Historical Development of the
Obergurgl-Hochgurgl Ski Area

Milestones and Superlatives

In the middle of the previous century, local families laid the foundation for the top modern winter sports resort of Obergurgl. In 1948 the first ski lift was built in Obergurgl - the first in the entire valley. Hans Falkner, Angelus Scheiber and other local families founded the Obergurgl Lift Company already in 1949. Under the leadership of the Scheiber family, the Hochgurgl Lift Company was founded a little later. Angelus Scheiber already had visionary ideas when he set up the hotel village of Hochgurgl: looking from his office at Hotel Edelweiß (Obergurgl) towards the sunny slopes of Angerer Alm, he was inspired to found a ski resort with hotels and ski lifts there in 1961. Since these first pioneering dates, the ski resort has been continuously extended and modernized. Today it is rightly considered one of the best and snow-surest ski resorts in the Alps.

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Chronicle of a success story

1948	First T-bar lift (300 m long, the first lift in the whole Ötztal)
1949	Gaisberg chairlift
1954	Hohe Mut chairlift (up to 2669 m, the highest lift in Austria at that time)
1961	Grosses Kar (first lift in Hochgurgl); opening of "TOP Hotel Hochgurgl"
1963	Krumpwasserlift
1966	Europe's first snow-grooming machine
1967	Top Wurmkogel 1 + 2
1973	Hochgurglbahn 1 gondola
1987	Kirchenkarlift
1979	Gipfellift
1987	First snow-making system in Ötztal, Hochgurglbahn I gondola
1988	Hotel Crystal
1989	Festkogelbahn
1990	Plattachbahn
1997	Roßkarbahn & connecting gondola to Hochgurgl
2001	Bruggenbodenbahn & Steinmannbahn
2004	Große Karbahn
2007	Hohe Mut Bahn, Hohe Mut Alm, Mahdstuhllift, new Hotel The Crystal
2009	Wiesenlift
2015	Kirchenkarbahn I 10-person gondola replaces old T-bar lift; Top Mountain Crosspoint
2018	Opening of Kirchenkarbahn II (final expansion stage in Hochgurgl)

Obergurgl Hochgurgl Top Express Landscape

Did you know that?

To date, the Lift Companies of Obergurgl and Hochgurgl have never distributed profit among their associates, all earnings are reinvested in improvements & modernizations of mountain lifts in the ski area.