.
The run is a relatively short one at the top of the Going area. There are also two or three excellent reds down to the valley that are well worth doing (runs 90, 100 & 100a)
Conditions in the Skiwelt last week were excellent, though we did not have many sunny days. Visibility was pretty good with virtually no white-out and only a little flat light from time to time to time.
I have been to Soll and the Skiwelt several times so well used to the area. Really enjoyed it this year yet again. The snow conditions meant everything was more fun. Even the home run down into Soll was enjoyable - this can often be a bite of a 'mare alternating between ice and slush and made more difficult with lots of tired skiers not really up to it. But not on this trip. The ski area is as good as I remembered it, with a very extensive 280kms claimed. It is all well connected and it is easy to reach any part of the area in a day.
The runs are varied and will keep most skiers very happy. I don't do off-piste so cannot really comment on this but it would generally not be regarded as a particularly good off-piste resort. Lift system is generally very modern with several lifts renewed since I was there last - still some work to be done on lifts in Westendorf and Going but overall excellent with no queues all week.
I always find it worthwhile heading to the outer reaches of resorts as you tend to find less people there. So it was on this trip where my highlights were probably my morning in Going (see video above) and to Westendorf. Going is a small area reached from Ellmau by possibly the oldest lift I have encountered - cute but slow. It is a 2-man covered chair. Once up top, there are a few options - a short but lovely red (102a) and blue (102) at the top. There are also a couple of great red runs down to the village of Going 100 & 100a. There were great fun - decent reds with virtually nobody on them.
Westendorf is well worth the trip over. Ski down into Brixen, walk across the bridge and gondala straight to the top. The variants on 117 and 118 will entertain. We did run 120 down into Ki-West which links to the Kitzbuhel area but that was only ok. Red 11 back down to Brixen at the end of the day can be interesting - the top half is lovely but the lower section should probably be rated Black. It was ok when we were there last week but it can be challenging.
Above Scheffua and Ellmau, there is an endless array of runs - some wide and open, others through the trees. It can get a little busy on some of the more central runs but there is usually more than enough space for everyone to find a line!
Food on the mountain is usually good quality standard Austrian fare offered at very reasonable prices. Drinks are also reasonably priced.
We stayed in the Hotel Tyrol in Soll. It is a little under a mile up to the lifts in the morning. We used the ski garage up at the gondola and took the skibus up in the morning and walked home in the evenings (occasionally with a stop or two along the way). This worked really well.
The apres ski was great with lots of decent live music, including the famous Frog on the Tyne (great entertainers who really know to get a crowd going) and Cuckoo, an Irish band (though the fiddle player is actually from Argentina) playing a wide range of excellent music. The Salven Stadl is now gone and the Postwirt does not have much music anymore. The Mill pub in the Whiskey Muehle is now a very popular spot with lovely weissbeers for €4.20. The Moonlight and the Hexenalm up near the gondola are also worth a visit for a more typical "Austrian" apres-ski experience!.
For me, Soll and the Skiwelt ticks a lot of boxes and, in my view, is a seriously underrated place, possibly because of the relatively limited off-piste options. Maybe people also have concerns about the low level of the resort but their piste maintenance is as good as it gets. It remains a hugely popular destination with the Brits and the Irish, probably because of the convenience of getting there - only about 90 minutes from either Munich or Salzburg.
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