Ramsau am Dachstein

Ramsau sits on a shelf at around eleven hundred metres between the Enns valley and the south wall of the Dachstein, and the geography is what made it: a broad sunny plateau with reliable snow, directly under a two-thousand-metre rock face, with the glacier above it reachable by cable car. It is one of the leading cross-country skiing centres in Europe, with well over two hundred kilometres of prepared track and a long record as a training base - national teams in nordic disciplines and endurance sports come for the altitude, and the world nordic championships were held here. In summer the same ground is walking and mountain biking country, with the Dachstein south face above for climbers and the glacier and skywalk reached from the cable car station.

History

The name is first recorded as Ramsowe in a document of around 1120, and the abbeys of Admont and St. Peter's were the great landowners here. From the 15th century the area made loden, the heavy cloth of the region's traditional dress, after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation the secluded plateau stayed one of the few wholly Protestant communities in Austria, as it still is, and commercial tourism brought a new living from the late 19th century (Wikipedia, Ramsau am Dachstein).

The main sights

• A sunny high plateau - eleven hundred metres under the Dachstein south wall.
• Cross-country skiing - over two hundred kilometres of track, with team training.
• The Dachstein south face - the climbing wall directly above the village.
• Glacier access - the cable car up to the ice and the skywalk installations.

When to go

December to March for skiing; June to September for walking. Two days.

Practical notes

It is a sports village rather than a sightseeing one - the appeal is doing something. Snow at 1,100 metres has become less reliable. The plateau road up from the valley is steep.

Nearby

Schladming is below; the Dachstein glacier and skywalk are above.

Key facts