When it comes to snowfall & upper mountain snowpack, Tauplitz is legendary, so a visit here was highly anticipated. Driving from Altenmarkt took a touch longer than expected and unusually for us, we arrived at the back end of a serious weekend ski crowd at the Tauplitz base area. We waited to get a lift ticket for a considerable amount of time, then gave up, went back to the car ....... and drove to the Mitterstein base area. This involved paying a toll to go up the private Tauplitzalm Alpenstraße (or Alpine Road), but such is life. The car park at Mitterstein was huge and largely deserted, so is the best choice on a weekend.

Despite the deep snowpack, we have always been concerned about the terrain at Tauplitz. The snow was sun-baked on the south-aspect slopes and heavily tracked so the off-piste wasn't a whole lot of fun. Piste trails were fun but felt limited, busy and despite recent snowfall were icy & bony down low.

Around the Tauplitzalm alpine plateau there is a confuzzling mix of ski slopes, winter walking trails & cross country ski trails meandering left, right & centre. Hordes of walkers were in the area and the car parks at Hollhaus were bedlam.

Lunch at the ski-in ski-out Schoeni Alm was fantastic. Accommodation wise, Bad Mitterndorf looks to have a whole lot more accommodation options than Tauplitz.

Overall we were not impressed with Tauplitz, but admittedly the hectic 'non-start' at Tauplitz village probably set it up for a fail. We did love seeing the free village ski bus - a bus-like carriage towed around by a huge John Deere tractor! It is slow on the brakes so pedestrians beware.

Everywhere has a bad day and this was Tauplitz's. We will return to for a mid-week ski and be at the lifts for opening, before anyone else! And we will probably take the train to Bad Mitterndorf because we want to Protect Our Winters (POW).
See our video here