I wish I had not waited as long to visit it.
I think the WTSS chapter on Sölden has a lot of things right in terms of the layout of the village - it is a Towny kind of place, and spreads along the main valley road for 2 miles. This means either a lot of walking or taking a bus to lift stations in the mornings or to find a restaurant at night.....but thats not unusual for Austria anyway having visited Maxyrhofen, St Anton and Bad Gastein in recent years I'd say that was pretty much the norm.
The book does bang on about a wild apres ski scene, strip joints and seedy nightclubs with in your face advertising around the town. I have to say I disagree here. Yes, there were bars with go-go girls open way later than I wanted to stay out at night, and there were people coming out of bars in ski clothing at 11pm, but again it is not unusual in some places so I didn't buy the real negativity written about the place.
The Hühnehutte, good food and drink up the mountain
Having said that, I stayed up in Innerwald - a tiny hamlet just up the mountain above the main town. We did however take the free Zentrum Lift (painfully slow and often full of singing drunken German youngsters on their way down fro Philipps Apres Ski Hut on the piste in Innerwald) down into town every night but one and always found swanky upmarket hotels and restaurants in addition to the typical Austrian places clad in wood serving the usual Tirolean fayre.
Our "Haus" on the piste.
I would not have wanted to be staying at the northern end of the town, as that would have meant queuing in the morning to get on the main lift up: I chose Innerwald as it was on a piste, and we could ski down to the Glaischkogl gondola at the southern end of town, which never ever had a queue even at peak times between 8.45 and 9.15am. Yes it could be busy, but the smart new lift system copes perfectly well and you are never standing waiting. Bear in mind there are only 2 proper lifts from the base up the mountain, and you can understand why they appear busy, but the Giggijoch is sadly famed for long queues at times so we avoided it altogether without any problems.
Innerwald from the piste at night.
Down in town, theres a wealthy affluent feeling to everything, but food and drink is not expensive. Maybe slightly higher than some of the lower lying less fashionable resorts out in the sticks with their smaller ski areas perhaps, but certainly a lot cheaper than anywhere i have been to in France for example. I would also say lower prices here than in St Anton. 4,50eu for a large beer with the rate at 1.35 when we went was NOT a problem for us, and main courses in good quality hotel restaurants would vary between 11 euros for something like Gröstl to 23 euros for a very fine fillet steak - again I do not see that as at all expensive. We ate very well each night, and also up the mountain. I will go into details of places to eat on the slopes later on.
Our hotel was a small B&B directly on a blue piste which was the run off the Glaischkogl mountain, and meant a 5 minute ski down to take the gondola up to mid station at 2174m from the base at 1363m.
Glaischkogl Gondola station
Snow lower down was absolutely fine despite warm temps the first few days, although typical for March it would be hard and icy in places in the mornings, with slush and granular snow cutting up later in the afternoons before the sun went and everything turned to rock!!! As Austrian resorts go (with the obvious few exceptions such as Lech, Obertauern and Obergurgl for example) the resort sits at a fairly high altitude. Maxyrhofen is at 690m, here you are at 1300m at the lowest part, so really you have to hit really poor conditions not to have snow all the way down. We saw piles of snow around the town, although paths and roads were kept immaculately clean as we have come to expect in this country.
The ski area itself is split into 3 clearly defined sectors. To the South of the valley, heading towards Obergurgl and Italy, is the Glaischkogl sector, where we started each day.There are trees right up to mid station level at 2374m so below here would be good in bad weather, and made our run off each night more interesting and pretty.There are 2 very long blues, probably reds in most other resorts I have been to doe to gradient, which run right down through the trees to the valley. One comes straight down under the gondola, zig zagging across a black at the top, the other winds right round the southern end, served by the brand new Wasserkar chair and allowing you access to several huts on this side as well as the red ski route as an alternative way down. These meet a mile or two before Innerwald and finally back down to the GlaischkoglBahn gondola. There is also a red and black alternative from the northern end, the black being steep and fast but great for carving at high speed. This also meets the blue at Innerwald.
