White ring "Deluxe": Lech-Zürs offers more comfort with new lifts

After more than 50 years of service, two aging chairlifts on the legendary "White Ring" in Lech-Zürs are entering their well-deserved retirement. After millions of rides, the noble ski resort in Vorarlberg will be treating its 22-kilometer ski circuit, world-famous for its annual ski race, to significantly more luxury from the 2021/22 winter season. The old two-seater chairs of the Madlochbahn, which swung to icy heights, will be replaced by a completely new six-seater chairlift with heated seats and weather protection hoods. The old Zugerbergbahn, until now also a simple two-seater chair, will be replaced by a modern gondola lift. Anyone who has experienced the White Ring, long one of the most popular ski circuits in the Alps, for themselves or even taken on the icy challenge at the annual race, will sit back, relax and be thrilled by the new facilities. The classic "The White Ring - The Race" will start again on January 15, 2022 in Lech-Zürs on the Arlberg. Then mastering the ski circuit in the shortest will still be a struggle, but it will be much more comfortable. Those who want to discover the new lifts for themselves will have their first opportunity to do so with the start of the winter season on December 3.

New lifts save time

With the new Zugerberg Railway is a 10-cabin gondola lift with panoramic windows, which halves the previous travel time - the new lift takes less than five minutes to cover the 1,460 meters between the bottom station in Zug and the top station at the Balmalp ski hut at 2,105 meters. More time on the skis, less queuing at the same time: "With the new Zugerberg lift, an important bottleneck for the White Ring has been brought up to the highest technical standard," says a delighted Christoph Pfefferkorn, commercial manager of the Lech ski lifts, "and thanks to the perfect timing with the Madloch lift, which is also new, queuing times can now be effectively avoided.

The top station and the gondola station of the bottom station of the Zugerberg cable car are completely underground. This design is intended to preserve the unique landscape and reduce the area exposed to the wind: at the top station, the wind no longer whistles around the nose. Another plus point is the new underground access to the Balmalp ski hut. This will allow guests without skis (or ski clothing) to reach events and festivities directly, which will also be able to take place in the evenings in the future thanks to the night skiing permit.

Bottlenecks defused

After more than 12.5 million journeys, the Madlochbahn was replaced by a comfortable 6-seater chairlift with heated seats and protective hoods, which takes winter sports enthusiasts to the top station at Madlochjoch at 2,446 meters above sea level in just five minutes. As the connecting lift between Zürs and Lech, it makes a significant contribution to the boundless skiing pleasure to which Ski Arlberg, as Austria's largest ski resort, is still committed. The bottom station will be relocated to the opposite side of the lake. Ing. Philipp Zangerl, Chairman of the Board of Ski-Zürs-AG, explains: "Relocating the bottom station will make access to the new lift much easier and at the same time alleviate a bottleneck."

White Ring - The Race

For the average winter sports enthusiast, the White Ring, with its approximately 22 km of ski runs and 5,500 meters of elevation gain, represents about half a day's sporting challenge. At the already legendary ski race "Der Weiße Ring - das Rennen", where every year in mid-January around 1,000 skiers take up the challenge, different times are of course set. The current course record is 44:10:75 minutes and has been held by Markus Weiskopf since 2010. For a long time, the course record was held by Olympic champion Patrick Ortlieb, who needed only 25 seconds longer for the lap even at the premiere. With Marc Girardelli, Andreas Goldberger and David Coulthard, there were also many well-known names at the start.

The starting signal for the White Ring is given on the 2,362-meter-high Rüfikopf at the top station of the Rüfikopf cable car. From here, the aim is to ski the six slopes in top form that connect Lech, Zürs, Zug and Oberlech. Those who wish can extend the White Ring to the "Run of Fame", the longest ski circuit in the Alps with 85 km and 18,000 vertical meters. Then, from Lech, you also ski to Warth-Schröcken and in the other direction to St Anton am Arlberg. However, this challenge is not to be mastered by everyone in one day. Let's hope that the weather situation and pandemic situation in the current season will allow the race on the White Ring on January 15, 2022 with the new lifts.