Kühtai Saddle (german: Kühtaisattel) (el. ) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

in the '' Bundesland'' of

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. It connects the Ötz river valley from

Oetz Oetz is a municipality in the Imst district of Tyrol, Austria, located 11.7 km (7.3 mi) southeast of Imst at the lower course of the Ötztaler Ache in the outer Ötztal valley at the foot of Acherkogel mountain (3 008 m, 9,869 ...

with

Gries im Sellrain Gries im Sellrain is a municipality in the Sellrain Valley in the western district of Innsbruck-Land The Bezirk Innsbruck-Land is an administrative district ('' Bezirk'') in Tyrol, Austria. It encloses the Statutarstadt Innsbruck, and borders Bava ...

. The road from Oetz is 16 km and has a maximum grade of 16 percent. This side is closed to trucking. The road from Gries im Sellrain is 17 km long and also has a maximum grade of 16 percent.

Kühtai

The

winter sports resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nor ...

Kühtai Kühtai is a winter sports village in the Stubai Alps on the Kühtai Saddle between the Nedertal valley in the west and the Sellrain valley in the east. It is part of the municipality of Silz, in the district of Imst, in the Austrian state of Ty ...

is situated in the saddle. A small village, it is part of the municipality Silz. Population numbers and economic activity in Kühtai are highly seasonal. As of 2001, the number of permanent year-round residents was only 29, but due to the many tourists and seasonal workers, the population is much higher over the winter months.

Etymology

The name "Kühtai" is derived from the ''Chutay'' (literally: cow alp), an

alpine pasture Alpine transhumance is transhumance as practiced in the Alps, that is, a seasonal droving of grazing livestock between the valleys in winter and the high mountain pastures in summer (German ' from the term for "seasonal mountain pasture", '). T ...

farm first attested in 1288.

History

A road leading up to Kühtai was first completed in 1628, whereupon the alp farm was converted to a hunting castle/lodge. Holidaymakers first arrived in the eighteen-thirties, and towards the end of the nineteenth century, the hunting castle was converted to a hotel. After the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Kühtai was developed into a winter sports resort.

Energy

The Längental, Kühtai and Finstertal

pumped storage Pumping may refer to: * The operation of a pump, for moving a liquid from one location to another **The use of a breast pump for extraction of milk * Pumping (audio), a creative misuse of dynamic range compression * Pumping (computer systems), the ...

facilities are located in the valley, at different altitudes.

External links

* Website of the Kühtai tourism office
summer versionwinter version
* Kuhtai Information and Review
Kuhtai on Mountago

References