alpine sunrise
	skiiing to the pyramid

Question:
How often do you get the chance to spend a night - at the top of the Austrian alps, in a warm & cosy Pyramid-shaped guest-house ?

Answer:
When you book a radical escape in the snow.

radical escapes are unique in offering this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which is often fondly recalled as the highlight of many of our guests holiday in Mayrhofen with us.

Description:
The group meet at the top of the Schapskopf (or sheeps head mountain) / Red 8 at the end of the afternoon. After settling in, we watch the sun set from the comfort of a deck chair, whilst listening to a suitable soundtrack.

Many people remark how peaceful the mountains are when the chair lifts stop whirring and the cable cars cease their endless work.

Dinner is served; a traditional Tyrolean 3 course meal made from organic local produce (vegetarian option available). After everyone finishes the delicious huge pan of kaiserschmarrn, evening entertainment begins: this is hard to desribe but includes parlour games, traditional Austrian mind-warpoing puzzles, games of nails... and forfeits involving schnapps and riding 'THE SCHAPSKOPF SAUSAGE' - this is a 10 foot protective tube, inside which you ride down the hill outside - your way lit only by the moon & stars. The safety fence catches you at the bottom, and although it looks completely bonkers, we haven't lost anyone yet...honest!

The end of the evening usually involves watching the latest extreme sports feature on the big screen before...THE SNOW RUN. This sorts out the men from the boys and once you've done it, you can tell your grand kids about it. Providing you don't lose your toes to frostbite...

Everyone sleeps at the top of the Pyramid in a romantic wooden dormitory. At least everyone is supposed to sleep. But that's another story...

At 7am, we awake you to watch the alpine sunrise: a beautiful parade of colours flickering across the peaks (this isn't compulsory- you can stay in bed if you want - or even watch it through the window in the dorm).

Often people venture outside and strap on their ski's/ boards, as you are at the top of the best run in the resort, and a virgin piste welcomes you to make FIRST TRACKS. After riding the first chair of the day back up to the Pyramid, you tuck into an excellent hearty breakfast (the soft boiled eggs are to die for) and unlimited coffee, before saying good bye to the Pyramid and another day in the mountains. - and it's still only 9am!

An unforgettable experience which mixes mysticism, mirth & music in the middle of the mountains.

(Places limited to 23 people) - early booking recommended.

For Snowbombing: radical escapes guests are offered priority booking on this and all other alternative apres ski activities – YOU MUST MENTION RADICAL ESCAPES WHEN BOOKING.

A very special experience. Travel by coach through the inside of a mountain in an unlit tunnel (imagine driving through the Picadilly Line and you'll get the idea) …and emerging in a forgotten mountain valley lit only by the moon and the lights of an open-air heated bar. Mountain Martin Brannigan and his boys soon welcome you with a warm drink, before setting off on a torchlit walk through the trees to the top of the toboaggan run. Then, after a swift lesson to help you understand how the rodel (toboggan) works, you'll whizz down the floodlight togoggan track…and wind up at the bar for another drink!
Then Martin and his mountain men will tow you up to the top with their 500cc snowcats for another run.

After more partying, the coach arrives to take you back to Mayrhofen through the winding mountain roads- an unforgettable evening.

One for mountain motorheads !

You'll be taken by taxi to Ginzling where Martin will meet you and instruct you how to drive one of these mouthwatering 500cc muthas. Then you'll open your legs and ride the orange beast across the white snowfields and along a specially-prepared 'safari' through the moutains and forest for 30 minutes or so, pulling turns, sliding and skidding your way to exhileration…the sound of music was never like this!

There's nothing quite like stepping off a mountain almost 6000 feet above sea level and soaring into the clear blue spring sky with former World Paragliding Champion, Jurgen Stock. For over 10 minutes you'll gracefully twist and turn your way gently towards the town below, the envy of everyone who can see you.
This really is the ultimate alpine adrenalin buzz - what's more, tandem paragliding has not experienced any serious accidents in the Zillertal since it emerged as the most amazing way to get back to the valley.

