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High atop the Nordkette ski area, free riders hike along the ridge to access theKarrinne and other off-piste routes. photo by Jimmy Pettersongone era, when Austria reigned over much of centralEurope. Sightseeing is quite easy in Innsbruck,as the old town is small and compact andmuch of the worthwhile spots to visit are closeto the Maria-Theresienstrasse. This main streetis also very picturesque and a good location todrink in the atmosphere over a cup of Viennesecafé and a Sachertorte, but shopping is probablycheaper away from the tourist area.Ski historians might also enjoy a visit to theBergisel ski jump. There, one can ride up an elevatorto get a view of what the Olympic jumperssaw before hurling themselves down the rampinto outer space.Ultimately, I did make it out to the Nordketteski area and a couple of cable cars, whichtake skiers from the city up into the crags andpinnacles of the Hafelekar. This range is a stunningarray of steep, precipitous peaks, the pictureperfect setting for a ski town, but hardly a likelyplace to actually ski. It is too raw, too steep, toounfriendly, and too difficult. Perhaps only a townwith such a tough ski reputation as Innsbruckwould dare to build ski lifts in the Nordkette, butthat is exactly what they have done.The lifts bring riders almost 1800 verticalmeters above Innsbruck, from where one canenjoy some breathtaking views of the Olympiccity. One can only enjoy them for a short timebefore one realizes that there is no easy way backdown from here unless one is willing to gothrough the humiliation of taking the cable car inthe wrong direction.From the top, the possibilities are extremelysteep or even steeper. The various descents includethe Karrinne, Direttissima, and two variationsof the Seilbahnrinne, which are all between40 and 50 degrees. The official route, the Karrinneis, arguably, the steepest bona fide piste inthe world. With sections of the piste that are between40 and 45 degrees, this predator has takenthe lives of numerous skiers who were not up tothe challenge, according to a local kamikaze skiernamed Florian Schuchter, who joined me to skithis balls-to-the-wall chute.“How did they die?” I asked Florian, gazingup at the ominous looking elevator shaft. “Avalanchesor hitting their head against rocks?”“No, no,” he answered quickly, “justskiing...and falling, of course! Often, the Karrinneis hard and rather icy, with very big moguls. Askier, who falls at the top, cannot arrest his fall.He slides down very quickly bouncing frommogul to mogul....”“...And by the time he gets to the bottom, hehas had a ride like a Ping-Pong ball in a washingmachine, and his internal organs are mincedmeat,” I finished.“Yes, something like that,” Florian concluded.Fortunately, this was not such a day. Thefresh snow was soft, the moguls were still manageable,and we rode to the top along with hisfriends, Martin and Gary.To get to the Karrinne requires a few minutesof walking around the back of the lift station.To the right, the mountain falls away steeply, andas I am not as sure-footed as a chamois, I wasglad that there was no ice along the promenade.The run is flanked on the skier’s left by a windblownridge, and below, Innsbruck looks closeenough to spit on...or crash into, whichever thecase may be.I looked around. Outside the periphery ofthe two marked routes were hundreds of tracks,descending down every off-piste route imaginable.Ordinarily, I would have been happy to try oneof these alternatives, but not on the first day aftera storm with a level-four avalanche warning.Even my three local friends agreed that it was toodangerous.The ski world is changing. Snowboards andfreeride skis are making it ever easier to ski difficultoff-piste terrain. Unfortunately, however, it isnot possible for snow sports enthusiasts to acquirethe mountain knowledge necessary to assessavalanche danger in the short time that itnow takes to attain the ability to learn to descendoff-piste.The soft powder made the run seem lesssteep than it really was. With this kind of snowcondition, a fall would result in a soft landing andthere was really no danger of long unstoppableslides. There was no danger of adding our namesto the list of victims that the Karrinne hadclaimed. Florian led the charge back down, choosinga line close to the cornice and following theridgeline as much as possible, where there wasstill plenty of fresh powder.Below the middle station, my local buddiesskied off-piste among dwarf larch trees. I tried tofollow, but with no success. There was close totwo meters of new snow, and near the larcheswere tree wells—holes lurking out of sight readyto trap an unwary skier. Some of the larcheswere still visible, so one could try to pick one’sway through the “mine field”, but many of theminiature trees were completely buried, justinches below the snow.“Just ski fast,” called Florian.I had a different idea. Cut back to the piste.The lowest section of the mountain is a narrowroad, with a long series of switchbacks.“Here, we usually play our own version ofboarder-cross,” called Martin, but again, I was reluctant.This was their home mountain, and itwas my first time skiing here. They took off ona bump-and-run race, while I cruised down at myown speed. I guess I wasn’t too far off the pace,because my pals had not yet ordered their firstbeer by the time I made it to the bottom.In Innsbruck, one can even sleep in historicsurroundings. Around the corner from the GoldenesDachl lies the 600-year-old Goldener AdlerHotel. Here, you might well lay your head downin the same quarters that gave shelter to WolfgangMozart, Chancellor Metternich, Wolfgang Goethe,or Heinrich Heine in centuries gone by. I am notsure whether Franz Klammer ever slept in one oftheir beds after a tough downhill, but I washappy to rest my weary legs here for a night afterchallenging the Karrinne, even on a soft and easyday. ▲▲60 Far West Skier’s Guide 2O12 - 2O13 / See the Digital Edition of the Far West Skier’s Guide at www.fwsa.org.