The Austrian Tirol has been blessed with abundant snow during November, enabling many Tirolean skiing areas to open for the winter season two weeks earlier than planned. In some places as much as half a metre of snow has already fallen, lifts are open and runs down to the villages are operational.

Half a metre of snow has fallen in the Kitzb�hel/Kirchberg area, the ski runs are in use down the valley and numerous lifts have been operating since 26 November.

After a successful trial run last weekend the Skiwelt was fully operational from 3 December and both here and in the Zillertal Arena, an average of 70 cm of powder snow covers the sloeps.

Obergurgl-Hochgurgl, where the lifts have been operating since 17th November, report of 110 cm of snow.

In St. Anton am Arlberg panning for white gold has been in progress since 25 November. Snowmaking equipment provides an additional finish.

Langlauf lovers are fully catered for in the Olympic region of Seefeld. 100 km of the 250 trail kilometres are already tracked. Depending on the snow, yet more trails will be tracked for the classic style and skating in the next few days.

Winter sports enthusiasts in the five Tirolean glacier skiing areas (www.gletscher.tirol.at ), where the season has been in full swing since mid-October, are also enjoying the superb snow conditions.

For further information, visit www.tyrol.com www.obergurgl.com www.skiwelt.com www.stantonamarlberg.com www.zillertalarena.com

Images can be downloaded from www.tirolimages.at, username: tirol06, password: mstQR6

FACT FILE

The Austrian Tyrol

For information about the Tyrol region of Austria see www.tyrol.com, email info@tirol.at or telephone +43 512 7272 0

Flying there is easy

GB Airways (www.ba.com) flies from LGW to Innsbruck during the coming winter season (starting 18th December 2005), 5 times a week (TUE, THUR, SA, SUN 2 x). All-inclusive return fares start at �79. For more details visit www.ba.com or call 0870 850 9 850.

Austrian Airlines route from Gatwick to Innsbruck operates every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the winter season with prices from �103 return incl. tax. Contact them on 0870 1 24 26 or visit www.austrianairlines.co.uk

Innsbruck airport is ideal for much of the Tirol. Salzburg and Munich are great for the east of the region (90 minutes from Soll). Zurich and Friedrichshafen offer short transfers too - from the former to St Anton it's 2 hours and 15 minutes, the latter 1 hour 45 minutes.

Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com) flies daily from London Stansted to Salzburg and Friedrichshafen

easyJet (0870 600 0000, easyJet.com) flies daily from London Stansted to Munich.

British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.britishairways.com), easyJet and

Swiss International (0845 601 0956, www.swiss.com) fly daily into Zurich from London Heathrow and Stansted.

Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) flies daily to Munich from Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester.

Once you arrive there are shuttle services available to many resorts as well as individual taxi transfers. Details from individual tourist offices. Car hire available from all airports (a week's hire is mostly cheaper than an individual taxi transfer). Many hotels are pleased to pre-arrange these for you, and details on all taxi and transport services are also available through resort tourist offices.

Press contact: UK PR for the Austrian Tirol, Mary Stuart-Miller, 01403 738844,

Tel: 01403 738844 Fax: 0208 584 2017 South Marlands, Itchingfield, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 0NN.