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28-935: The Arlberg connects the Klostertal Valley in the west with the Stanzer Valley in the east. Together with the Flexenpass , it borders three mountain groups: the Verwall in the south, the Lechquellen mountains in the northwest, and the Lechtal Alps in the northeast. The Valluga , which stands as the highest mountain of the Arlberg, and the Trittkopf, southwest of the Lechtal Alps, dominate

56-617: A Ford Model A . Wallace "Bunny" Bertram took it over for the second season, improved the operation, renamed it from Ski-Way to Ski Tow , and eventually moved it to what became the eastern fringe of Vermont's major southern ski areas, a regional resort still operating as Saskadena Six . Their relative simplicity made tows widespread and contributed to an explosion of the sport in the United States and Europe. Before tows, only people willing to walk uphill could ski. Suddenly relatively nonathletic people could participate, greatly increasing

84-573: A combination ski race with a slalom and a super-G on January 9 and 10 as part of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup 2020–21 . Today, the contiguous ski resorts on three mountains around Lech and Zürs, the Arena on Gampen, Kapall, Galzig and Valluga above St. Anton and St. Christoph, form a ski resort with 87 lifts, 305 km of groomed slopes and 200 km of deep snow slopes. Thanks to the many winter sports enthusiasts, tourism at

112-439: A hill. The grade of this style of tow is limited by passenger grip strength and the fact that sheaves (pulleys that support the rope above the ground) cannot be used. A development of the simple rope tow is the handle tow (or pony lift ), where plastic or metal handles are permanently attached to the rope. These handles are easier to grip than a rope, making the ski lift easier to ride. Steeper, faster and longer tows require

140-416: A series of pulleys to support the rope at waist height and hence require the use of some sort of "tow gripper". Several were designed and used in the 1930s and 40s, but the most successful was the "nutcracker" attached to a harness around the hips. To this is attached a clamp, much like the nutcracker from which it derives its name, which the rider attaches to the rope. This eliminates the need to hold on to

168-633: A tunnel was built, and then a bridge over the Hölltobel . The road was only 3 metres (10 ft) wide. In 1909 the road was finished into the Lech Valley in Tyrol . Since 1936 the pass has been open in winter. Since 1948, funds from the Marshall Plan have been utilized to improve the road and make it safer from avalanches. In 2000, plans were unveiled for a tunnel from Stuben to Zürs. However,

196-495: A vital role in the region. Today, "Arlberg" is a brand for the winter sports areas around the Arlberg Pass, in particular the ski areas of Lech, Zürs, Stuben, Klösterle and St. Christoph, St. Anton am Arlberg. The area is known for its long winter sports tradition. As early as 1901, the Arlberg ski club was founded and two years later a first club competition was held. In 1904 the first general Arlberg race took place, 1928

224-649: The Klostertal near Stuben . The pass road was built in 1940 and leads to the road over the Arlberg pass. It became a necessity when the Arlberg railroad was opened in 1884. Before that, traffic mostly went over the Tannberg by way of Oberstdorf . The first stretch of road was opened in October 1897 up to the pass. At first, the road was shielded from the danger of avalanche by protective covers, but eventually

252-997: The pass . Four communities meet: on the Vorarlberg side, Lech and Klösterle –Stuben; on the Tyrol side, Kaisers and St. Anton . The watershed between the Rhine and the Danube rivers runs south from the Albonagrat to the Passhöhe, over the Valluga and Trittkopf, to the Flexenpass, and it traces from the Flexenspitz the southern edge of the Lechquellen mountains westward to the Klostertal. The old pass route

280-485: The Arlberg is of great importance. Between 1 November 2001 and 31 October 2002, more than one million overnight stays were counted for the first time. Ski Arlberg is the biggest connected ski resort in Austria, consisting of the villages of Lech, Oberlech, Zürs and Zug, which were linked to Warth and Schröcken in 2013–14. The ski area comprises 15 aerial tramways , 45 chairlifts and 28 drag lifts . The White Ring ,

308-649: The Ski Hoist at Charlotte Pass in Australia dating from 1938. The first T-bar lift in the United States was installed in 1940 at the Pico Mountain ski area. It was considered a great improvement over the rope tow . An earlier T-bar was installed at Rib Mountain (now Granite Peak Ski Area ), Wisconsin, in 1937. In recent years, J-bars are no longer used in most ski areas. Some operators have combined T-bar and platter lifts, attaching both types of hanger to

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336-485: The appeal of the sport. Within five years, more than 100 tow ropes were operating in North America. A rope tow consists of a cable or rope running through a bullwheel (large horizontal pulley) at the bottom and one at the top, powered by an engine at one end. In the simplest case, a rope tow is where passengers grab hold of a rope and are pulled along while standing on their skis or snowboards and are pulled up

364-414: The cable, giving skiers and snowboarders a choice. Hangers designed to tow sledges uphill are installed on some slopes by operators, and some operators convert hangers in the summer to tow cyclists uphill. A variant of the platter lift is the detachable surface lift, commonly known as a “ Poma lift” , after the company which introduced them. Unlike most other platter lifts, which are similar to T-bars with

392-567: The first of the famous Arlberg Kandahar races. In 1921, under the leadership of Hannes Schneider , the ski school Arlberg was the first ski school in the region. In 1937, the first lifts were built in St. Anton and in Zürs. It was the first ski-lift built by Konrad Doppelmayr and Sepp Bildstein . With the 2001 FIS Ski World Cup in St. Anton , alpine ski racing came back to the Arlberg and thus to its roots. In 2021, St. Anton am Arlberg will be holding

