An easy spot to drive to in Zillertal is Kaltenbach, park in a fairly industrial free-of-charge parking garage and walk over to the base station. The valley is low in altitude, it has become rare to see the valley itself in deep snow cover.
The home-run gets a lot of snow making, so skiing back to the car at the end of the day if you don’t mind crowds is not the worst to end an epic day. And there are actually a few lines under the cables of the cable cars which require some skill if you want to fluidly ski it with some speed. After snow falls, there are plenty of kickers and given how obvious the access is, we are again and again surprised how long it takes for it to be fully tracked. Eventually you want to make your way over to Hochfuegen, with a few exceptions, the best runs are found here. So get all the way up to Wedelexpress to reach the ridge.
This is the crux as well: You cannot avoid Wedelexpress to get over, on busy days and if you are not too early there is a wait.
You can easily drive up all the way to Hochfuegen. Not a major headache either, but somewhat longer to get back on busy days. The place has much more flair and if you stay here for a few nights, it is great anyway. Hochfuegen is great even for white-out days. While tree-skiing is mostly illegal in Austria there is a catch: You are considered a pedestrian if you ski-tour, and thus get full access to the woods. Now ski-touring requires under the rules at least an hour hiking, no matter if you start from a lift or in the valley. Draw your own conclusions…
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