This is how cleverly a village markets itself on the internet

The clouds over the Glatthorn are already glowing pink as Sarah Bodon trudges up the ridge path to the Stofel chapel. Immediately after the stop, the 32-year-old set off again with her friend. Because she really wants this photo of herself, as she saw it on Instagram: swinging in the snow, in front of the highest peaks of the Bregenzerwald.

The swing made of solid oak is four meters high and stands like a huge picture frame just below the tiny chapel. "We had to queue here at noon," says Bodon, so many skiers and winter hikers were waiting - and only adults. Some friends at home in Stuttgart have already reacted to their freshly sent photos: "Cool, I want to go there too!"

Mathias Klocker listens to all this with a satisfied smile. The managing director of Damüls Faschina Tourismus took office in August 2021 - at the age of 25. To this day, the people in the village call him "the boy". Klocker knows it: At 18 he became a news presenter at Antenne Vorarlberg, “no one believed me capable of that either”.

The mountain swings are Klocker's first coup. "They stand 100 percent for what I want to represent," he says: "The plain, the simple in nature." Because that's why the guests from the big cities come here, to this mountain village in Vorarlberg.

Damüls is 1435 meters above sea level, although that is a relative value. There is no clear center, the approximately 330 residents have spread their houses over the slopes - as is typical for the Walser people. The poor immigrants from Valais were once assigned remote fallow land that nobody wanted.

The residents of such villages are rarely ardent advocates of the new and unusual. And so the reaction to the boy's suggestion was to be expected: swinging in the snow, what a crazy idea - and without a big logo, as you know it from selfie picture frames in other ski areas. "Why not just a playground?" some asked.

But Klocker was undeterred. And after a long search, he found three craftsmen who were able to implement his idea - in the "Show with the Mouse". Because the three come from the Bavarian town of Bischofswiesen, the swings are called Hutschn according to the local dialect.

Four of these Hutschn have been set up since October 2021. Not all are easy to find. Some are well off the slopes. "I was concerned with taking the most beautiful places," explains Klocker, "not the most popular ones."

When swinging, guests should change their perspective, he says, forget their stress and feel childlike joy. And, of course, do free advertising on social media. The calculation works: meanwhile, every second photo shows the one with the keyword

Unlike the tourism experts in many ski areas, Klocker does not normally have to worry about the white mountain scenery. In 2006, the mayor received a certificate that put it in writing: Damüls was the snowiest permanently inhabited village in the world. An average of 9.30 meters of fresh snow was measured per season over a period of five years.

The people of Damüls owe the large amount of snow to the north-west congestion. Moisture-soaked clouds from the west meet the Arlberg here and snow falls – similar to nearby Warth-Schröcken, which also lays claim to the title of the snowiest village in the world and counters this with its own record statistics.

"The values ​​fluctuate every winter, but we're still in the same range," says Klocker. Nevertheless, the first snow cannons were set up as early as 1990, and 160 of them are now spewing artificial white onto the slopes. The guests have become demanding. Some even write reproachful emails when the grooves of the snow groomers have been snowed over overnight.

The first ski guests in the 1950s were more modest. A single lift was enough for them, which was built up to the Hertehof. The long slats that winter sports enthusiasts used to curve through the snow are lined up in the Ski Museum. These include rarities such as a funnel ski from 1956, which was supposed to slide on an air cushion using compressed air. Which never worked properly.

Dolls wear the tweed coats of the pioneers and the blue-grey uniform of the postman, who of course also delivered his mail on skis. The Ski Museum was established ten years ago in a 16th-century vicarage. The empty house was renovated and got a pretty shingle roof.

Now it is the youngest and smallest of the four official FIS museums in Austria - and the only one that is located directly on a slope, as Christian Lingenhöle proudly explains. Lingenhöle, in his early 70s, contributed two thirds of the exhibits from his collection. He was the owner of a sports shop in Bregenz, and even as a child he spent his winters here in his parents' holiday home. His father founded the cable car company that has operated the largest ski area in the Bregenzerwald since 2009.

The construction of a new cable car and a ski tunnel completed what had been discussed since the 1980s: the merger with neighboring Mellau. Together, the merged ski areas of Damüls, Mellau and Faschina now jump the magic hurdle of 100 kilometers of slopes, which is an important criterion for many guests - especially when they search and book online.

"The small ski resort of Mellau would not have had a chance of surviving on its own," says Lingenhöle. Its drag lifts were outdated, it had no viewpoints. But what Mellau lacks in slopes it makes up for in good hotels and restaurants. And with its northern slopes, which become particularly important in spring.

The merger has given the locals a secure perspective for the future. With the generation change, the young are now investing again with confidence, and new lifts have been built in Mellau. Even the kindergarten had to be enlarged.

Guests from southern Germany in particular like to park their cars in the new and much closer car park in Mellau. As a result, traffic in Damüls has decreased significantly. On the other hand, around a quarter more winter sports enthusiasts now curve over its slopes.

That doesn't really matter to the many snowboarders in town. The “Sole Surfers Damüls” snowboard club was founded back in 1992, and today every seventh Damülser is a member. Snowboarders are drawn to the snow park, which is the largest in the Bregenzerwald. And because of the powder.

The prospect of deep snow is attracting more and more freeriders to Damüls. "When it has snowed, they stand in line at the valley stations in the morning and wait for things to start," says Christian Klocker.

The 42-year-old skied off-piste even as a primary school student. Klocker has been a ski instructor for a quarter of a century. But he prefers to show guests the best deep snow slopes.

To warm up, we first take one of the many ski routes. They make it possible to ski relatively safely off-piste in deep snow. The ski routes are not groomed, but secured. In the morning, members of the avalanche commission drive them down, if necessary, two so-called avalanche guards - these are special throwing devices - fire explosive charges.

"We know all the spots where things get tricky," says Klocker. However, the routes are only safe from avalanches in the immediate vicinity of the diamond signs. Ski route 5 through a high valley along the rock faces of the Ragazer Schrofen is particularly beautiful.

On this day, however, only the outlines of the walls can be seen, the weather is typically Damuels. The snowflakes crackle as they hit the protective plastic hood of the chairlift, outside the wind howls. When we flip the cocoon up over our heads, all we can see is a featureless white.

Nevertheless, Klocker confidently finds one wonderful descent after another - and of course fresh powder snow. He could probably shake dozens of untouched slopes out of his sleeve.

Hungry and frozen, we brake at some point in front of the "Schartenstadel" and trudge into the low room. Photos of rosy-cheeked guests hang on the dark wooden walls next to old wagon wheels, guitars and medals. One picture shows Klocker as a boy celebrating after a ski race.

"We've had a few big parties here," he says, and orders Bregenzerwald cheese spaetzle. "We beat the dough sloppily so that it becomes fluffy," explains Klocker. There's also a lot of mountain cheese - "and butter cheese, so it's creamier." As an encore, the host brings apple strudel with whipped cream.

Weaving in deep snow should now be difficult. But to burn calories, the Hutschn stay. As a vacationer said? "The rocking is almost more strenuous than skiing."

Arrival: By train to Dornbirn or Bludenz, from there by bus to Damüls.

Winter sports: The ski area offers 109 kilometers of slopes and is expected to be open until April 16, 2023. The day pass costs 61 euros for adults and 35 euros for children. There are also toboggan runs, cross-country ski runs and winter hiking trails.

Information: Damüls Faschina Tourismus, damuels.at