Sölden last week - Match report

My wife and I went there last week. We travelled with Neilson. We had to get up at 2am on Sat (27th) to get a 6:15 am flight from Manchester. We landed at Innsbruck at 9:15 am and were in Sölden for lunchtime.

We stayed at the Gasthof Grauer Bär which is at the southern and quiet end of the town. It was an excellent hotel, the rooms were average sized but nicely decorated, esp. the bathrooms. The lounge/bar and restaurant and meals were excellent, the staff were very professional. The hotel was only 200m from the Gaislachkoglbahn gondola, the longest we waited in a queue for it was 2 or 3 minutes. Each gondola is standing only and took 12-ish passengers; one of the reasons for short queues was that this lift was no good for beginners, all lessons were at the top of the Giggijochbahn and queues there were reported as long if you tried to use it about 9:30-9:45 (lessons started at 10am).

We weren't aware of the partying, we went out a few evenings but the place was rather quiet probably due to being the end of the season. The apres-ski in Valentin's at the bottom of the Gaislachkoglbahn was good though.

For the time of year the skiing was excellent. It snowed on Saturday night so skiing on Sunday was in a couple of inches of powder; picking out the edges of some pistes was difficult as the marker poles seemed to go down the middle of some runs. It snowed at times on Sunday and Monday but visibility was still okay. We skied down to the village on Sunday, lower down it was slushy but not too bad. Midweek it beacme very warm and we made the mistake of skiing down to the other end of the village just before lunch, very slushy and very tiring. A lot of the skiing on the first 4 days was either icy, bumpy or slushy but still good though.

On the 5th day we went to Obergurgl/Hochgurgl (a day there costs €10 but this must be added to the pass on purchase, not later. We pre-booked our passes through Neilson and so the day in Obergurgl was included automatically). It snowed all day there but the visibility in the morning was okay and the snow was excellent. In the afternoon it snowed heavier and several higher lifts closed so we finished early and went to Nederhutte for the apres-ski which was great fun.

On the final day the snow was fantastic and we were able to ski down to the village, only the last 300/400m were slushy.

On a couple of mornings the glacier didn't open until 10 or 11 am and we heard the cannons firing a few times. There's only 1 way up to the glacier and the queues were lengthy if you went there between 10 and 12.

All the mountain restaurants were very good.

Criticisms? I wouldn't recommend Solden for beginners/novices; the area available for them is limited and crowded. The length of the lift queues to get up to the glacier if you didn't go straight away in the morning.

Thanks for the review Nugget. Solden is a place I have been considering for a while, mainly because it is a little off the beaten track for regular UK skiers.
Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks from me as well, for the report, Nugget. We drove through Solden on the way to and from Obergurgl, and we were given the option of buying a pass with a day at Solden but we had plenty to keep us busy in Obergurgl.

It sounds like you had a good time :D

Ally

YEH!!I fancy the challenges of Solden, Obergurgl. Thanks for the review :thumbup: