De nieuwe coole skibestemming in de Alpen

International DJs, a disco-gondola, art installations and a wine festival; even by Lech am Arlberg’s standards the opening of this year’s ski season in the fashionable Austrian resort was exceptional.

After previously slow starts to the season, resorts are pulling out all the stops this year to attract investors, with the locations that get the most snow gaining the edge. This is good news for Lech, which is linked for the first time by road and ski-lift to the most snowy village in the Alps — Warth am Arlberg. Warth (pronounced Vart) is a hamlet of 180 inhabitants at 1,495m (4,900ft) that receives a prodigious average of 10.5m of snow each year.

There has been a 2km-long gondola link between the two resorts since 2013…