It wasn’t hard to spot the freeriding fans in our group. We were the ones who greeted our guide’s early-morning announcement – “unfortunately, because of high winds, the new gondola is closed and we can’t connect with the pistes of the other Ski Circus resorts as planned; I’m afraid we’ll have to spend another day in Fieberbrunn” – with ear-to-ear grins.
A tiny Tirolean town in the Kitzbühel Alps, just 800 metres above sea-level and with a mere 43km of marked pistes, Fieberbrunn has for some years had a reputation among in-the-know freeskiers and snowboarders, in Austria and beyond, for a Tardis-like wealth of gnarly backcountry terrain. Its reputation was endorsed in 2009 when the Freeride World Tour, the planet’s premier big-mountain competition, first made it a fixture on its annual five-nation roster (the tour arrives here this year on 6 March).
Happily coinciding with a fall of 40cm of new snow, our first day on Fieberbrunn’s steeps, glades and bowls had brought us descent after exhilarating descent through silky, untracked powder. Expertly led by Martin Leitinger from local guiding outfit Freeride Base, we bounced down mini pillow lines by the trees on the Henne’s lower slopes, tackled a few heart-in-mouth chutes from the top of the Lärchfilzkogel and barrelled down a gloriously long, swooping run dubbed Big Mom.
And so far, we hadn’t even made a dent in the mighty Wildseeloder, with its highly technical 50-degree pitch (the Freeride World Tour’s event venue of choice). The insiders’ tip for last run of the day is a west-facing epic that drops a full 1,200 metres to Pletzergraben. With a further 40cm of snow falling that night, our reluctance to commit to a piste-bound day was sealed.
For off-piste skiers, Fieberbrunn is blessed with a topography that puts a large and varied expanse of terrain at your ski tips straight from the lifts, without even a short hike. “Easy up, wild down” is the resort’s unofficial motto. Locals also claim the spot is a schneeloch, a “snow hole” whose geography catches the lion’s share of the region’s precipitation, which can add up to 50% more over a season than in neighbour Kitzbühel.
This year, Austria’s little big mountain has, with the opening of the nippy new TirolS gondola, joined Ski Circus, a group of lift-linked resorts that comprises popular Saalbach, Hinterglemm and Leogang, and now claims to be Austria’s largest interconnected ski area, with 270km of runs and 70 lifts. As such, it brings together giant supergroomers, world cup courses, snow parks, floodlit slopes, luge runs, endless family-friendly facilities and Fieberbrunn’s rugged riches on a single ticket.
It’s a change that is not without controversy, and when it comes to the town’s future as part of a large commercial ski area, the jury, at local level at least, is still out.
“Fieberbrunn has always felt a bit like the locals’ little secret,” says Leitinger. “And some are worried that the Ski Circus connection will change the place too much, that too many people will come. At the moment, it can take a couple of weeks for new snow to get all tracked out, if you’re prepared to put in 10 or 20 minutes’ hiking. And the locals who are crazy for freeriding worry that will change.”
But he added: “The new gondola has given access to a whole other freeride area, adding perhaps 30% more off-piste terrain. Plus, of course, we have more than 200km of new pistes to play with whenever the snow’s not right for freeriding. One worry, though, is cost. There are no Fieberbrunn-only lift tickets now; you have to buy a Ski Circus pass, which costs more. But most of the people who live here work in skiing or tourism, so generally the change is seen as a great opportunity.”
Leitinger told us his rent has just leaped up by 20%, and the concrete skeletons of a few new holiday apartment blocks have sprung up around the town but, in general, visible signs of major changes to the Fieberbrunn experience are few.
It’s still a cosy, unpretentious town with a few laid-back bars, family-run restaurants and a heroically provincial disco or two. The day when it can offer the kind of full-service convenience and international sophistication its Ski Circus peer resorts have been finessing for decades is years away.
Its comparatively low profile has traditionally meant lower prices. For those happy with distinctly low-key après options and short (and, with a lift pass, free) bus rides between town and lift, Fieberbrunn offers attractive deals.
It looks likely, then, that it won’t be only on days with a high-wind lift lockdown that visitors get to enjoy this little ski town’s high-performing terrain in the relaxed, uncrowded and friendly conditions that have always been its hallmarks – at least for a few more seasons.
• The trip was provided by Pillersee Valley Tourist Board and Tirol Tourist Board. Schloss Hotel Rosenegg in Fieberbrunn has doubles from £86 B&B. Airlines including easyJet, Monarch and British Airways fly to Innsbruck or Salzburg from several UK cities from about £90 return. Resort transfers were provided by re available through Four Seasons Travel
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