The pistes of Salzburg are alive with the sound of Mozart

We call it the most beautiful cul-de-sac in the world, says our host, gesturing at the Alpine panorama.

This particular no-throughroad lies beneath an impassable ring of peaks in a valley called Grossarltal. A jewel hidden within Austria’s Salzburg region, it sits less than an hour’s drive south of the city.

At its heart is the small community of Grossarl, an Alpine market town in summer and a snow sports centre in winter. It’s one of the least known ski areas in Austria, yet it grants 50 miles of mostly intermediate ski runs, shared with its neighbour Dorfgastein.

The two towns access a further 500-plus miles of pistes by being members of the Ski Amade sports alliance, which covers 28 resorts. In other words, there’s a lot of skiing on Grossarl’s doorstep, all under the same lift pass.

Salzburg was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, in case you were wondering, Amade is a contraction of the composer’s middle name.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself humming along to a familiar sonata. His music is piped through loudspeakers at lift stations. 

At one stage, there were rumoured plans to feed a continuous loop of the 1985 global hit Rock Me Amadeus through selected audio points. Fortunately, it never happened.

The musical associations don’t end there. Parts of The Beatles’ movie Help! were filmed in the nearby towns of Radstadt and Obertauern, and Julie Andrews warbled some of The Sound Of Music soundtrack around Salzburger Sportwelt, one of the five principal areas of Ski Amade.

Grossarl’s one-hour transfer time from Salzburg is reason enough to visit for a weekend. Equally persuasive is the two-hour flight from Britain. Then, if you choose to stay at the Grossarler Hof, a family-run hotel, there’s the promise of a gastronomic treat every night.

Powder keg: Grossarl’s many and varied slopes will challenge skiers of all skill levels

There can’t be many four-star hotels in the Alps that include a five-course gourmet dinner each evening for a little over £120 per night, per person, as well as a lift pass, plus use of the hotel spa.

For a still more authentic Grossarltal dining experience, you could take a horse-drawn sleigh up the valley to the former mining village of Huttschlag. After a caramel schnapps under a starlit sky, the horse pulls up at the rustic Aschaustuberl restaurant.

Here you’ll be swamped by piles of pork ribs, dumplings, gnocchi and noodles, followed by kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancake and plums) and a sour local cheese known as sauakas. It’s not a meal for dieters.

On the slopes, Grossarl can state a strong case for having more mountain pit-stops for its size than anywhere in the Alps (about 40). 

We settle on two favourites; the Harbachhutte and the Gehwolfalm – the former for its variety of schnapps, the latter for its irresistible rosti.

The Grossarl valley may lead nowhere, but there are plenty of reasons to enjoy the journey.