Anyone showing a radical escape pass gets a reduction on the normal cost of a descent with the top pilots 'Stocki Air' ( who will even provide you with photos of your flight to show your friends & family).
Just ask Kirk to sort you out an introduction, and before you know it, you'll be looking down on the resort and soaring on thermals from high in the clear blue sky.

Mayrhofen is situated half way along the Ziller valley - in the heart of classic glaciated scenery, where Austria meets Italy some 10,000 feet above sea level.

At the head of the valley, the Tux glacier reigns supreme - never giving up its covering of snow and remaining ski/boardable 12 months a year (one of only 2 glaciers in Austria).

A visit to Tux (or Hintertux) is a must for any confident ski/boarder. But the importance of choosing a good weather day cannot be stressed too strongly.

Ignore what the TV/locals say about tomorrow's skies and you are likely to find your day wasted, high winds cause gondolas to close and the strong wind-chill factor can produce temperatures of Minus 15 degrees centigrade....not a lot of fun. But on a good day, the Tux glacier can be a dream….

Catch the free 'GREEN-LINE' ski bus opposite 'Sport Manni' (turn left outside the hotel,down the main street & turn left at the crossroads - 3 minutes walk).

Ask at the Strass reception for the times - generally they're more frequent before 11am.Twenty minutes later,after steadily climbing through the tunnels
and hair- raising bends - you'll be, quite literally at the end of the road - the head of the valley.

If you haven't got a glacier pass and you are only planning on spending half-a-day up there, a good tip is to get the 1020 bus which will get you to the kassa/kiosk just as the half day lift passes are issued. Another important tip is to pick up a piste map from the kassa - (the Mayrhofen map covers the Tux area, but not in good enough detail for strangers to the area)

Look out for the clear blue ice to the right of the second gondola...at the top, leave your skis/boards at the Tuxer-Ferner-Haus for a brief walk to the amazing ice cave. Walk inside this enormous Fox's glacier mint and see for yourself that beneath the snow are hundreds of meters of hard packed, smooth - ageless ice.

This is where a prehistoric man was found a few years back - so incredibly well preserved in the ice
that they could even tell what he'd eaten for lunch the day he died all those thousands of years ago.

(rumours that it was "wurstle mit brot" are as yet unconfirmed...)

You should take the chair to the far left of the two to the left of the restaurant ( and the one at the top of that one ) and you'll arrive at the top - 3286m/10,843 feet above sea level.

Here you can look around for 360 degrees and all you see are sharp chocolate box peaks - endless ranks of razor sharp summits,as far as the eye can see. To the south are the slightly surreal and dare I say "ugly" shapes of the Dolomites (Italy is only a valley away). This whole area used to be called Sud Tirol ( South Tyrol), before the Italians claimed it following the First World War.

At moments like these you take a lung-full of crisp clean air, tighten your boots and begin your pleasurable decent of this awe-inspiring place...

The two parallel T-bars to the far left are probably the most exhilarating runs here (....unless you like moguls - in which case you'll be ecstaticly sore after experiencing the mogul field here - a living white hell). The length of the T-bars incidentally, is rumoured to be longer by anything up to 5cm/2" a year - proving that this glacier is still very much active!

As this is the case, off-piste activity should only be done with someone who knows this area well - ravines have been known to form here and that's one hole you don't want to get yourself into...

Having said that, the pistes here are relatively safe and certainly adequate enough for all but those extreme souls who aren't content unless they're swishing through three foot of powder and whooping like a Sioux warrior who's just trod on a rake.

Later, following a few jagertees or beers at the Sommerbergalm igloo (yes it really is made out of ice!), you close your eyes - partly out of tiredness and partly to relive your best run of the day - as the ski bus silently winds it's way down the valley, emerging from Finkenberg's little church to be greeted by the
twinkling lights of Mayrhofen…….and a long soothing bath - sheer bliss!