Schladming & Planai

Schladming at the foot of the Dachstein is one of the best-known ski resorts in Styria and part of the Ski amadé region. The local mountain Planai is the scene of the legendary Nightrace, one of the most atmospheric World Cup night slaloms. In summer the region is a vast hiking and biking area.

Highlights

• Local mountain Planai with the World Cup Nightrace
• Part of the Ski amadé region
• At the foot of the Dachstein
• Summer: hiking and mountain biking

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

Schladming lies in the Upper Styrian Enns valley at the foot of the Lower Tauern and looks back on a long history as a mining town, for as early as the Middle Ages silver was extracted in the surrounding mountains, which earned the place town rights in 1322 and considerable prosperity. In the course of the peasant uprisings of the early 16th century the rebellious miners’ town was severely punished and burned down, yet it recovered and has preserved to this day the character of an organically grown alpine market town with old burghers’ houses.

The local mountain Planai made Schladming a centre of international winter sports in the 20th century. World Cup races are regularly held here, above all the famous floodlit night slalom, which every year draws tens of thousands of enthusiastic spectators to the steep finish slope and is considered, in its atmosphere, one of the most impressive ski races in Europe. In 1982 and again in 2013 Schladming hosted the Alpine World Ski Championships, which made the place known far beyond Styria. Above the valley rises the mighty Dachstein massif, whose glaciers and rugged limestone walls form an impressive contrast to the gentle, grass-covered Schladming Tauern on the other side of the valley. Thus Schladming lies at the seam of two quite different mountain worlds and unites a silver mining past with modern sporting history.