Soll 2010

Tomorrow's nearly here! Everything looking good. Good snow, good company, good beer and its Good night from me!

This is ridiculous. I've woken up after just 2 hours sleep. Heading to the airport in another 3 hours so should really be in bed but too excited to sleep. This happens every year. I am like a child :oops: :oops: :oops:

Anyway, another 12 hours and hopefully I will be on the snow in Soll :lol: Snow reports show a 5cm dusting yesterday which should freshen things up nicely :lol: .

Hoping to meet Scarlet Fez and I see that bcloh and ruislip ranger will also be there at the same time. It will be nice to meet a few J2skiers :mrgreen:

Yeah, Only a few hours now. Last night was like waiting for christmas morning. Hope to see ye all there and stay safe.

Wanderer wrote:This is ridiculous. I've woken up after just 2 hours sleep. Heading to the airport in another 3 hours so should really be in bed but too excited to sleep. This happens every year. I am like a child :oops: :oops: :oops:

Anyway, another 12 hours and hopefully I will be on the snow in Soll :lol: Snow reports show a 5cm dusting yesterday which should freshen things up nicely :lol: .

Oh I know that feeling so well!! Itching to get the cases out, we are off to Soll Feb 27th, staying at Eggerwirt. Waiting for your report on the snow, loads falling according to forecasts so hope you're having a great time.

Sharonshinwell, you will love the Eggerwirt, it's a brilliant little hotel. The food was excellent, it's really clean and tidy, lovely rooms and there's a nice little snug just off the receiption area with an open fireplace. The ski bus stop is right at the door, last pick up point, first drop off. It is literally 10 paces from the door of the hotel. The bus around 8.30/8.45 was not too busy, the 9.30 was very busy. No queues at all at the lifts.

The piste map is a bit confusing as there are no piste numbers on it. There are some great long runs - a fantastic one down to Hopfgarten from the top cable car, I think it was red 20 and 21 (or maybe 21/22). You can also go down the black on the Hohe Salve from here. Red 40 takes you back towards Soll. Another good run is from the first cable car at Soll take the chair on your left, go down the red 51 and then 7 and then onto another chair (where the igloo is). This will take you onto 51b and the whole way back to an chair (with orange covers) where you can then take a nice blue back to the top of the first gondola at Soll (43a). From there you can either go down the blue or red to the village. We did a horrible run - red 1a to Brixen Im Thale - really icy in places. Good skiiers would prob find it ok but it was difficult for us.

The Moonlight is a great little spot for apres ski just at the bottom of the red back to Soll. And try the toboggan run back to the village. It's fairly hairy in places!

Have a great time to all who have still to go. :D

Well, we did get out on Saturday morning as planned and the flight out was pretty much on time. We were off the plane, bags collected and carhire sorted by 11am. Unfortunately, the traffic down to resort was pretty bad. After stopping for a quick bite on the way down (and buying our motorway vignette), we eventually got to Soll about 1.45pm. After a quick check-in to our hotel, change into ski gear and trip to hire shop, we were good to go.

The lift company allows you up from 3pm at no extra charge when you book a multi-day lift pass so we were ready to go on the dot of 3pm. Obviously, we couldn't do too much that day. Started off by heading over towards Scheffau and up the Fitzbolden chair. The red run down from there is one of my favourites in the area - a nice, relatively easy red that was good for getting the ski legs back in. After a few runs around the Scheffau, it was time to head back down to Soll. The run down (Red 41?) is actually quite good with a fair bit of variety. Unfortunately, it can be in pretty poor shape by late afternoon with everybody heading home. The steeper bits are often quite icy with a lot of traffic as inexperienced skiiers struggle. If its anyway warm, the lower stretches can be extremely slushy. not too bad on Saturday though and after 2 hours enjoyable skiing, we made it to the Moonlight bar where it seemed half of Munich had gathered to drink and sing German and Austrian folk songs of the oompapa, oompapa type and extremely bad Europop - great fun. After a short nap and dinner, it was down town for a few in the Postwirt where Bloodshot Eyes, a decent band, were playing, Also had a quick stop in the Brandl Stadl on the way home.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny and we head over to Westendorf, taking the new gondola over from Brixen. It was quick and easy to get over. Did a few nice runs over there but generally found the resort a bit limited (perhaps just because we didn't know our way around). On the way back, we took the red from the top down (the black is one of the steepest I have seen). It was tricky with a some steep pitches that would have ranked it black in most resorts. It was also very icy in places due to being South facing. Not a particularly pleasant run! Another fun visit to the Moonlight bar on the way home and Postwirt, Rossinis and Brandl Stadl in the evening.

