Stubai Glacier replaced its third Sunkid conveyor belt
Over a million guests are transported every year at Stubai Glacier (Neustift). Austria’s largest glacier ski area, as its own website states, presented us with “fascinating landscapes and memorable sunny winter sports moments” at our visit in early January 2025 – in spite of temperatures 12 degrees below freezing and icy gusts of wind.
Its altitude above sea level and the climate conditions ensure its place as the “Kingdom of Snow”. The destination makes an ongoing effort to keep its second focus area of being a “colourful, family-friendly and athletic family skiing area” up to speed. One example for this is the free ski pass for children up to 10 years of age, a constant string of new snow sports attractions such as Funpark, Bordercross, or Sunline, and the ongoing investment into a comfortable lift infrastructure for young skiers.
Anyone who wants to “learn skiing or snowboarding with others on the Stubai Glacier should visit the BIG Family children and youth ski camp” at the Gamsgarten mountain station. This children’s area has four Moving Carpets in store – with three Sunkid facilities being replaced by new conveyor belts from the Austrian manufacturer after many years of service in the course of the last six years.
The most recent addition has been a 42-metres-long Moving Carpet from the latest Sunkid generation Type N with i-CONTROL system. The Stubai Glacier team can not only enjoy intuitive operation by Multi-Touch-HMI (display) with them, they also connect to a remote control by Wi-Fi and LAN.
At a drive power of 15 kW and a hydraulic tensioning station with flywheel (to compensate for conveyor belt elongation), the conveyor belt will easily master the average inclination of 12 percent (max. 19.1%) even under maximum load. The “V-Slide” conveyor belt sliding layer minimises friction and component wear.
The team from the Neustift ski school on the Stubai Glacier at Gamsgarten places “joy in sports, in movement, and in nature front and centre”. This is why the skiing instructors are particularly enthusiastic about the benefits of the Evo-N gallery that also protects the entrance area that faces the wind, allowing pupils and teachers alike to recover strength and let the sun warm them up – while the wild snowy wind is kept safely outside.
The slide-up emergency exit is easy to open in case of danger, closing and protecting the gallery securely against ingressing snow at night or during breaks in operation along with the self-rolling entrance and exit tarpaulins.
Sunkid also supplied the customer with custom-designed elements from its “Sunny Stuff” range for this winter season. A “Toucan M” stand points the way to the “BIG Family […] Ski-Camp”, while a pillar is advertising the Neustift ski school. Children can start their downhill run by passing through an “Entrance arch S” with mascots Zottel, Bommel, and Wollie next to the new Moving Carpet. The “bubbly fluffy ball” Bommel also decorates four new foam figures with slip-proof rubber mat, numbered one through four, that are used to assign groups in the morning. The original Sunkid Rotondo ski carousel has ensured variety and relaxed entertainment during breaks for many years as well.
Sunkid’s CEO Emanuel Wohlfarter says: “It gives us great joy to support the ongoing modernisation and sustainable further development of the family-owned ski destination Stubai Glacier as a long-term partner, as we have for more than a quarter of a century now.”
