Damüls-Mellau

Chosen for the snow

Ask what draws people to Damüls-Mellau and the answer is nearly always the same: snow. This resort in Vorarlberg, Austria, is most popular for its snow safety, and in 2006 the village of Damüls was awarded the honorary title of “snowiest village of the world”. It is a rare case of a resort whose top lift stops at 2,100 m yet still earns a snow-sure reputation on the strength of what falls from the sky rather than how high the pistes climb.

The skiing

The linked area between Damüls and Mellau offers 109 km of pistes served by 29 lifts. The terrain runs from 700 m at the lowest point to 2,100 m at the top, a vertical range of 1,400 m that is larger than the resort’s modest profile might suggest. Twenty-nine lifts for 109 km is a fairly dense network, so the area feels tightly knit rather than sprawling, and moving between the two sides is a matter of a few lifts rather than a long expedition.

Without a published split between easy, intermediate and expert pistes, we cannot say precisely how the 109 km divide up. The 1,400 m elevation range does, however, give the resort room for variety: lower valley runs and higher, more exposed slopes towards the 2,100 m top station, which is where the snow tends to last longest. The lift count also matters for a resort that sells itself on snow. On a heavy snowfall day, a network of 29 lifts spread across 1,400 m of vertical gives plenty of options for finding the best conditions.

Two communities, one area

Damüls and Mellau are the two communities that give the resort its name, joined by the lift system, and our data flags the resort for traditional charm and scenic views as well as snow. That combination points to a place that has kept its village scale rather than reinventing itself as a purpose-built station, with the mountain scenery of Vorarlberg as the backdrop.

The 700 m base deserves a note. It is low, and on its own it would count against the resort; it is the snowfall reputation that makes the lower slopes viable rather than the altitude. If you are choosing between a week here and a week at a higher resort with a weaker snow record, that is the trade-off in a sentence.

Practical

Friedrichshafen, just over the German border, is the nearest airport at roughly 52 km as the crow flies. The season runs from December to April. Lift operations and snow reports are on the resort’s official website.