You can spend a Carinthian winter entirely on piste, but the quietest part of it starts where the lifts stop. The regional tour portal lists more than two hundred official ski tours, and the range between them is enormous: from rounded alpine meadows where you first put skins on, to the big glaciated mountains of the national park.

The Nockberge: mountains you learn on

The Nockberge are unusual in shape. Instead of sharp summits there are rounded, grassy domes, which in winter make for gentle, legible slopes. That is exactly why the region is considered the best place in Carinthia for a first tour. Two of Carinthia's three ski touring teaching trails are here, on the Falkert and the Grünleitennock. The Falkert one was the first of its kind in Austria, is free to use, and has a permanent avalanche transceiver search field beside it. Innerkrems also has a ski touring centre with rental. The classic objectives include the Gaipahöhe, the Grünleitennock and the Hirnkopf.

Ankogel and the Hohe Tauern: big mountains, reliable snow

If you have been on skins for a while, head north into the Hohe Tauern National Park. Ankogel is among the most snow-sure mountains in Carinthia, and the cable car from Mallnitz lifts you high enough that you keep your legs for the tour itself. The terrain is more serious than in the Nockberge: steeper, more open, and unforgiving of a bad decision. The Romatenspitze lies in the same area.

Where else to tour

• Gartnerkofel above Nassfeld, right on the Italian border.
• Gerlitzen Alpe above Villach, looking down on the Wörthersee.
• Goldeck above the Millstätter See, where the third teaching trail runs, with eight learning stations.
• Großer Speikkogel on the Koralpe in the Lavanttal.
• Wasserköpfe in the Lesachtal and the Naggler Alm above the Weissensee.
• Falkert on the edge of the Nockberge.

The Nockberge-Trail: four days across the biosphere park

The winter version of the Nockberge-Trail is a four-stage ski traverse linking the Katschberg, Innerkrems, Turracher Höhe, Falkert and Bad Kleinkirchheim areas. Stage one runs from the Aineck at 2,220 metres down to Innerkrems at 1,550 metres: 17.1 kilometres, 820 metres of ascent and 1,480 metres of descent, about six hours, graded medium. One warning: a summer hiking route of eight stages carries the same name. It is not the same route.

The winter traverse states its requirements plainly. You need to be able to read and sensibly interpret the avalanche bulletin, to run a multiple-burial search with transceiver, probe and shovel, and to move safely on slopes of varying steepness and snow condition.

Before you go: the bulletin and the kit

The Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service has run since 1955 and is the second oldest in Austria. The bulletin is published daily at 5 p.m. and is valid until 5 p.m. the following day, now in seven languages. Read it every time, including for a tour you know. Transceiver, probe and shovel are not accessories but a precondition, and the practice with them belongs at home, not on the slope.

Skinning up a piste has its own rules

Climbing a piste on skins is normal in Austria, but each resort sets its own rules. Some mark a dedicated uphill track; others restrict the hours because of evening grooming and winch cats, which is a situation that allows no improvising. There is a set of ten recommended rules of conduct for piste tourers, but it does not replace a given resort's own conditions. Check the website of the area you are heading for, or ask at the ticket office.

Carinthia sits on the southern side of Austria, on the Italian border, so from the Czech Republic expect five to seven hours of driving. In return, the spring sun reaches these slopes earlier than those on the northern side of the Alps.