Pub Quiz: Winter in Austria

The new skiing season is around the corner and you might already be eying the winter resorts you want to check out this year. To shorten the waiting time, we've prepared a little Winter Pub Quiz for you. Put your knowledge to the test and learn some surprising winter facts along the way. Good luck!

You can find the correct answers here (no peeking!)

1. Austria Tourism

Before we hit the slopes: Austria Tourism has been taking Britain into the Alps for over 70 years – proof that mountains, dumplings and cowbells never really goes out of fashion. And business is good: 2025 was a record year for the whole country, with more than 157 million overnight stays.

Question: How many overnight stays did Austria have from UK travellers last winter season?

2. Tirol

Tirol is Austria's winter-sports powerhouse: 154 ski areas, 5 glaciers, and legendary resorts like Ischgl, Kitzbühel and St. Anton. Beyond the pistes, try snowkiting, snowtubing or ice climbing or cross-country skiing on over 4,000 km of trails.

Question: Which major international ski jumping event will include women competing at Innsbruck's Bergisel for the first time in the 2026/27 season?

3.  Innsbruck

Innsbruck is the only city on tonight's list. It is a great place where you can ski before breakfast and be back in town for lunch and sightseeing or visiting a museum, thanks to twelve ski areas practically on the doorstep, including a funicular that runs straight out of the city centre into the mountains.

Question: When did Innsbruck host the Winter Olympics?

4. St. Johann in Tirol

A family skiing paradise with free practice areas for little ones. Plus enough alternative ways to enjoy the snow that non-skiers in your group have no excuse to sit this one out: winter Segway tours, a Flying Fox zipline, and guided moonlight snowshoe hikes. And once a year, the entire town centre turns into one very, very long dinner table.

Question: In September, the entire town centre is transformed into the venue for the Knödel Festival. How long is the table at the St. Johann Knödel Festival? Tip: It is roughly six football pitches laid end to end or more than double the length of Tower Bridge.  
A) 350 metres
B) 595 metres
C) 820 metres

5. Ischgl

One of the Alps' largest cross-border ski areas, linked to Samnaun, Switzerland, snow-sure from November to May, Ischgl pairs top-notch freeriding and its Snowpark with relaxed luxury, more 4- and 5-star hotels than most Austrian resorts, plus award-winning restaurants and lively après-ski. Paznaun-Ischgl are ploughing more than €50 million into new lifts for winter 2026/27. But Ischgl's real superpower has always been the après ski: this is the resort that gets global pop stars to play a concert on the mountain.

Question: When did the first “Top of the Mountain Concert” take place on the Idalp in Ischgl, and which global star performed there?

6. Zell am See - Kaprun

Zell am See-Kaprun is the only region tonight that fits a glacier, a mountain and a lake into one calling card. New for this winter: a brand-new chairlift opening in December, and an ice-and-light installation built at 2,600 metres that wouldn't look out of place in a Bond film.

Question: Zell am See-Kaprun is famous for a combination of three natural elements. Which ones?

7. Ski Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau

Ski Juwel Alpachtal Wildschönau links two Tirolean valleys, with Alpbach - "the most beautiful village in Austria"  - as its centrepiece. Highlights include Austria’s highest loop on an alpine coaster - 18 metres up, reached at speeds of up to 40 km/h - and a local schnapps made from an ingredient you will absolutely not guess on the first try.

Question: What unlikely source is Wildschönau’s traditional schnapps made of?

8. Lech Zürs

Part of the Arlberg, Austria's largest ski area, the birthplace of alpine skiing over a century ago – and today Lech Zürs is also popular with foodies: the 2026 Michelin Guide Austria awarded two stars each to two of its restaurants, on top of 60 Gault&Millau toques across 21 restaurants in the valley. Once you've finished counting stars, there's also a walk-in light installation by a world-famous American artist tucked into the mountainside, open to visitors year-round.

