Zell am See Piste Map: The Schmittenhöhe Runs by Entry Point and Difficulty

My personal highlight: a few runs on the Schmittenhöhe, with the glorious view over Zell am See and the surrounding mountains.

Ursula Auer, Hotel Der Schütthof

Hotel Der Schütthof is in Schüttdorf, about 5 minutes on foot from the valley station of the areitXpress gondola, lift 1 on the map. The gondola takes you up to 1,400 m in seven minutes. On a ski holiday at the hotel, lift 1 is your starting point on the map, and guests get a printed piste map at reception.

Where can I get the Zell am See piste map?

Open the lift company's interactive ski map and you can see where each run and lift on the Schmittenhöhe is; for what is open on the day, check its opening hours page. The Zell am See-Kaprun tourism board has an interactive Ski ALPIN CARD piste map too, with the pistes, lifts and huts of the Schmittenhöhe, of the Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel in Kaprun and of the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn at a glance; if it does not show, accept the site's marketing cookies.

The lift company's own 2026/27 winter map is interactive only, with no PDF to download. To save or print, there is the tourism board's Region panorama ski map Zell am See-Kaprun Winter 2026/27 as a JPG, and the Kitzsteinhorn's own 2026/27 map as a PDF.

How to read the piste map: colours, numbers and ski routes

On the Schmittenhöhe piste map, blue means easy, red intermediate and black difficult. Runs keep their German names on the English version of the map too, and most have a number. An Abfahrt is a run and a Skiweg a ski path; runs that take you down to the valley are marked "Valley run". Some runs have sections in two colours: the Sonnkogelpiste (15), for example, has a red and a black section.

Ski routes, such as the X4, have their own entry in the legend and no difficulty rating; the lift company counts eight ski routes off the pistes.

Lifts have numbers too, and six of them bring you up from the valley; the map is easiest to read from the one you start at.

Starting in Schüttdorf: the areitXpress

At the valley station itself, Schmidolin's Magic Carpet serves a practice slope for first turns. In winter, the Areitbahn II and III take you further up from the areitXpress, to 1,713 m and 1,901 m, or the Glocknerbahn, an eight-seat chairlift, to 1,579 m. The interactive map shows which runs lead down from the top of each of these lifts, so plan your first runs on it before you go up.

At the areitXpress valley station you will find a Skischule Zell am See office, the InfoCenter and a ski bus stop. At the top station, the Areit 1400 children's restaurant has a child-height buffet. Ski depots are at every valley station of the Schmittenhöhe and at the areitXpress top station. In winter, the top station of the Areitbahn III has a sports shop and a ski school.

Hotel Der Schütthof has its own ski hire, with 10% off for hotel guests, and a camera-monitored ski room for your skis; the Ski ALPIN CARD lift pass is sold without queuing at the main reception in Hotel Latini next door. My tip for the first ski day: just explore everything, head over to the lifts around the Sonnalm and down into the Schmittental; there is a very nice warm-up slope by the Breiteckbahn. Jürgen from the Skischule Zell am See, the hotels' ski instructor, is at the same reception for any questions, and you can book ski lessons with him, in English too.

Starting in town: the cityXpress, Schmittenhöhebahn, trassXpress and Sonnenalmbahn

The cityXpress gondola (lift 4) leaves from the centre of Zell am See and takes six minutes to reach 1,328 m, by the Plettsaukopf reservoir. At the top of the cityXpress you choose between a blue and a black run, the tourism board says. From Schüttdorf, take the bus to the cityXpress (in winter, the ski bus); it is easier than the train.

The Schmittenhöhebahn and Sonnenalmbahn cable cars (lifts 7 and 8) share a valley station area with the trassXpress (lift 15), higher up than the cityXpress in the centre: the Schmittenhöhebahn rises from 945 m to 1,955 m and the Sonnenalmbahn from 947 m to 1,375 m, while the cityXpress starts at 782 m. The Skischule Zell am See has offices at the cityXpress and trassXpress valley stations as well.

Night skiing at the Ebenbergbahn

The floodlit piste no. 6 is in the middle of Zell am See, served by the Ebenbergbahn (lift 26), a two-seat chairlift from 776 m to 1,020 m. The Nightslope at the Ebenbergbahn is expected to open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 January to 25 February 2027 until 8.30 pm, except 9 February, depending on snow. Night skiing is included in the day lift pass; for the evening only, adults pay €15 and young people and children €8 (prices for the 2026/27 winter season).