Run off through the trees
Up above mid station, you take the fantastic new 2nd stage gondola (as featured in the new Bond film) to the peak of Glaischkogl at 3058m. The temperature difference up here is notable on a spring morning! There is the ridiculously expensive Ice Cube bar up here - 109 euros for a 3 course dinner in the evenings, per person!!! Stunning views from one of the BIG 3 peaks. You can only come off using a fabulous red which winds its way down off the peak and into a ridge down the side with views across to the glacier and HochSolden on the next mountain north. This red should be classified black at the top section and in some places on the way down due to the steep gradient, but you wouldn't get as many people take the ride up if it was just a black off I suppose. It was very cold up here most mornings, between -7c and -16c the coldest day. This splits into several alternative ways down, most ending up back at mid station although you can keep heading left (north) and find your way down either the run off using red and black runs, or if you want to move across the area you take the Langegg chair which sits in the valley between Glaischkogl and Rotkogljoch which is the peak above the main Giggijoch area accessed by most people from Solden.
Steep but wide reds
Unfortunately the Langegg chair is the only lift that links these sectors, so you can expect to wait here at times. We found skiing straight to it as early as possible meant no problems, but from 10am onwards this proved to be a bottleneck and we queued at the worst 10 minutes here, and decided therefore only to use it once a day.
Langegg chair takes you up at good speed to the wonderful open slopes above Giggijoch. There are a couple of reds that wind down the southern face of this area back down to the chair again, or you head left (north) and join the mass of open pistes which find their way down to the Giggijoch itself, which is a plateau with a multitude of high speed lifts just above the tiny resort of Hochsolden on a ridge above the town itself at 2090m. You can ski down to Hochsolden where there are very expensive all inclusive hotels and a wonderful rustic hut called Eugenes Obstlerhutte under the painfully slow 2 man chair back up to Giggijoch -wonderful spare ribs and traditional sausage served at Eugenes. You can also ski down through the trees into Solden to the base of the Giggijoch lift, but this was the one run we chose not to do in order to avoid the queues back up and the sun affected pistes lower down into town at that end of the valley -a good decision I felt. It is all reds and blacks lower down and over this side, although there are a couple of blue pistes marked amongst the mix of runs in this higher Giggijoch, where you can also find a well maintained park to jump and mess around in.
Hochsolden
Its worth taking the Rosskirpl chair up the side to the Hainbachjoch at 2727m, the most northerly point in the area, and skiing the wonderful Black 14 back down again - stupidly fast, I clocked 115kmh on my GPS and thats the fastest I have ever skied!
If you ride one of the many chairs back up to Rotkogljoch and ski down the blue at the back, you will see in front of you in the distance the first of the glaciers, the Rettenback. You can ride the Schwarzgogl chair up to the peak of the same name at 3018m for a quick blast down, but then to continue over to the glacier you have to take the Einzeiger chair up to ride the Glacier Express Gondola across the valley. Again, as this is the only way to read both glaciers, this can be a bottleneck, but we found a 5 minute queue at the worst times as they keep shifting people on the high speed chairs quickly. I wouldn't fancy it much at New Year or any other really busy week so again I would say get up there as early in the morning as is possible - we reckoned on around 45 minutes from Solden to here by blasting it across and riding the fewest lifts.
Underneath the Glacier Express you will see a very long blue number 30 which is part of the well reputed 15km ride down. You don't have to ski back down on this, but the alternative is lifts back across so I would suggest 99% of people do ski it - the first time we went across here and skied blue 30 back it was carnage with moguls, people falling everywhere, icy patches, the usual idiots going too fast and several numpties who really should have taken the lift back!! But that was at 3pm when almost everyone was heading back so as not to miss the last lift at 4pm to ride them back home. Yes, 4pm was too early in my opinion, but opening at 8am I guess there has to be a compromise somewhere. We soon worked out which chair or gondola we had to be on by 4pm in order to leave the longest possible ski back off from the highest possible point, taking in a couple of huts on the way down of course.
The valley run off, part of the 15km run
Once you arrive at the foot of the Rettenback glacier, you realise what an immense thing it is. Massive pieces of blue ice are clearly visible, and the glacier rises up like a dam above you. There was a lot of tracked off piste ON the glacier, but it was very steep and I didn't fancy getting it wrong and skiing over those big icy patches! There is a blue across to the left hand side which is part of the long 15km run off, or you can ski part of the FIS black 31 alongside the 2 lifts up the glacier. This really is a steep and fast run, I had to reign it in several times while trying to carve down here at speed, and Mrs H had turned white when she reached the bottom - needless to say we only skied that the once!
Rettenbach glacier
If you ride the Schwarze Schneida gondola up, you can get off halfway and ski this black, or stay on board and this takes you to the top of the second of the BIG 3 peaks at 3340m above the Rettenbach glacier, with superb views down the valley and on into the town itself miles away. Its a real sensation of having travelled to get here, so you may as well spend the morning/afternoon over here. Luckily it is well served by fast modern lifts, a tunnel through the mountain to reach the other glacier, the Tiefenbach, and several good large complex with restaurants and shops and toilets at each.
