According to statistics, the village had just seven guest beds. As far as skiing was concerned, things took place on a small scale in Jaufen, where three private investors had been operating a lift since 1959. In 1972, Vinzenz Schölzhorn took the initiative and founded the Innerratschings-Jaufen GmbH lift company. Just two years later, on 19 January 1974, the first two lifts opened, and a year after that, the mountain restaurant. The project was greeted with a certain amount of scepticism by some members of the local community. However, it was also recognised that other ski areas in South Tyrol contributed positively to the development of tourism.
While further expansion of the area was always made considering the increase in guest beds in the valley, the narrow gravel road was already a big problem in the early years. In the morning, buses and cars pushed into the valley; in the afternoon, they headed in the opposite direction. It was a situation that’s hard to imagine today thanks to the well-developed transport infrastructure.