Inside the ski resort with a lot snow it is climate-change proof

That unsettling cry bouncing from peak to peak. That was me. Startled as I careered on my snowboard off one of many world’s steepest and quickest chairlift descents, within the Austrian ski resort of Obertauern.

Luckily, I had an ideal resort during which to let my nerves settle – the newly opened Obertauern Places Hotel. A luxuriously funky property with attractive choices for post-slope leisure and the regaling of chairlift derring-do.

As nicely as eye-catchingly cozy bedrooms, there’s the beautiful subterranean indoor pool with its big floating bean-bag furnishings, a hipster lounge and bar, a buzzy self-service restaurant, a severely enjoyable 400-sq-m (4,305-sq-ft) top-floor gaming space full with a soft-play advanced and, subsequent door, a rooftop bar with jaw-dropping valley views.

From right here you are virtually assured to gaze upon huge swathes of snow in the course of the winter season as a result of Obertauern – which lies 1,740m/5,708ft above sea degree 90km (55 miles) south of Salzburg – is the ski resort with one of the best snow file in Austria.

Fact.

According to ski tourism researcher Gunther Aigner, the common annual most snow depth within the city of 264cm has not modified for the previous 108 years.

And what’s extra, the resort is climate-change-proof.

Mr Aigner defined that the snow line will rise by about 200 metres by 2050, with the Obertauern vacationer board concluding that ‘there may be at the moment no state of affairs in science [in which] Obertauern runs out of snow within the foreseeable future’.

And it provides that this ‘white Eldorado’ is so snow-sure it doesn’t need to depend on synthetic snow.

During our late December go to it was a winter wonderland, with each inch of the 100 kilometres (62 miles) of slopes obtainable open for enterprise.

Obertauern is not probably the most romantic of ski resorts, with a most important street bisecting it. But there isn’t a denying that the mountains – a part of the Hohe Tauern vary – that rise imperiously both aspect of it are spectacularly dramatic.

Twenty-six cable vehicles and lifts are organized across the village to create a well-thought-out ‘ski circuit’ on these photogenic lumps, with a number of ski bridges crossing the principle street to make connections from one aspect of the valley to the opposite.

Places Hotel lies mere yards from one among these.

Once we might conquered the scary chairlift – known as Sonnenlift 1 – we discovered the runs fairly thrilling, although situations had been slightly on the icy aspect.

When we weren’t cruising the blues, we had been doing circuits on the superb youngsters’s space with our six-year-old daughter.

This zone options an enormous ‘magic carpet’ raise and foam animals that kind enjoyable slalom runs.

If there’s a difficulty with Obertauern, it is that it isn’t splendid for freshmen. The slopes are on the difficult aspect and our daughter – completely able to whizzing down inexperienced runs – had restricted choices.

However, for lovers of hair-raising gradients, Obertauern is a mecca, with one run, Gamsleitenbahn 2, nerve-wracking simply to have a look at.

This run, it appears, is generally tried by YouTubing skiers and snowboarders eager to tick it off their steep-slope bucket checklist.

Obertauern is a mecca for Beatles followers, too. For it was right here that the Fab Four filmed scenes for his or her 1965 film Help!

What’s extra, the group carried out their solely Austrian gig (to have a good time a crew member’s birthday) on the positioning of Places Hotel, when it was the Marietta Hotel.

The drum equipment utilized by Ringo Starr for the live performance is on show in a hall behind the foyer. A cast-iron speaking level – although one among many.

My daughter largely talked about how superb the gaming space was. Entirely affordable – it is unbelievable. For younger and outdated alike.

The soft-play space is gigantic – and options trampolines, a tube slide and a foam-block’ pool’ – there are two full-sized desk tennis tables, and players can button-bash on classic arcade machines, PlayStation 5s, and Nintendo Switches. Plus, there are herds of outsized bean baggage to take a seat on, with the realm illuminated by lights hidden inside cute lampshades that resemble glowing clouds.

