EN: With Children on Skis from Dienten to Maria Alm (Austria)

For the second year in a row, during our children's winter holidays, we have enjoyed a fantastic ski week in Dienten am Hochkönig (Austria) together with family and friends from Sweden. During the first two days we admittedly had a snowstorm, but then it became just as sunny as I remember Dienten from my youth.

Since our children (nine and eleven years old) have now skied four years, for the first time we were able to move freely in the lift system, from Hinterthal to Mühlbach. Not even the run down to the last mentioned valley caused any difficulties, although it is marked as a black slope (a relatively simple one, but still ...).

On top of this, one day we went all the way to the top Aberg-Langeck (1.900 m) at Maria Alm. Getting there perhaps is not adventurous for adults, but our kids like to take the downhill position and go as fast as they can, without making any “unnecessary” turns… Most importantly: Not on any part of this ski route do you need to use muscle force and ski poles to move forward. The slopes around Maria Alm are not necessarily better, but variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes.

The week's most special evening entertainment was up at the restaurant Grünegg. We chose to hike up there, with which our youngest son was not very happy, because it is a half hour walk. In all honesty, there is an option to take a cable car, but it is anything but renovated. Unfortunately, the menu at Grünegg is more similar to a typical mountain restaurants than to those down in Dienten, but the end of the visit compensates for this: a toboggan ride along the illuminated road down into the village. Even though we live in Switzerland, I have never ridden a toboggan as an adult and must say it was great fun. Well, my youngest son - who went with me - thought I was a bit crazy when I repeatedly let us gain such a high speed that I had to steer into the snow banks to brake.

Another experience worth mentioning was that, this year, our sons were allowed to go skiing by themselves in the lunch breaks, while their dad had a beer. Now I know that they can ask and explain themselves in German, if needed. It may seem obvious since we live in Zurich but, in fact, we moved here only 1.5 years ago.

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We had our accommodation at Dorfstub’n this year as well and would love to continue there because the Pabingers, who run the place, do a brilliant job.

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The Hochkönig ski area belongs to the larger ski region Ski Amadé, stretching over the federal states of Salzburg Land and Styria.

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My post from last year about Dienten am Hochkönig can be found here.

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Deutsche Version 
Svensk version