420-406: The grip attaches to the cable, the passenger's acceleration is lessened by the spring-loaded pole. A magic carpet is a conveyor belt installed at the level of the snow. Some include a canopy or tunnel. Passengers slide onto the belt at the base of the hill and stand with skis or snowboard facing forward. The moving belt pulls the passengers uphill. At the top, the belt pushes the passengers onto

448-415: The lower forces and realigned due to glacier movement. Surface lifts have some disadvantages compared to aerial lifts: they require more passenger skill and may be difficult for some beginners (especially snowboarders, whose boards point at an angle different than the direction of travel) and children; sometimes they lack a suitable route back to the piste; the snow surface must be continuous; they can get in

476-523: The passengers uphill while they ski or snowboard across the ground. Platter lifts are often referred to as button lifts, and may occasionally feature rigid poles instead of recoiling cables. The modern J-bar and T-bar mechanism was invented in 1934 by the Swiss engineer Ernst Constam, with the first lift installed in Davos, Switzerland . J-bars were installed in the 1930s in North America and Australia, with

504-603: The plans were tabled for lack of funds. Surface lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-comfort aerial lifts , such as chairlifts and gondola lifts . Today, surface lifts are most often found on beginner slopes, small ski areas , and peripheral slopes. They are also often used to access glacier ski slopes because their supports can be anchored in glacier ice due to

532-405: The rise of motor traffic in the 20th century, however, this became inadequate. It was decided that a 14-kilometre-long (9-mile) Arlberg Road Tunnel would be built between Langen and St. Anton. On July 5, 1974, the work began and the passage was opened to traffic on December 1, 1978. The tunnel has a toll; however, the old road over the 1,800 m (5,906 ft) pass is toll-free. A peculiarity of

560-422: The rope are a series of vertical recoiling cables, each attached to a horizontal J- or T-shaped bar – which is placed behind the skier's buttocks or between the snowboarder's legs – or a plastic button or platter that is placed between the skier's legs. Snowboarders place the platter behind the top of their front leg or in front of their chest under their rear arm and hold it in position with their hands. These pull

588-505: The rope directly. This system was used on many fields worldwide from the 1940s, and remains popular at 'club fields', especially in New Zealand . This type of ski lift is often referred to as a nutcracker tow. J-bar , T-bar , and platter lifts are employed for low-capacity slopes in large resorts and small local areas. These consist of an aerial cable loop running over a series of wheels, powered by an engine at one end. Hanging from

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616-482: The snow and they slide away. They are easier to use than T-bar lifts and Poma lifts. Magic carpets are limited to shallow grades due to their dependence on friction between the carpet and the bottom of the ski or board. Their slow speed, limited distance, and capacity confines them to beginner and novice areas. The longest carpet lift is a Sunkid carpet lift, 400-metre-long (1,300 ft), installed at Alpine Centre, Bottrop , Germany . Some other notable examples are

644-560: The stick attached to a spring box by a retractable cord, Poma lifts have a detachable grip to the tow cable with the button connected to the grip by a semi-rigid pole. Platters return to the bottom station, detach from the cable, and are stored on a rail until a skier slides the platter forwards to use it. Most detachable surface lifts operate at speeds of around 4 m/s (13 ft/s; 8.9 mph; 14 km/h), while platters and T-bars can operate up to 3.0 m/s (9.8 ft/s; 6.7 mph; 11 km/h), although are generally slower. When

672-564: The tunnel is that it actually consists of two tunnels. On the Tyrolian side it is built over the Rosanna Gorge before the actual massif rises up in the direction of Vorarlberg over the tunnel. The Arlberg railway connects Innsbruck with Bludenz . Between St. Anton and Langen it runs through the 10.25 kilometres (6.37 miles) long Arlbergtunnel . Tourism is the main source of income for Arlberg villages and their inhabitants and plays

700-651: The way of skiable terrain; they are relatively slow in speed and have lower capacity. Surface lifts have some advantages over aerial lifts: they can be exited before the lift reaches the top, they can often continue operating in wind conditions too strong for a chairlift; they require less maintenance and are much less expensive to install and operate. The first surface lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach / Eisenbach , Hochschwarzwald , Germany, and started operations February 14, 1908. A steam-powered toboggan tow, 950 feet (290 m) in length,

728-582: The world's longest ski circuit (22 km), is located within the Ski Arlberg area. Since 2005–06, annual White Ring races have been held. Flexen Pass Flexen Pass is a high mountain pass in the Austrian Alps in the Bundesland of Vorarlberg . It is at an elevation of 1,773 metres (5,817 ft). It connects the upper Lech valley between Warth , Lech , and Zürs with

756-644: Was built in Truckee, California , in 1910. The first skier-specific tow in North America was apparently installed in 1933 by Alec Foster at Shawbridge in the Laurentians outside Montreal , Quebec . The Shawbridge tow was quickly copied at Woodstock, Vermont , in New England , in 1934 by Bob and Betty Royce, proprietors of the White Cupboard Inn. Their tow was driven by the rear wheel of

784-456: Was known since the 14th century in the form of a narrow mule track when people began to trade salt in the region. However, because the Arlberg was very poorly developed, for centuries people avoided the route and took detours over the Fern Pass or Immenstadt for trading. The development of the textile industry and of the postal service, however, led to the roads being surfaced in 1824. With

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