The snow up here at 3000m was absolutely sensational, soft and squeaky, and especially on Thursday when it had snowed all Wednesday and overnight and there was around 30cm of fresh powder to play in off piste, and perfectly groomed soft cord pistes as well. Absolute paradise.
If you ski through the tunnel to the Tiefenbach and then ride the gondola back to the highest point here at 3309m you are at the last of the BIG 3 points and benefit with spectacular views across to Italy, Obergurgl and in the distance the Sella Ronda and the Dolomites. Quite incredible.
Tiefenbach glacier
The long runs on the Tiefenbach are fantastic, a blue which again may be a red elsewhere as you can really blast down it at speed. There are a couple of t bars here and a variety of runs back down, and then you ride the Seiterkar chair back round to the other side, and ski the for t side of the Rettenback top section. Go back to the top of the gondola here at the 2nd of the BIG 3 peaks, and it is from here you begin the long 15km ski back down to the valley without a single lift needed if you don't mind where you end up in town!!!
In terms of places to eat, there are some big self service but good quality restaurants at the big lift bases at the main areas including both glaciers, Giggijoch and Glaischkogl mid stations, but if you ski around a little bit you will come across more rustic traditional huts with a more personal table service, friendly atmosphere, and usually a sun terrace with deckchairs of scatter cushions.
Food up here was sensibly priced. I paid 11.50 for a massive Schnitzel, 8,90 for spam bol, and 10 euros for Grostl. A large beer was 4,50 pretty much anywhere, coffee around 2-3 euros, and we didn't have soft drinks because beer is the same price so it seems pointless!
Superb Schnitzel
Obergurgl is literally 10 minutes up the valley in a car, and included on your lift pass for one day. I had never considered it as a place for a week as I was under the impression it was limited and expensive, but we had an absolutely superb day out here. I think 3-4 days here would exhaust everything, but the skiing was great and the snow was marginally better than at Solden as well.
Obergurgl
It was quiet through the trees above Obergurgl, but above Hochsolden at lunchtime the bars and restaurants were packed, and virtually all English accents as well. Great place though, we liked it here a lot and I was pleasantly surprised, I definitely want to explore it more.
Top of Hochgurgl
Our initial thoughts that first morning in Solden when we hit the bottleneck and later skied off with everyone else at 4pm were that it was borderline uncomfortably busy, but this was a Sunday and during the week it was much quieter. Its certainly not a quiet ski area, but you can avoid the crowds if you plan your movements around the mountain sensibly and strategically.
Avoiding crowds
You always return from a ski trip full of the joys of the place you have just been to, but I really warmed to Solden. Its got a lot to offer in terms of good skiing for strong skiers, it has some good spots for beginners like above Giggijoch in places, but it is generally a steep resort in terms of pistes. Theres off piste opportunities everywhere in good conditions. Some of the best would have been through the trees below 2000m but sadly the snow away from the pistes was not good enough to be enjoyable so we will have to return for another try again sometime.
Be prepared to have to speak German pretty much everywhere. We came across 3 English speakers on the slopes all week: 1 was an American in a small group, 1 was an elderly English couple on a chair, the other a well spoken German guide from Obergurgl!
Choose how to get there and where to stay carefully and with a little research and get the most from the place, but I'd avoid the Giggijoch end of town and would strongly suggest staying in one of the little satellite parts of town such as Innerwald. There are plenty of properties bookable online through the official Solden website or booking.com
We drove from Munich having taken advantage of free flights (airmiles) and on a Saturday afternoon/early evening it took us 3.5 hours using the main motorway south and then west past Innsbruck, before the 35km up the Otz valley. We drove back to Munich the following Saturday, leaving mid morning, and decided to go via Garmisch=Partenkirchen across the Frenpass. Unfortunatey so had half of Germany, but luckily I had taken my own satnav for the hire car and we found some good alternative roads which were not at all busy and had a cracking drive back, lunch in Garmisch, and then the late afternoon and evening wandering around Munich city centre which was also great, before staying close to the airport and flying back home at 10.30am on the Sunday morning: very civilised and far less tiring as well.
All in all, a great week, a good choice, some excellent skiing and mixed spring conditions with strong warm sun at times, a day of snow, and 3 days of sub zero temperatures, all backed up by far too much food and drink but hey....thats what a ski holiday is all about, right?
The local beer