The self-service restaurant was additionally a success, with company capable of eat as a lot as they like within the evenings from counters filled with all method of meats, fish and chips, and gourmand handmade pizzas.

Breakfast is served in the identical venue. In the mornings we loved gazing out of the panoramic home windows on the mountainous backdrop, the vista shrouded in darkness throughout dinner on our deep-winter go to.

Opt for the ‘Places Flexi’ bundle and dinner is free, with every particular person given a 30-euro (£26) allowance a day to spend on food and drinks on the bar in its place.

Payment is made by way of wrist-worn digital ‘watches’, which additionally open bedrooms and doorways to varied public areas. Nifty.

The lounge and bar, with its stylish, Soho House-style furnishings (assume leather-based chairs with chrome frames and Chesterfield sofas) additionally gained us over (together with the soup and pasta).

Then there’s the aforementioned pool. World class. Its kidney form means it is not appropriate for doing laps, however what a spot for unwinding. Loungers are unfold across the moodily lit area on a number of ranges, and the floating bean-bag furnishings, together with star-shaped cushions, are enjoyable to leap on and heavenly for lolling.

To high all of it off, the employees had been nice – charming, and eager to help, from setting my associate and I up for a head-to-head sport of Mario Kart to leaping forth to information me by the machinations of the Nespresso machine at breakfast.

Any downsides? A number of. But nothing notably brow-furrowing.

I really feel the resort, by Croatian model Valamar, is slightly ‘overbranded’ and may really feel prefer it’s attempting a bit too arduous to be fashionable.

The employees – all of them put on T-shirts. Which offers off a sports-shop vibe. And the property is referenced in advertising and marketing literature with headache-inducing typography, as OBERTAUERN [PLACESHOTEL]. Their capitals, their sq. brackets. And they are not bedrooms – you sleep in a [PLACESROOM]. And you sip cocktails within the [PLACESLOUNGEBAR] utilizing your [PLACESFLEXI].

Then there are the limitless snippets of PLACES-related banter dotted across the constructing – for instance, the baggage room is labelled as THIS PLACE IS PACKED.

Potentially tiresome for some. 

And whereas we favored our bed room’s cool, black-framed wood furnishings and comfortable king-sized mattress, our lavatory was a slight let-down – good and clear, however plain, with an affordable bathe hose and no rain bathe. As if the inside designer had run out of [PLACESINSPIRATION].

And for a resort that is so tech savvy, with free password-less hi-speed Wi-Fi and all these gaming stations, it was shocking to not see spare bedside sockets on each side of the mattress for plugging in telephones and tablets (I needed to unplug the Marshall bluetooth speaker to plug my telephone in).

Mind you, the ‘pleasure field’ positioned by the mattress that contained a condom and lubricant suggests many Places Hotel company aren’t prioritising pillowside battery boosting. 

The ski rent, too, was a blended bag.

It comes courtesy of adjoining Freudenaus Sport Rental, which is not owned by Valamar however may be accessed from the resort lounge, with Valamar providing the gear and providers by way of its web site.

What’s extra, the invoice may be settled at reception upon trying out.

So far, so useful.

And whereas the equipment was good, the draw back throughout our go to was that in the course of the becoming, one member of employees was attempting to serve about 10 individuals directly.

He was a pleasant chap, however in want of assist in the course of the morning rush hour.

These downsides, nonetheless, are all forgivable, as a result of not solely does Places Hotel get the fundamentals proper, it goes above and past, with a visitor expertise as winningly elevated because the ski space (which rises to 2,313 metres (7,588ft).

I’d like to return – it is a snow brainer –  however subsequent time I will not be driving that scary chair raise. I’ll be watching others going by the ordeal, cocktail in hand, from the eighth-floor bar terrace.

And I’ll be protecting a eager eye on the Valamar model. I might think about so, too, will rival hoteliers. Because it is positively going locations.