January 23 - 26, 2025
At the 11th Austria Ski Touring Festival in Osttirol once again it is all about ski touring. It brings experts and amateur sportspeople together – for morefun and safety on the mountain.Visitors could try out the most beautiful routes on site together with the Osttirol mountain and ski guides. With a new format featuring live digital broadcasting, expert talks, live discussion rounds and live tours the 11th Austria Ski Touring Festival reaches a new dimension and once again puts Osttirol in the spotlight as Austria's most beautiful ski touring destination.
Live discussion round "Safety on the mountain"
Live discussion round "Ski touring quo vadis"
Dear ski touring friends,
Back when the Austria Ski Touring Festival was launched, it was primarily about risk prevention and the fascination of ski touring. Not much has changed in the content of this event, which is now known far beyond the borders of Osttirol. The original aim of getting more people interested in ski touring and providing them with knowledge and experience of the open terrain has been realised. Over the past 10 years, the number of ski tourers has more than doubled, creating an interesting target group for the sporting goods trade as well as for tourism. In the meantime, the "Austria Ski Touring Festival" has become much more: a meeting of like-minded and nature-loving people for whom ski touring has become a passion! The mountain and ski guides have also come up with some fantastic ski tours for the anniversary festival, which for the first time will lead to the South Tyrolean Dolomites in addition to the Lesachtal and Villgrater mountains. As the venue for the 10th Austria Ski Touring Festival, the market town of Sillian can offer a wonderful infrastructure in addition to its central location.
The entrepreneur from Kufstein has been Regional Director of the Tyrolean Mountain Rescue Service since 2014. Safety is, of course, the top priority. He often finds that people overestimate their own abilities and underestimate the dangers of the great outdoors. As the Tyrolean Mountain Rescue Service, he recommends getting an experienced mountain and ski guide or at least becoming a member of one of the alpine clubs to find out about tour planning, ascent tracks and emergency equipment and to practise using them again and again.
Dr Patrick Nairz has been an avalanche expert in the Tyrolean avalanche warning service for over 20 years and is a well-known face in the world of ski mountaineering. In the event of an avalanche, every second counts. The better prepared the first rescuers are and the quicker buried victims are identified and dug out, the better the chances of survival. The aim is therefore to better prepare winter sports enthusiasts for an emergency. A new avalanche rescue training simulator developed by the Tyrolean Avalanche Service works in combination with VR glasses. Once put on, the user is immersed in the virtual world of the training simulator. This enables realistic rescue drills for avalanche victims.
Gabriel Indrist from Heinfels is a big mountain snowboarder and Snowmads crew member. Always in search of the perfect "line", his spectacular snowboard tours take him around the world. At this year's Austria Ski Touring Festival, Gabriel will be presenting his new, breathtaking short film "Purity". The impressive nature scenes in the North, East and South Tyrolean mountains become a meditative journey into nature for the viewer.
Mag. Pharm. Susanne Mair, long-distance and mountain runner, multiple national champion and enthusiastic ski mountaineer, has dedicated her second career entirely to pharmacy. However, she was not driven to the pharmacy, but to the laboratory, where she and her team at VerticalMed-Tyrol focus on prevention and long-term health. Sports and nutritional medicine as well as metabolic diagnostics are among her favorites.
Elisabeth (Lisi) Osl, one of Austria's mountain bike figureheads, is a two-time Olympian (2008, 2012) and nine-time national champion. She was also overall World Cup winner in cross-country in 2009. After more than 20 years in MTB racing, Lisi Osl is switching to professional life as a mountain hiking guide, herbal expert and, above all, sports nutritionist and can pass on much of her passion for the mountains and her love of nature.