For me, Sölden is a love-hate relationship. I love that it has massive terrain options on a powder day, long descents, and gets snow from all sorts of directions. I hate the town & the mass of humanity on the lifts & piste trails, so it’s always with a sense of trepidation that I ski here. But visiting midweek out of peak season in late February had me quietly confident of a good time.
Timing is everything in skiing, and I figured I had timed it well. There had also been alot of snow falling on the Italian side of the Alps with a classic Sud Stau weather pattern, and I expected (correctly as it turns out), that Solden would get alot of spillover from it. And so I skied 20 to 40cm+ of premium untouched powder on what turned out to be a fantastic ski day. The day was made even better in that there were always off-piste powder alternatives to the resort's insanely busy and bumped on-piste trails, so I barely skied on piste at all.
The snow in the valley was poor after a long warm spell from mid-January, and it was an easy decision to make early to not ski the valley trails back into town. (That is not a big deal in reality - this mountain has a huge skiable vertical of almost 2,000m.) Fresh snow was evident from around 2,00m elevation and the snowpack was abundant - one of Sölden's great strengths. Unfortunately the visibility was initially poor, but with a promise of clearing up periodically as the day went on. From Giggajoch to the base of the Rettenbach Glacier was as classically hideous a journey as Solden can provide. Long lift lines, a multitude of skiers out of control, and already bumped & icy pistes, making great material for a plethora of TikTok & Instagram reels.
Heading up the gondola over the World Cup piste on the Rettenbach Glacier, it appeared the inclement weather had dissuaded the horde from descending. So exiting at the middle-station I found not only a perfect groomed piste with a delicious layer of fresh on top, but also to the left untouched 20 to 30cm of powder. Yippee! Repeated the dose for four times and then the cloud lifted a touch inviting others along! And so the day went. Except normally there were multitudes of skiers wrecking the piste whilst next to it, or on terrain that varied slightly from it, was untouched powder.
Exiting the glacier tunnel (one of the better graded tunnels in the Alps too btw) the descent to skier’s left was a succession of perfect turns all the way to an easy traverse, ending on the piste just above the restaurant. You get the idea! Pristine powder skiing with very little real effort and a little imagination was the order of the day.
After a final fantastic deep powder run of around 850m vertical down into the Wasserkar valley off the Gaislachkogel and knowing that the snow down low in the valley was sketchy, my old knees thanked me with a download on the gondola back to the village. What a wonderful, relaxed way to end a day's skiing. And of course never mind the sketchy snow down at 1,370m elevation, my greatest relief was to be able to comfortably avoid the horde of out of control skiers heading down the final trail on the narrow white strip of death.....
Worth taking a few moments doing is the viewing platform that extends out from the cliff at the top of the Tiefenbachferner gondola. The views out to Pitztal Glacier ski area (one of our favourites) and Wildspitze are grand. Allows one to scope out potential backcountry journeys as well. A group could be seen descending Karleskogl(?) in the distance. Wished I was with them!
Dining on the mountain at Sölden is quite the surprise. Where one expects over-priced dross, one instead usually gets well-priced (even dare I say it, affordable) food and beverage offerings. The Tiefenbachgletscher restaurant is a huge self-serve affair that is both comfortable and with tasty, well-priced food. Elsewhere, the most interesting collection of restaurants are the independents dotted around the base of the often-forgotten Heidebahn chairlift. Several of them have their own ski routes for access, so keep an eye out and go exploring for some true Austrian mountain cuisine.
Whilst others enjoy the food, services, shopping and entertainment that Sölden village can provide (each to their own I say!), I intensely dislike it. So much so that I refuse to stay there. Instead I stayed in the lower valley town of Oetz at an incredible guesthouse called Gasthof zum Stern. Built in 1573AD (yes .... 1573), the fresco clad building oozes old world charm inside and out. And the generous hosts just make a great experience even better. Sadly there was no snow in Oetz (and not much on Sölden either), but that is something we are all going to have to get used to into the future. Looking to help POW (Protect Our Winters) I took the public bus to the Giggajoch base from Oetz. Travel time was about 45min, but I had a seat and enjoyed the ride! The return journey was better, with fewer people on board.
The key to skiing great powder at Sölden is like just about anywhere else in the world, but it is worth repeating here: 1. Start at first lifts. The main feeder gondolas from the valley open at 8am – be there! 2. Ski here midweek and out of peak season, so you avoid the worst of the tourist crowds and the powder hungry locals that are mostly working during the week. 3. If it is your first time in the region, get a guide for a day and be quite specific with them about what you expect out of the day. If they want to start at 9am, tell them ‘No’. Meet them at 7.45am and get on those early lifts. Day will end earlier, but so what. 4. Watch the weather and ski the margins of the storms. Use the bluebird powder day to ski tour away from the resort. The options are huge in this valley and the adjacent Pitztal. 5.Remember that your multi-day lift pass (3-days or more) includes Gurgl & Kühtai-Hochoetz. They deliver a lovely change from Sölden.
Sölden has a big reputation and is hugely popular for good reason. Just don’t go here if interested in skiing perfect groomers. Journey elsewhere for that.
So on this journey my love-hate relationship with Sölden was actually just ....... love!