Question: Lech am Arlberg may be a small alpine village, but it has an extraordinary number of Michelin-starred restaurants and Gault&Millau toques per resident. Which unofficial title captures its culinary status?
A) Michelin Mountain 
B) World Gourmet Village 
C) Austria's Fine-Dining Capital

9. Carinthia

Carinthia is Austria's sunniest province, with 800 km of slopes – including a glacier above 3,100 metres – and enough thermal baths that ‘apres-ski’  here can mean a hot spring instead of a hot toddy. In winter, one of its lakes even turns into what's billed as Europe's largest natural ice rink.

Question: Which Carinthian lake is described as Europe’s largest natural ice rink in winter?
A) Lake Wörthersee
B) Lake Millstatt
C) Lake Weissensee

10. Kleinwalsertal

Kleinwalsertal is 100% Austrian and 100% impossible to drive into without crossing into Germany first – the valley's favourite party trick. Kleinwalsertal blends alpine scenery with Walser culture and a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere. Beyond the pistes, visitors can explore winter hiking trails, cosy mountain huts, and traditional regional cuisine, a down-to-earth winter escape close to the locals.

Question: Kleinwalsertal has an affectionate nickname referring to its exceptional snow reliability. What is it?
A) Snow Hole
B) Powder Palace
C) White Valley

11. Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis

Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis runs on one very clear rule: 'We Are Family' isn't just a nice slogan, it's the actual regional motto. The proof is an underground people-mover (tube as it is called in Britain) that shifts up to 10,000 passengers on a busy day, so the village of Serfaus is car-free.

Question: What makes the U-Bahn (tube / underground) Serfaus completely unlike any other "underground" in the world?
A) It floats along on a cushion of air
B) Passengers have to pedal it themselves

12. Zillertal

One of the Alps' leading winter destinations, Zillertal blends snow-reliable slopes with warm, family-run hospitality. If you want a slope with a sense of humour, Mayrhofen's Harakiri piste tips over at a genuinely alarming gradient, named with admirable honesty about what it might do to your knees.

Question: What is the maximum gradient of the legendary Harakiri piste in Mayrhofen, Zillertal?
A) 58%
B) 68%
C) 78%

13. St. Anton am Arlberg

Renowned as the birthplace of modern alpine skiing, St. Anton combines legendary slopes with exceptional hospitality and a lively international atmosphere. Part of Austria's largest interconnected ski area, it offers everything from thrilling freeride terrain to cosy mountain huts and wellness retreats. The world's first ski school opened here in 1922.

Question: Which British skiing pioneer, credited as the father of Alpine ski racing, teamed up with Hannes Schneider to create the legendary Arlberg-Kandahar race?

14. TirolWest

TirolWest, centred around the historic town of Landeck, is the insider's base camp of the Alps: stay in fairly priced guesthouses here, then let the region's own Ski Safari shuttle drive you out each morning to a different resort. Between shuttle days there's also a home ski area on the Venet right on the doorstep, plus mystical gorges and mountain castles for when you fancy a day off skis.

Question: TirolWest is home to Stanz, a village of just 580 people that holds a record nobody else in Europe can match. What is it?
A) Europe's highest density of schnapps distilleries – 54 of them, in one tiny village
B) Austria's smallest ski school
C) The steepest vineyard in the Alps

15. Austria Tourism

The legendary Arlberg-Kandahar ski race, born in St. Anton in 1928, gets half its name from a Victorian British Army officer decorated for a campaign nowhere near the Alps.

Question: Where did "Kandahar" actually happen?
A) Afghanistan
B) India
C) South Africa
D) The Falklands

Tie-Breaker

Question 1: What was Dave Ryding's winning combined time when he won the Kitzbühel slalom in January 2022 — the first World Cup victory ever for a British alpine skier?

Question 2: Before Dave Ryding's 2022 win, another British skier (Konrad Bartelski) held Britain's best-ever World Cup alpine skiing result for four decades — a downhill runner-up finish at Val Gardena in 1981, behind Austria's Erwin Resch. By how many seconds did he miss out on the win?

Question 3: How many fire-gilded copper shingles cover Innsbruck's most famous landmark, the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl), built for Emperor Maximilian I?