Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel Chronicle

Kitzbühel and skiing – a timeless combination tied to a legend. For 120 years, the most legendary sports town in the Alps has been successfully writing skiing history. Today, the Kitzbühel mountains are also a popular destination for snowboarders, freeriders and tourers.

The first documented skiing was carried out by Franz Reisch on the Kitzbühler Horn in 1893. In 1924, a commission was given the task of establishing a cable car project on the Hahnenkamm. Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel was founded in 1928. One year later, the first Hahnenkammbahn cable car was opened.

Construction work on the first hotel in Kitzbühel was completed in 1903. The hotel opened with the name Hotel Kitzbühel and later became known as ‘Grand Hotel.’ Two years later, the first Tirolean ski championships were held and the first downhill race on the Kitzbüheler Horn took place the following year. One of the first gondola lifts in Austria – the Hahnenkammbahn cable car was constructed between 1926 and 1928.

In winter 1931, the first Hahnenkamm races finally took place on the Streif. Shortly after the Second World War in 1948, the world’s first Skizirkus, a continuous circuit on skis, opened. The ski area had virtually reached its present-day size by 1959, following the construction of a supply line to the Kitzbüheler Horn in 1951 and the expansion of the ski resort to Kirchberg, Jochberg and Pass Thurn. In 1969, Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel merged with Berg- und Skilift GmbH and Kirchberger Bergbahnen AG. This marked the opening of the Kitzbühel | Kirchberg wider ski area offering the best pistes into the valley.