Sunny again on Monday and the slopes were getting increasingly hard packed, though very well groomed. With the German weekenders gone home, the slopes were nice and quiet. Perfect for high speed cruising around the resort. We skied for nearly 6 hours, excluding lunch, and covered quite a few miles - 32km by lunchtime according to my pals iPhone, though he was unsure of whether this included uphill as well. Really enjoyable day but exhausting. Headed to the public swimming pool to unwind after the mandatory trip to the Moonlight for a bit of apres ski. The pool has a lovely warm outdoor section with jacuzzi jets that can give sore limbs a bit of hydromassage. Suitably refreshed, a trip to town was called for to the usual suspects. The Frog on the Tyne were playing in the Postwirt - not sure whether the they had anything to do with the Jagermeister's that starting flowing!

We woke on Tuesday to a grey sky and light snow. After quickly packing it was up the mountain. Completely different conditions with about 15 cms of fresh snow on the slopes, though is was a bit heavy. Visibility was coming and going and at one stage was down to less than 10 metres - not much fun when you slowly make your way down where you think the slope is until you see the next marker. Meanwhile you are desperately hoping that you are on the right piste. Given that we had a plane to catch later in the evening, we could not afford to get lost. Anyway, we did get down safely but time pressures meant we had to give the Moonlight a miss. After a quick shower, it was into the car for the drive back to Munich.

Thankfully, the road was clear of snow (we headed through Worgl as the road is better and flatter than the more direct route to Kufstein). However, when we got to the motorway, the conditions gradually got worse with a bit of snow falling and temperatures dropping down to -6C. Not being used to such low temperatures and being afraid of ice, I reduced speed only to have the Germans whizzing past at speeds of up to 160kph. I know they have winter tyres but this still seems crazy to me given the conditions. I was amused at signage on the motorway warning drivers that the road might be slippy so they should reduce speed to 120kph! Anyway managed to get to Munich safely and on time. The flight was delayed slightly but we got home safe and sound after a very enjoyable, if exhausting few days. Unfortunately, I never got to meet Scarlet Fez or the other J2skiers that were scheduled to be there.

Muscles have been complaining since we got home but I am now looking forward to my main trip to Flaine in 4 weeks time. Probably a lot less apres ski as I will have OH and kids with me!

Thanks SkiGirl Had a look at the map to see the runs you mention, I can't see any with "b"s only the normal numbers. I can see 7, and how a blue runs all way from behind the Hohe Salve and back down to 40 or onwards to 44, what's the blue run back to Soll like from that point?

We have a timid skier with us so want to try and stick to blues on day 1 until she finds her ski legs, so was intending to go over to the 7,5,3 area, and perhaps over to the blues above Scheffau.

I asked the tourist office about their numbering system, as so many people have commented on it, and their response was that the area was too large to number the actual runs! adding "...as we are the largest connected ski area in Europe..." I thought of challenging this but the lady at the tourist office was so proud of the size of the area, I decided not to, but it would certainly avoid all the negative comments on the WWW about the map if they did!!

The snow levels are increasing to that's good news, just don't want an early spring! :(

Glad you enjoyed in Wanderer.
Is it somewhere you think someone like me would enjoy?