Being Germany’s most popular ski resort, with 26 lifts and 34 slopes. You will be surprised to learn out that Skikarusell Winterberg is not located in the alps, but in Sauerland. Just an hour drive southeast of the Ruhr area. More than 20 million people reach Winterberg within two hours. Day trips are also possible from Belgium and the Nederland’s. No wonder this is a popular ski destination.

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Winterberg is also well known as a wintersport destination, world cup is frequently held in both bobsleigh and in snowboard. Winterberg has everything you can wish for as a wintersport paradise except real mountains.

All skiing takes place on seven hills. The highest vertical drop in one run is offered at the Kappe hill, where you face 190 meters in one run. Even though the 36 slopes are truly short due to the lack of mountains, this does not mean they are all beginner slopes.

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O no. You will be surprised how good most of them are in their character. The Sauerland highland is nothing like the alps, but the hillsides are surprisingly steep around Winterberg.

A true ski carousel

No other skiresort in Europe north of the alps has as many chairlifts as skikarusell Winterberg. We counted to sixteen, connecting the seven hills. Most runs are blue and red in its character, but there are a few black ones for the skier that fancy that.

Being such a popular destination, the slopes easily get crowded during the day. We made an early wake-up call to be the first on slope. Good decision, we had the slopes by ourselves the first two hours.

As the ski lifts are fast and short, we easily managed to cover all the chairlifts and slopes reachable by those within these two hours.

As the crowd kicked in around noon, the fun was over for us. For advanced skiers that fancy full speed carving, the slopes simply became too crowded for our taste. But in the morning, on perfectly groomed slopes, skiing in Winterberg is very nice, despite the short slopes.

Kids will love skiing in Winterberg

The lift setup must be a dream for ski loving kids up to young teenage. There are lifts in all directions. And on the next hill, and the next. You can go round and round, just like a merry-go-round. It’s not named skikarusell without a reason.

Anyway.

Winterberg is also a small-town and mountain resort in one. Few ski resorts in the alps can offer the same feeling as this highland small-town. Shops, hotels, restaurants and Spas all around. Authentic ski huts as good as in any well-known alp resort.

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You don’t need to be a skier to pay Winterberg a visit. If you’re longing for the alps but have no time to go. Then Winterberg and the Sauerland highlands are an option. Winterberg is an easy reach for most people in Central Europe.

If you travel from Scandinavia to the alps by car, you shall consider following our example to taking a one – night stop on the way down. The detour itself is less than an hour extra driving, instead of driving straight. But you get a chance to see something else than the autobahn, and Sauerland is beautiful.

Remember to ski in the morning, before the crowd. Morning lift ticket is only 30 Euro, well worth it.