Obertauern - Winter Holidays as in paradise.

Obertauern damals

First of all there was snow - then came Obertauern

At the beginning of the 20th century, the altitude of 1.639m - 2.350m above sea level was still considered to be scary, in particular during the winter months.
However, a small group of persons had the vision of developing tourism in this high Alpine region and therefore this winter paradise could evolute on the former pass with the small church on it... Today, not only thousands of winter fans but also the best athletes from all over the world are attracted year by year to this skiing resort.

Obertauern is not only the home village of famous winter athletes such as the snowboarders Doris and Heidi Krings and the skier Heinz Schilchegger, but it also hosts the Olympic base centre of the Austrian National Skiing Team (ÖSV-Olympiastützpunkt) which is one of the most efficient high altitude training centres of Europe.

Already in 1905, the lieutenant Bilgeri, a pioneer of military skiing and the inventor of the Bilgeri-binding, published his essay "Ski-Instructions for the k.u.k. Army" and in 1907 he initiated the age of skiing with the first large military skiing exercises on the Radstädter Tauern (the name Obertauern was only introduced officially in 1962).

One hundred years ago, the first skiing pioneers explored the Radstädter Tauern mountains and became thus the founders of one of the most famous winter sport resorts in the Alps.

In the 1930s, at the height of the ski touring the guests could already choose among four different skiing schools. The first use of artificial ascending help in 1948 - a rotable rope run by a diesel motor with knots to hold on - announced the birth of the village Obertauern with a primary school, electricity and a drink water pipeline.
Medical ordinations, TV reception and the first t-bar lifts accelerated the development of the hotel village in Obertauern in the following years. In 1963, the first motor snow cat of Austria was used in Obertauern and it was no longer necessary to prepare the slopes with the help of skiers who had to prepare them by walking up the slopes on their skis.