HIKING AND SKIING AUSTRIA
A HClub Innsbruck membership (see Accommodations, above) lets you in on one of the best deals in Austria. The club’s excellent and very popular hiking program provides free guides, transportation, and equipment (including boots). Partici pants meet in front of the Congress Center (June-Sept. daily 9am), board a bus, and return after a moderate hike around 4 or 5pm. Free nighttime lantern hikes also leave Tuesday at 7:45pm; the 30min. hike near Igls culminates in a party with traditional Austrian song and dance, in which everyone ends up taking part (willing or not). To hike on your own, take the J-line bus to Patscherkofel Seil- bahnen (20min.). The lift provides access to moderate 1 l2-5hr. hikes near the bald summit of the Patscherkofel. (Open 9am-noon and 12:45-4:30pm; round-trip ‚15.)
For Club-led ski excursions, take the complimentary ski shuttle (schedules at the tourist office) to any cable car. The Innsbruck Gletscher Ski Pass (available at all cable cars) is valid for all 59 lifts in the region (with Club Innsbruck membership: 3-day ‚85, 6-day ‚150). The tourist office also rents ski equipment (‚19-32 per day). One day of winter glacier skiing costs ‚32. Both branches of Innsbruck- Information, Burggraben 3, offer summer ski packages (bus, lift, and rental ‚47).
