Schnalstaler Glacier Railway

Valley station of the glacier lift

Schnalstaler Gletscherbahn on the Grawand, Hochjochferner, right in the Kurzras valley

The Schnalstaler Gletscherbahn is the highest cable car in South Tyrol . The cable car opens up the Hochjochferner in the Ötztal Alps and leads from Kurzras ( 2011 m slm ) up to the mountain station ( 3212 m slm ) just below the Grawand .

1,201 feet of vertical drop be in six minutes driving time mastered. The manufacturer was Hölzl Seilbahnbau .

history

The ski area pioneer Leo Gurschler had the plan in the early 1970s to build a cable car on the glacier. The surveying work on the Grawand was carried out between May and June 1972, and in June a commission made up of experts from South and North Tyrol gave a positive opinion. The Gletscherbahn AG Schnalstal was founded in July . To carry out the construction work on the future mountain station, a shovel excavator had to be brought up to the Grawand. This was not done with a helicopter, as is common nowadays in such construction projects, but in August 1972 Leo Gurschler drove up the mountain with the excavator provided by the construction company via a lift route. In the spring of 1973 a material ropeway was built, with the help of which the passenger ropeway was built from 1974. The cable car was opened on July 12, 1975.

The glacier railway has made a significant contribution to the economic development of the Schnalstal . Today the Schnalstal is a tourist destination, whereby culture and nature have largely been preserved. Also known from the discovery of the mummy from Tisenjoch , there is an Ötzi show gallery at the mountain station of the cable car . The cable car is still the heart of the ski area in Schnalstal today . Summer skiing on the glacier had reached its peak during the 1970s and 1980s, has declined sharply in recent years due to the glacier retreat and competition from other leisure activities and was discontinued in 2013. In 2014, the Athesia Group acquired the majority of shares in the Gletscherbahn together with the Schröcksnadel family from Innsbruck. As a result, summer operations were resumed. In 2018, Athesia took over the shares of the Schröcksnadel family.