Tyrol offers cross-country skiers around 4,000 km of groomed trails in
10 regions.
In this article we will focus on one of them and that is named

Achensee
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The area offers 220 km of groomed cross-country trails and is named as the 9 km long lake, which is nicknamed the Tyrolean Sea and is located approximately 45 km east of Innsbruck at an altitude of 929 m.a.s.l. With an area of 713 hectares, it is the largest lake in Tyrol and really reminds to be a sea, at least to me, with the presence of yachts, luxury restaurants, campsites, courts. For locals, it probably evokes mainly the Baltic Sea and the water temperature, which is said to be an average of 20° C even in the middle of a sunny summer.

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*Lake Achensee (photo: archive Tirol Werbung)*

I explored the routes around both the northern and southern ends of the lake and the south clearly won for me. There are apart from the trails lying somewhat to the side near the village of Steinberg am Rofan) four trails in the north, two of which (A1 and A3, 6 and 10 km in length) are just a road copying circle between Achental and Achenkirch, and the A2 route is a two-kilometer long jump to the Unteraul valley and back. The last of the trails, the 7 km long A4, is tempting with its name (**Oberautal XC Ski trails**), it starts and continues with a rather promising-looking gentle climb into the forest of the **Karwendel** National Park, but the problem is that it lacks a destination, the point of the story, a place that you simply have to see and where selfie-takers will want to take pictures. At the farthest point from the start there is nothing, just a turn in the forest overlooking the stream; here, more than anywhere else, you have to remind yourself of the song by the Czech rock band Mňága & Žďorp about the fact that even the journey can be the destination. So for me, for the trails north of Achensee, go here if you want to see the whole lake, compare north with south, or if you want easy routes of 7-10 km, because they are more difficult in the south.

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*Trail A4 Oberautal from Achenkirch Oberautal in the Karwendel National Park, which with an area of 727 square kilometers is the largest in Austria*

The trails around the southern part of the lake will cost you more energy, but for that they will offer you everything condensed in one place. The starting point of the journeys, the small town of **Pertisau** is the place where the road ends, and which, despite several hotels, still seems somewhat unspectacular, actually completely normal, that is, except for the yachts in the harbor and the cable car. The cross-country stadium located on the outskirts of the village also has technical snow, so you can run here even when the snow is poor. There are several circuits of various lengths leading from the stadium, of which I consider the two longest to be absolutely „must see“ – the southwestern route **P3** to **Falzthurn** and **Gramai** (14 km long, elevation gain 390 m) and the northwestern **P4** on **Pletzach** and **Gern** (length 10 km, elevation gain 230 m).

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*Route P3 from Pertisau to Falzthurn and Gramai*

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*Route P4 from Pertisau to Pletzach and Gern*

Both routes have a similar course, after about 2-3 km of the path through the forest you fly straight into the valley, where you want to look and take pictures more than sweat up the hill. In both cases, it is a fair climb, in both cases it only goes up and down on the way there, because the furthest point is the highest. The way back is either completely identical to the way there, or both paths run parallel, you can’t get lost. I have the same opinion as traveler Eckard Speckbacher, who in this article considers the P3 route to be the ultimate gem, so I confirm it – you can’t miss the P3 and P4 routes, they’re both worth the sweat.

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*View of Gramai (photo: archive Tirol Werbung)*

The southern route **P5** leading to the third valley **Tristenau** caught my attention the most with its beginning reminiscent of a castle park, on the rest of the route (especially if you are impressed by routes P3 and P4) you will not see anything very extraordinary and in my opinion it is a training, not a first-love-route.

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*Trail P5 from Pertisau to Tristenau*

In Pertisau itself there are three more circuits with a length of 1.5 – 3.5 km, from Pertisau the **Panoramaloipe** route (3.5 km long) leads southeast along the lake to **Maurach** and in it another five circuits with a length of 0.5 – 4.5 km. Underlined and summed up: Pertisau is a resort with an interesting mix of routes, an interesting location (both visually, because the view of the winter lake works wonders, and from the point of view of the altitude of 950 m.a.s.l.), in addition, there is a ski slope suitable for children and the town is downright tempting to surf .

Status of trails and their markings
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I have not been able to find that in Austria they have a similar to
web Mapy.cz
where, thanks to online data from the groomers´s GPS trackers, the sections of the trails are colored differently on the map according to the age of their grooming. In Tyrol, you can see the status of the trails here from a simple semaphore, where the green color means an open (i.e. completely groomed) trail, orange partially modified and red *closed* (which is slightly confusing for us, because it is not a ban on entry or impassable terrain, but information, that the trail is just not groomed).

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*Trail-status overview*

From my own experience, I can say that the Austrians are unnecessarily great perfectionists – if there is not enough snow for the entire length of the trail to be perfectly groomed, they will give the route red without hesitation, but it is often beautifully passable, because it can be „half-groomed“ and in the rest there is perhaps enough snow for at least B-pair of skis (= pair of old and bit damaged skis OK for poor snow conditions).

Another variant of the information is this overview:

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That is, more detailed information showing when the second of the trail (here, i.e., P3 to Tristenau) is groomed only for skating.

The markings in the terrain are exemplary, there is usually a sign indicating in which part of the route you are and how far you have left to the destination, and there is a luxurious giant map at larger crossroads.

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*Marking of the P3 route in the field*

Connection by public transport
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Achensee is excellently accessible by train via Linz and Salzburg, from which you get off at **Jenbach**, from there by bus to Maurach, with the bus to Pertisau being a connection (buses wait for each other in Maurach, specifically at the Maurach-Secondary school stop). The ski stadium in Pertisau (and therefore the starting point of the routes) is only about 200 m from the Pertisau-Karwendeltäler bus station (the name comes from the fact that the routes go from here to several valleys, in German named *täler*, in the Karwendel mountain range and nature park)

If you want to explore the more northern **Achenkirch**, there are several daily direct connections from Pertisau (and back to it), otherwise connect again in Maurach.

There is a huge attraction for the amateurs in the form of the less than 7 km long line **Jenbach – Seespitz** (located on the shore of the Achensee), of which a section in the section **Jenbach – Eben** is equipped with racks, because the train has to overcome an elevation of 400 m and in some places the slope is an incredible 16 %. It is a narrow-gauge train (exactly 1 meter gauge) and is said to be the **oldest cog train in Europe with steam traction still in operation**. When I drove that beautiful hill from Jenbach to Eben by bus, it was absolutely clear to me that I had to do it again sometime in the summer by the train.

Train connections can also be found on the website of Czeech railways, local buses can be found on VVT website.

Conclusion
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All trails are groomed for both classic and skating, so everyone has great conditions for discovery and training, not just local resident Petra Tanner, a long-distance competitor in the Ski Classics series, who comes from Maurach.

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*A lot of skate spots, there is no danger of overcrowding with the classics (photo: Tirol Werbung archive)*

In addition, there is often another path available for pedestrians, or their trail is shared with the skating trail, so you can also go on foot, in Austria, obviously, everyone can line up in the mountains, so you can also enjoy hiking trips here. And finally: if you don’t have a car, know that you can also enjoy the trip itself, because you can get to the described trails without any problems thanks to the excellent public transport.