Ski Loser

Loser Trail Map – Click on Map to Enlarge and launch new browser

While no one has heard of “Loser,” as a ski resort, lol, it’s a little winner for skiing in Austria. All jokes aside about the funny name in English. While not huge, Loser is a glorious high alpine plateau ski area, worth visiting when there is good snow and sunshine.

Just above the charming village of Altausee is the funky, unique ski area of Loser, in the shadows of Mount Loser at 1838-meters. A beautiful new in 2025 10-seat Panorama Bahn ($30 million Swiss Bartholet lift) gondola whisks you up a long way from 854-meters’ base to Loser Alm at 1,600 (5,577′). From here is a 700′-vertical quad and two t bars (which were closed during our January 2025 visit due to lack of natural snow).

Loser’s fixed quad offers two interesting ski trails and a little freeriding in between, through playful snow fields with rises and the occasional thermal hole – so be wary of that! Seriously! These are the Salzburg Alps, known for salt (salz) mining, and for thermal activity.

Loser has just one on mountain lodge at the summit for dining and drinks next to the summit gondola station, with spectacular views- including a cool perspective of Krippenstein ski area and Dachstein Glacier across the valley where we’d be skiing next on our Salzburg Ski Safari.

There are two routes to the base of Loser, a red and a blue piste – long fun routes to the base. There are a few more mountains huts on the side of the trail as you descend. Fun fact, we saw a herd of chamois, mountain goats, grazing on the hillside under the gondola. Nice to see nature and wildlife happily con-existing with skiers in such a peaceful, scenic setting.

Across the street from Loser’s gondola is another fixed grip quad and a few more trails, which we did not ski during our January 2025 visit.

Loser is small, but on a sunny day with fresh snow, what fun! If it’s snowing or foggy, I would imagine skiing Loser would be a white out, above tree-line, and just not the same fun scenic experience.

We rode the Loser lifts with mostly locals, a few Slovenians, Hungarians and Poles – since these Salzburg mountains are so close to these Eastern European countries. From Loser, Altausee, you are located on the Altaus Lake (lake =see) and near the famous Lake Halstatt – which is a very charming, authentic alpine village, but heavily touristed with Asians since it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You could also ski nearby Ski Circus Saalbach, Ski Gastein, Zell am See, Hochkonig, Obertauern, Schladming and Tauplitz, all on the Super Ski Card.

Loser Ski Stats:
854 – 1800M
Elevation: 854 – 1800 meters, 7,139′
Vertical: 1076 meters, 3,530′ on a long run from top to bottom
Lifts: 8 (6 Lifts worth skiing)
Trails: 34 km of prepared pistes