Schmittenhöhe: the local mountain of Zell am See

Schmittenhöhe is a summit above the town of Zell am See in Salzburg. It lies at 1,965 m above sea level, and cable cars run up to it straight from the town.

The operator reports a full circular view from the summit over more than thirty three-thousand-metre peaks. From here you can see the Grossglockner, Kitzsteinhorn, Watzmann, Hochkönig, Dachstein, Wilder Kaiser and Leoganger Steinberge.

Schmittenhöhe in winter

The ski area has 77 km of pistes: 30 km blue, 28 km red and 19 km black. There are eight marked ski routes on top of that.

Transport is provided by 27 installations. Six of them are feeder lifts: trassXpress, areitXpress, cityXpress, zellamseeXpress, Sonnenalmbahn and Schmittenhöhebahn.

Five valley runs drop more than 1,000 vertical metres. The longest of them, the Trass run, is over 4 km long and has a gradient of up to 70%.

• Funslope XXL is over 1 km long.
• The snow park lies at 1,715 m and has twelve obstacles in two sections.
• Schmidolins Kinderland, with a magic carpet and a children’s slalom, is for complete beginners.

Ski pass

Schmittenhöhe belongs to the Ski ALPIN CARD together with Kitzsteinhorn in Kaprun and Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn. Together that is 408 km of pistes and 121 installations.

The Ski ALPIN CARD adult day pass from 8:00 costs €82 in the high season 19 December 2026 – 12 March 2027 (zellamsee-kaprun.com price list as at 16 June 2026).

A separate Schmittenhöhe day pass cost €79 in the 2025/26 high season. The operator has not published the price list for winter 2026/27 on schmitten.at.

Schmittenhöhe in summer

The Schmittenhöhebahn cable car runs in 2026 from 18 May to 4 October. Autumn operation continues from 5 October to 1 November 2026.

The Gipfelstürmer-Ticket return fare all the way to the summit costs €45 for an adult (2026). The lower Erlebnis-Ticket up to 1,400 m costs €33 (2026). Parents pay for two children, further children ride free.

Routes that start at the cable car

• Sisi-Rundweg – 1 km, half an hour, 37 m of ascent and the same of descent. It starts and ends at the Elisabeth-Kapelle chapel.
• Höhenpromenade from Schmittenhöhe to Sonnkogel – 2.5 km, about 1.5 hours, 56 m up and 154 m down. The highest point of the route is 1,939 m.
• Pinzgauer Spaziergang – a ridge walk from Schmittenhöhe to Schattberg near Saalbach, 17 km, about 6 hours, 746 m of ascent and 728 m of descent.

The whole Zell am See-Kaprun region lists more than 400 km of waymarked paths.

With children

Schmidolins Erlebniswelt by the areitXpress and cityXpress stations has the Schmidolins Feuertaufe adventure trail and the Schmidolins Drachenfeuer playground.

Children aged 6 to 17 can ride in the Schmidolins Feuerstuhl e-motocross park.

The Kaiserblick viewing platform with a glass floor stands at the summit. It juts 30 m out over the drop. On the mountain you will also find disc golf and the GLÜCKSFALL art trail.

Accommodation at the foot of the mountain

Our selection of accommodation in Zell am See and Kaprun is below. We will gladly help you choose.

Enquiries and reservations: rakousko@rakousko.cz, tel. +420 776 453 111

A little history

The Schmittenhöhebahn was the first cable car in Salzburg in 1927. The summit exhibition Tradition & Innovation seit 1927 recalls it.

Since 2015 Schmitten has been certified as the first Austrian mountain of art and culture.

How to get here

From Salzburg it is roughly 1.5 hours by car, from Munich about 2.5 hours. Zell am See is around 80 km from Salzburg airport, and bus route 260 runs here.

In town, ski bus route 71 from Postplatz stops at the Schmittenhöhebahn valley station. Every guest aged 6 and over receives a Guest Mobility Ticket on arrival, which gives free travel on trains and Postbuses throughout Salzburg.

Where to find it: