Mayrhofen

Mayrhofen is a town in the Zillertal (Ziller river valley) in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is located approximately an hour from the Tyrolean capital city of Innsbruck.TourismThe town offers a variety of summer and winter sports including skiing, hiking, mountain biking and paragliding. Mayrhofen is situated near the Hintertux glacier, which, at 3,250m above sea level, is above the snowline. Skiing is available all year round here. Mayrhofen sits between the Penken and the Ahorn mountains which provide ski runs in the winter and mountain biking, hiking and paragliding in the summer. The Ahorn offers mainly easy and intermediate runs, but also has a long, steep black run (formerly red) which was once on the World Cup Downhill circuit but was removed as it was deemed too dangerous. The Penken mountain offers Austria's steepest piste, named Harakiri, as well as a large range of ski runs at different levels of difficulty. It is connected by lifts with the villages of Finkenberg, Lanersbach and Schwendau.The Penken is reached by a Gondola system which is located on the main street next to the Sport Hotel Strass, in the centre of the village, while the Ahorn Cable car, which is the largest cable car in Austria (160 passengers) is situated at the southern end of the town. Mayrhofen is a snowboard-minded village with a funpark sponsored by Vans, and the snowboardhotel Gasthof Zillertal owned by the Dutch organisation 'SAIKO expeditions'. Mountaineer Peter Habeler and Downhill Racer Uli Spiess both come from Mayrhofen.