 Poster: A snowHead
|
This is pretty much the closing weekend in Sölden. Usually they have people in Lederhosen and the odd 1970s band, but this year Easter was late, so everything was more closed than it normally is. There are usually several groups holding meetings in the village at the end of the season: everything from Harley Davidson riders (which I'm not part of) through to European hard boot snowboarders (which I am part of).
Sölden's completely dead at this time of year - they are half way between the winter and summer tourists. Some shops are open, but there are only a handful of places to eat and stay, and none of the fancy ones are open. The good news is that there are few smokers and no vomit around.
I'd not like to be there without a car, as it feels like you may need to drive to find somewhere to eat. There is a free bus up to the slopes, but that runs relatively infrequently so it's inconvenient if you have your own transport. Buy your lift ticket at the tourist office - you can park right outside, and then you can drive up for free. Return the ticket when you're done for 2.4€.
Conditions
In Sölden at this time of year you can't ride down to the village - you're riding on the glacier areas up top, which fortunately are reasonably large and varied. That's different from other places (eg Ishgl), where you may expect to ride down to village level, albeit on slightly damp and maybe extensively maintained snow. The main issue this late is the freezing level. This year it was low, so there was no rain, which is obviously a good thing.
On day one it snowed, so vis was poor: great for balance practice and disorientation. It did leave about 15cms of resort powder for day two, although the in-condition bits of that were soon ripped up the next day. I took only about 10 photos on day one, because I couldn't see very much of anything.
Day two broke clear and blue, with below zero temperatures keeping the overnight snow in good condition. Up there you're riding glaciers, which they mostly bash to cord, and that was soft and friendly from the first lift to the last. The off-piste was fluff on top of old stuff, not hugely interesting, although ridable if you like that. The weather couldn't have been better, but the slopes were relatively quiet - the forecast hadn't been great. I think I saw one lesson being run, but otherwise it was mostly race schools and hard core people getting their last snow fix. Some of the neighbouring mountains had touring groups hacking up them, and you could see other ski lifts running in the distance.
Other stuff
I used Easy Jet as they charge £30 each way for snowboard carriage, rather than the eye watering £50 each way charged by Ryan Air. Munich airport is a three hour drive from Sölden, and you can do it sensibly enough without paying any tolls (Google will show you the route). This year I hired my car through EJ as they didn't charge more than the rental company direct, although I never trust them. EJ charged £300 for flights, snowboard carriage and car.
Frustratingly I couldn't work out how to import Weissbier from Munich airport - they have a great supermarket there that sells stuff we can't easily get here at way less than UK prices, but it's on the wrong side of security... and beyond security you can only buy the sort of alcohol I'd use to clean the drains with, presumably at the sort of prices idiot travellers pay. You can of course get draft Weissbier air-side, but I can hardly bring that home....
Media
Pictures, mostly of hardboot snowboarders.
And a selfie video if you want to waste 1 minute 24 seconds of your life:
http://vimeo.com/94756838
[edited to correct EasyJet board carriage charge]
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 10-05-14 22:24; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Thanks for posting philwig.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Sounds great. You mean Easy charge 50£ for total snowboard carriage and Ryanair double that? 100£ is just crazy...
Did you need to drive up to the glacier or you could take lifts there from the village?
Lifts in the distance that's probably Pitztal Glacier or Obergurgl...
Thanks for posting by the way!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
 ..it's hard to pick a track. My girlfriend would say they all sound the same.
I just checked - EJ charged a total of £60, so £30 each way for my snowboard bag, which is a 20kg hard shell case. At that weight I can get one board plus all the riding stuff in it. From memory Ryan Air wanted a total of £100.. I'd have rather driven out there than pay that. [I will edit the original as I made a mistake there[
The lifts down to the village don't run late in the season - it's all meadows and sheep grazing down in the valley. So you either need to drive up, or there's a free shuttle bus every half hour or so. So as I have to drive there anyway, and the glacier road is free with a ski pass, it's easiest to drive up there then you can quit when you want and you don't have to queue up.
Those other places looked pretty good - big lifts over white mountains.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
The other lifts are most likely at the Stubaier Glacier; you can see some of the Sölden lifts from there too. You could (in theory, just from looking at maps) ski from Stubai directly into Sölden without any ascending; just drop off the back of the park or the Windacheferner drag lift, down into the little valley (not sure if it's big enough to be named, but the stream flowing along it and into Sölden is called the Windache, and the forest is called Martlaswald). Pretty clear on Google Maps.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks to google maps...
The main place I could see other people (touring) was off the top bubble lift, the "Rettenbachjoch", looking right as you ride up. That lift has a dog leg in it, but the top section is due east from the Pitzaler Gletscher. You look out across a huge valley with a peak at the top and lifts on the opposite side. I now realize that's the Wildspitze, which I've climbed in the summer from Vent, walking up past the small closed chair lifts there then up, to pause only to help rescue a hapless German who tried to glissade the headwall.
On Sunday last there was one big group touring up the valley to the Wildspitze. It looks great from this side too, and the descent looks good. I guess the snow plod up there starts from the road head at the base of the Pitzaler (L16).
I quite fancy Pitzaler - it looked good and it's kind of out there so maybe more "real" and less touristy than Sölden?
The Stubaier glacier is in the opposite direction - to the East of Sölden, although that was not obvious from my description. I see the route down there - you'd be doing the Sound of Music thing in Alpine meadows at this time of year of course
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Probably. I haven't skied there, but heard that there's a lot of great terrain.
Hoji made it look pretty good last November (you'll want to skip to around 2 minutes):
http://vimeo.com/76099108
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
