It is still quiet, during the early-morning hours on the Schmittenhohe in Austria. Skiers and snowboarders are sipping coffee and energy drinks, before heading to the gondola lift to carry them up the mountain.

Elegantly, they can carve their first tracks in the snow, skiing down from the Schmittenhohe, located some 2,000 meters up, or the mountain station on the Sonnkogl peak.

At the same time they can also follow the tracks of the top-flight skiers.

"Lindsey Vonn and the American downhill skiing team do their training here," says Franz Oberlader, one of the heads of the skiing school.

The sun is shining and the pine trees have a thick coating of snow. All around one sees many of the well-known peaks of the region - the Watzmann, Grossglockner, and the Dachstein range - while the 3,203-meter-high Kitzsteinhorn, near the town of Kaprun, towers above everything.

Even more impressive than the panoramic view of the some 30 peaks of 3,000 meters height is the spectacle to be seen in the valley early in the morning.

There it lies in silence, the Zeller See Lake. It's almost 4 km long, a good 1 km wide and up to 68 meters deep. On this frigidly cold morning it lies partially hidden beneath a blanket of fog and it will take a great deal of sunshine and warming temperatures yet before the fog completely evaporates.

On the shoreline lies the swanky town of Zell am See (Zell on the Lake) with its labyrinth of alleys in the old town center, and Kastnerturm tower, where the local history museum is located.

Not far from the town center is the modern "Ferry Porsche Congress Center", which, as Oberlader explains, gets its name from the sports car pioneer "who was made an honorary citizen of Zell am See in 1981 and spent his final years here".

The Porsche family has left further marks on the region, such as the new Porsche Design Studio designed gondolas on the Schmittenhohe cable car.

But skiing in the region is not restricted just to the Schmittenhohe. Zell am See without Kaprun is unthinkable, likewise Kaprun without Zell am See.

While the skiing areas in the vicinity of the lake are practically guaranteed snow, which can be augmented with snow-making machines, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at Kaprun offers the chance for skiing almost the entire year-round.

However, the three skiing areas of Schmittenhohe, Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel are not linked with each other.

"Ice Age", "Jump Run" and "Pipeline" are some of the mountain trails that should only be tackled by extremely skilled skiers who carry with them the appropriate equipment.

"Central Park" is for those who do not simply want to race down a ski run, but prefer to deal with 20 obstacles, weather permitting.

At the mountain lift station you then see the snowboarders and skiers in their colorful baggy pants and long jackets, looking sleek and nonchalant as they race, earphones in their ears, down the slopes.

To conventional skiers this free-riding style may appear to be dangerous, but as Maria Hofer, spokeswoman for the Gletscherbahn lift company, says, "This has brought back to many people the joy of winter sports".

On the Kitzsteinhorn there is a lot of time to enjoy the sport. "The season easily runs from October up through June," Hofer says.

And then there is the newly built "Gipfelwelt 3000" (Peakworld 3000). This multimedia playground is open to everyone to enjoy the panorama offered from the highest viewing platform in the Salzburg province.

Here, the indoor Cinema 3000 offers visitors an impressive cinematic tour of the nearby Hohe Tauern National Park, or enter the mountain itself to experience the "National Park Gallery" and how it feels inside a world of permafrost.

German Press Agency