Cross-country skiing in East Tyrol: untouched Alpine valleys in Defereggental

AIn the afternoon, when the sun sinks behind the two-thousand-meter peaks and turns the white slopes above St. Jakob red, the practice trail on the Schwarzach is filled with local athletes. There is also an athletically built guy in a red racing suit, he is wearing plastic sunglasses and there is a plaster on both cheeks. Tsch!, Tsch!, the skating sticks sound as he rhythmically rams them into the snow. The man tirelessly makes his rounds around the patch of meadow where we, beginners and intermediates, learn the technique.

Skating is similar to ice skating, and we’ve gotten the hang of skating steps. Edge up to the left, leg print, double stick thrust, sliding phase. Then exactly the same sequence of movements on the right. When the other beginner, after losing his balance, picks himself up again, an underlying feeling of superiority can hardly be suppressed. Later, at the parking lot, the local from before shows up again in a racing suit. He finished training. “I started cross-country skiing too late, so it wasn’t enough for international competitions,” he says as he stows his skis in the car. Then the recreational athlete looks us over and adds: “Sometimes you need to really let off steam. However, if you want to improve your technique, we recommend dry training first – swinging your arms diagonally, correct posture, using sticks!”

With over fifty kilometers of cross-country ski trails, the Defereggental in East Tyrol is ideal for cross-country skiing. Formed by the Schwarzach, the valley floor in the shadow of high mountains remains padded with snow well into spring. And there the cross-country trails wind through meadows and forests. Nestled in the Hohe Tauern National Park, the sparsely populated Defereggental, surrounded by two- and three-thousand-meter mountain ranges, is one of the most untouched Alpine valleys. Spread across several districts, there are just 800 residents in the main village of St. Jakob. The parish church, dedicated to Saint James, towers over all the buildings. Next to it are the Barmer House and the Trading House, stone-walled witnesses from the time when ore was mined here. The steep path into Defereggental was only expanded into an easily accessible road shortly before the First World War.

“Where we can’t go any further on the northern edge of the Alps, that’s where it really begins with the mountains,” says Markus Passler. There is a ski rental on the edge of the village, where a gondola lift leads to the St. Jakob ski center and up to Leppeskofel, not exactly a tiny mountain at 2,683 meters. There Passler, an experienced alpinist, advises us on equipment issues. We find out that he plays the flugelhorn and is chairman of the St. Jakob band. At the Musikanten Ski World Championships that take place annually in Schladming, “I regularly fight for the podium places”. Almost every 10th resident of St. Jakob, says Passler, is a member of the band. “I’m one of the older ones. If you are a member of one club, you are a member of several.”

The love for the club

He is also active in the St. Nicholas and Krampus Association as well as the folk dance and Schuhplattler groups. Passler explains the lively social life with a dozen clubs in the village with the phenomenon of “Hoamplärrer”: the young people who have studied and worked abroad but return because they are magnetically attracted to the “Hoamat”. Tourism is an important economic factor in Defereggental. However, that doesn’t mean that a new 260-bed hotel planned by outside investors is now needed. “Locals won’t work there – there are now plenty of more attractive options.” The guests here stayed in small, family-run hotels and private accommodation, which fits better with the character of the valley. Even more tourists, says Passler, means rising real estate prices. Vacant houses are often bought by outsiders. “It is becoming increasingly difficult for young families to purchase a home here.”