€17 million from the state: Austria's Kasberg aims to open on 5 December

The pulsed gondola at the Kasberg above Grünau im Almtal, February 2025. Photo: Tigerente via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

The state of Upper Austria is taking over the Kasberg ski area in Grünau im Almtal, with up to €17 million approved for 2026 to 2028. The deal only became valid once every landowner signed a new lease by Saturday 31 October. On Thursday 29 October the regional paper OÖN reported that the leases are signed. The operator plans to open on Saturday 5 December 2026.

• The Upper Austrian parliament approved up to €10 million for 2026–2028, plus €7 million for staff, dismantling and restoration obligations.
• The state government released €850,000 for the coming winter on Monday 19 October 2026.
• The takeover depended on new leases with all landowners, signed by 31 October.
• OÖN reported on 29 October that the leases are signed; as of that morning, no second outlet or official statement confirmed it.
• The operator's site gives 5 December 2026 to 29 March 2027 as the season, if there is enough snow.

The buyer is Traunsee Touristik, a company inside the state-owned OÖ Seilbahnholding. It bought the lifts and the business in an asset deal, not the old company, so every lease on the mountain had to be signed again. The state parliament approved the money on Thursday 1 October 2026.

"We promised that we would not leave the Kasberg in the lurch, and we are keeping our word," governor Thomas Stelzer said on 19 October, as printed by the trade magazine Seilbahnen International (translated from German).

The €850,000 goes into the energy supply and into the repair and maintenance of the lifts, ORF Oberösterreich reported on 23 October. The same report described the plot that was still missing: it holds the pond for the snowmaking water, a run and lift pylons.

Without all signatures, the takeover would have failed completely. The local co-owner, the Fördergenossenschaft "lebenswertes Almtal", warned that the lifts would then be taken down. The state's finance director Christiane Frauscher said she was confident of a solution by the deadline, MeinBezirk reported.

On Thursday 29 October the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten reported that the leases are signed and called the takeover "praktisch fix", as good as certain. Season passes go on sale from the week of Monday 2 November, the paper wrote.

The top station of the Kasberg gondola, February 2025. Photo: Tigerente via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

The operator's site gives the pistes, lifts and season dates. The Linz city magazine LINZA!, which is critical of the deal, puts the valley station at about 620 m and counts that the number of operating days fell from 120 to 77 between 2018 and 2023 for lack of snow.

The opposition voted against the plan. "This is not a rescue, but an expensive slide to just past election day," Green group leader Severin Mayr told Salzburg24 (translated from German). The state election in Upper Austria is due in 2027.

A low area like the Kasberg depends on snowmaking and cold nights, and many days start hard and end soft. A versatile piste or all-mountain ski between about 75 and 85 mm underfoot covers both.

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