From Viehhofen and on to Saalbach: the zellamseeXpress

The zellamseeXpress gondola comes up from Viehhofen in the Glemm valley in two sections, lifts 29 and 28 on the map, to its top station at 1,920 m. It is the link lift to the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn: from its valley station in Viehhofen, the timetabled ski bus shuttle no. 5 and bus 680 take you to the Schönleitenbahn (I1+I2) in Saalbach, and to come back you ski the natural-snow run 168 at the Polten lift (I4) towards Viehhofen.

The red Tannwald run (no. 21) goes down to the zellamseeXpress mid-station, the Viehhofen tourism board says; from there the ski route X4 continues into the valley to the Kreuzerlehengraben, where the ski bus takes you back to Viehhofen. How a day over to Saalbach works is in our guide to skiing in Zell am See.

Which runs on the Schmittenhöhe suit beginners?

Start on the nursery slope of Schmidolin's Magic Carpet at the areitXpress valley station, then move on to the blue runs, such as the Glocknerwiese (3), the Zeller Skiweg (7) and the Hochzellerpiste (10). The lift company describes the Magic Carpet as an extra-wide, gentle practice slope: a covered conveyor belt, 120 m long, takes you up to a 10,000 m² practice area. On the map, the Piste Schmidolins Zauberteppich is blue.

On the Glocknerwiese, the Kidsslope adds obstacles, waves, tunnels and slalom courses, and the map rates it easy. The Skiweg Glocknerwiese (3a), the Hahnkopf and the Piste Fallegglift are blue as well; find them on the interactive map before your first day. The Breiteckpiste (1), the Hirschkogelpiste (2) and the Kapellenpiste (8) each have a blue and a red section, and the Kettingpiste (9) a blue and a black one, so check on the map which part is blue.

For children there are also Schmidolin's Dragon Park, with wave tracks, obstacles and arches to practise on; the magic carpet called Schmidolin's Dragon Tunnel; and the Bambilift. Children who have only just started skiing can use cheaper tickets valid only for the valley lifts. What a first-timer needs to book, from lessons to the lift pass, is in our guide on whether Zell am See is good for beginners.

Every numbered run on the Schmittenhöhe by colour

The lengths are the official map's; for the Trass (no. 14), the length is the lift company's, from the summit to the Schmittenhöhebahn valley station.

Blue on the map: easy

Red on the map: intermediate

Black on the map: difficult

Funslope XXL and Snowpark

The Funslope XXL starts at the Hochmaisbahn top station, 1,765 m up, and runs for over a kilometre; you reach it with the Hochmaisbahn or the Schmiedhoflift. The Snowpark, at 1,715 m, has 12 obstacles in two areas, one for beginners and one for advanced riders.

What is the longest run in Zell am See?

The lift company names no single longest run on the Schmittenhöhe. The Trass (no. 14) is, in its words, the longest and most demanding black run in the ski area: over four kilometres from the Schmittenhöhe summit to the Schmittenhöhebahn valley station, with gradients of up to 70 per cent and nearly 1,000 vertical metres, for experienced skiers only.

Can you ski back down to the valley?

Yes. The lift company counts five long valley runs with more than 1,000 vertical metres. Only one comes down to Schüttdorf, and it is not for beginners, who take the gondola down. For where to end the day, see Zell am See après-ski. The map marks these as valley runs: the Schüttabfahrt (4), the Nordabfahrt (5), the Standard Abfahrt (13), the Trass (14) and the Südabfahrt (20).

The Schüttabfahrt and the Südabfahrt are red, the Standard Abfahrt and the Trass are black, and the Nordabfahrt has a blue and a black section, both marked as a valley run. Before your last run of the day, check on the interactive map where each one comes out: a valley run does not necessarily bring you back to the lift you came up on.

New for winter 2026/27

The new Kapellenbahn, a detachable eight-seat chairlift from 1,728 to 1,964 m, begins operating in December 2026 and replaces the four-seater of 2001. Its valley station has moved about 150 m towards Piesendorf, which, the lift company says, improves the way back from the Pinzgauer Hütte and the runs there.

Work to widen the Tannwald run began in summer 2025 and was completed in stages in summer 2026.

The Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel: Kaprun's own piste map

Kaprun's ski areas have a map of their own: the Kitzsteinhorn's ski map page has its 2026/27 map of the Kitzsteinhorn, Maiskogel and Lechnerberg as a PDF and as an interactive map. On the Kitzsteinhorn the 2026/27 season is planned from 10 October 2026 to 17 May 2027, weather and snow permitting; the 3K K-ONNECTION, the lift from Kaprun via the Maiskogel to the glacier, runs again in December 2026.

Your Ski ALPIN CARD lift pass covers the Kitzsteinhorn too; what it costs for a day or a week is in our guide to Zell am See lift pass prices for 2026/27. Schüttdorf is also a good base for skiing on the Kitzsteinhorn: the bus stop is 5 minutes on foot from the hotel.