Kitzbühel 20 Dec–13 Mar: KitzSki renews its money-back snow guarantee
The KitzSki sign at the Jufenalm top station, December 2025. Photo: Jan Sobotka via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
KitzSki repeats its snow guarantee for winter 2026/27. Anyone who buys a 1- to 14-day pass online by 19 December 2026 gets a pro-rata refund for every day between 20 December 2026 and 13 March 2027 on which a lack of snow stops skiing. The operator presented the plan in Munich on Thursday 5 November 2026.
In short
- The guarantee period runs from Sunday 20 December 2026 to Saturday 13 March 2027.
- It covers passes of 1 to 14 days, bought online by Saturday 19 December 2026.
- The refund is pro rata and automatic, paid back to the card used for the purchase.
- KitzSki says it invested about €36 million this year, €16 million of it in the new Sonnenrast reservoir.
- As of 9 November 2026, KitzSki has not said whether the 2025/26 guarantee ever paid out.
What KitzSki promises for 2026/27
The terms are on the KitzSki guarantee page. Skiing is "guaranteed" from 20 December 2026 to 13 March 2027. If skiing is not possible on one or more days because of a lack of snow, the pass holder gets the matching share of the price back.
There is no claim form. A pass bought online for that period is included automatically, and the refund goes to the card that paid. Passes from the ticket office, passes bought after 19 December and days outside the period are not covered.
The guarantee covers a lack of snow only. skinachrichten.de points out that a lift closed by strong wind, bad weather or a technical fault does not automatically count. KitzSki's general terms also exclude refunds for weather and lift closures.
| Term | 2026/27 | 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Period | 20 Dec 2026 – 13 Mar 2027 | 21 Dec 2025 – 14 Mar 2026 |
| Buy online by | 19 Dec 2026 | 20 Dec 2025 |
| Pass length | 1–14 days | up to 14 days |
| Refund | pro rata, automatic | pro rata, automatic |
| Published payouts | – | none |
The Munich event on 5 November
KitzSki presents its winter every year in Munich. This year the press release is dated Thursday 5 November 2026 and names the Bogner headquarters as the venue. The trade magazine gast.at counted more than 40 guests.
It was also a farewell. CEO Anton Bodner retires in early December 2026, and Gabriel Sieghartsleitner, formerly COO of the OÖ Seilbahnholding, takes over. Board member Christian Wörister stays in charge of marketing and sales.
According to gast.at, Bodner called summer 2026 "the best in the company's history" and said revenue grew "by 15 to 20 %". KitzSki has not published the winter figures for 2025/26.
Snowmaking behind the promise
The guarantee rests on snowmaking. KitzSki lists 1,260 snow guns and 233 km of pistes. Its press text says the grassy slopes around Kitzbühel need only about 30 to 40 cm of snow for a well-prepared piste.
The new Sonnenrast reservoir opened on Friday 16 October 2026, just below the Fleckalmbahn top station. It holds about 100,000 m³, of which 95,000 m³ is usable, and cost about €16 million. KitzSki says it raises the maximum snow output in that area by more than 40 %.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total investment this year | about €36 million |
| Sonnenrast reservoir | about €16 million, 95,000 m³ usable |
| Reservoirs in the ski area | 11, about 845,000 m³ |
| Snow guns | 1,260 |
| Lifts | 58 plus 10 valley practice lifts |
| New car park at the Fleckalmbahn | about 1,100 spaces, 20 EV chargers |
Other changes for 2026/27 include a 65 m ski tunnel. It takes blue run 27a under black run 16b and removes a dangerous crossing. The local paper MeinBezirk Kitzbühel also lists the 87th Hahnenkamm race on 18–24 January 2027.
What nobody has said yet
KitzSki calls itself the first non-glacier ski area in the Alps with an official snow guarantee. That is the operator's own claim.
The open question is the payout record. As of 9 November 2026, KitzSki has published no figures on refunds from 2025/26. The 2025/26 rules also had a numeric trigger: according to t-online in December 2025, a lack of snow meant fewer than 100 km of pistes open. The 2026/27 texts give no such number.
The season started on Friday 6 November 2026 at the Resterkogel on stored snow. In the first weeks, it is open to the public at weekends only.
What this means for your skis
Kitzbühel is a groomed-piste area: long blue and red runs on grassy slopes, with machine snow in the core area. On that snow, a narrow piste ski with a short or medium turn radius is the usual choice. We compared three makers' figures:
| Ski | Waist | Lengths | Radius |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atomic Redster S9i | 68 mm | 155–170 cm | 11.3–13.1 m |
| Rossignol Hero Elite ST Ti | 68 mm | 157–172 cm | 11–14 m |
| Blizzard Firebird Ti | 71 mm | 148–178 cm | 14.5 m at 172 cm |
The two 68 mm skis favour short turns on hard snow. The Firebird Ti is a little wider for mixed conditions later in the day. To match a ski to your weight, level and runs, use Pick-a-Ski.
Sources
- KitzSki, press release "Das bringt der Winter 2026/27 bei KitzSki", 5 November 2026, and the guarantee page (terms read 9 November 2026)
- skinachrichten.de, "Kein Schnee, Geld zurück", 6 November 2026
- MeinBezirk Kitzbühel, "36 Millionen Euro Investitionen und ein neuer Speicherteich", 6 November 2026
- gast.at, "KitzSki trumpfte groß im Münchner Bogner-Haus auf", 7 November 2026
- t-online, report on the 2025/26 guarantee, 14 December 2025
