amadé, and its regulars would prefer it stayed that way.

The skiing runs east to west across a series of wooded ridges between about 800 and 1,900 m, and the classic way to see it is the Königstour, a 35 km circuit from one end to the other and back that takes a full day at a reasonable pace. The pistes are mostly red, well groomed and rarely crowded, with long tree-lined descents and a good number of huts with terraces facing the wall. The altitude is modest and the area depends on snowmaking on the lower slopes, as everything in this part of Salzburg does.

Maria Alm is the largest village and the prettiest, with an onion-domed church and a real centre; Dienten is tiny, high on the pass in the middle of the area; Mühlbach at the eastern end is an old mining village. None of them has much nightlife, which is either the drawback or the point.