TR Soll 28/02/15 - 07/03/15

A snowHead

TR – Soll 28/02 – 07/03

Booked through Snowfinders (great service again), an Ingham’s holiday, cost including equipment hire was just over £700 per person

Group: 7 of us ranging from one advanced to one total beginner

Getting there and back:
Gatwick – Salzburg flights, 2 hours each (slightly less). Flights out were early afternoon and back late afternoon which were perfect. In particular the timing of the return leg meant we skied for 4 hours on the Saturday morning before lunch and transfer. Transfer was around 90mins and painless.

Accomodation:
Typical Ingham’s chalet accommodation, functional without any luxury. 12 people in total staying.
Food and service were very good – two great hosts and generally a great base.

Location:
The chalet was in the village below the main road which acts a boundary between the village and the lifts etc. This meant it was a 15/20 minute walk to the main gondola up onto the mountain. There were ski buses from outside but we walked every day as we hired equipment from the Stoll shop near the lift and used their massive heated equipment store to pick up and drop off boots/skis etc. Made what would have otherwise been a b*ll-ache simple and easy. Great service in general from Skicenter Stoll.

Otherwise the chalet was nicely away from the main strip but less than 10 mins walk into the centre.

Snow:
When we arrived it looked a little bare lower down but the slopes were in good nick. Over the course of the week we had quite a lot of snow which meant that by Thursday the snow conditions were perfect across all but the very low South-facing slopes. Locals we spoke to said that the snow hadn’t been great early on but there was now plenty to see them through the rest of the season.

Weather:
We had one white-out day, otherwise it was a pretty good week with a couple of glorious days. As you might expect at no stage was it cold and with the sun out it was pleasant. We were a bit concerned when it started raining early in the week in the village but up on the slopes it was snow so no problems.

Slopes:
Kept in very good nick and well groomed they were perfect for the majority of our group who wanted easy-ish red runs to get stuck into. Some of the runs weren’t particularly long but there was enough area to explore to find a few very nice ones. Our advanced skier enjoyed the few black runs we found in Soll but would have liked a few more / a bit more of a challenge. The beginner however enjoyed the multiple blue runs – and some of the easier reds – despite the big difference between them and the shallowest nursery slope you can imagine.

Scenery was fantastic, lovely tree-lined slopes and incredible panoramic vistas available constantly.

Not very many boarders around and absolutely no kids apart from at the weekends. In fact the last Saturday aside the slopes were quiet all week.

One tip – Westendorf is only about 45mins ski/lifts away and was superb, brilliant long red and blue runs all the way down the mountain which were completely empty and a couple of black runs which offered a bit of a challenge for the less confident.

Lessons:
All lessons were through Ski School Snowboard Söll
5 of the group had a few private lessons (in two groups) and found them excellent in all respects though not particularly cheap. There was an English instructor out there who two of the intermediates thought was superb.
The total beginner had group lessons which were all-day. He was happy with them and when we popped down to watch before lunch one day they did seem very good despite the size of the group he was in (10-12). The nursery slope was shallow so we were concerned that the transition might prove a bit difficult but the instructors obviously know what they are doing as he had no problems at all when they chucked them on the blue slopes after a couple of days and his confidence meant he got going on some reds too and we could all ski as a group on some of the last afternoons which was brilliant. The progress he made over the course of the week was remarkable, of the 5 others who started skiing this way none of them thought their lessons were as good and progress was as fast. The caveat to all of this is that he’s an extremely fit and sporty - quite short - guy who does a lot of running and cycling and doesn’t have a lot of fear.

Apres / food etc:
The place was absolutely heaving with Irish people which made for a few fun evenings (apart from Sunday 1st obv).
Had some recommendations from Snowheads and we very much enjoyed the Hexenhalm (slightly more Austrian), Salvenstadl and Whisky Muhle but would advise swerving the Red Horse which was empty and grotty – even if they did let us DJ for a while.
We only ate out one night and gave Harry’s Bar a try for authentic Austrian food – it was excellent.

The food (on the slopes) and booze everywhere was really very good and pretty reasonable – definitely not for the health-conscious or the vegetarian though.

We tried our hand at moonlit tobogganing which was a great laugh and the floodlit skiing looked fun too.

Misc: We all found the piste map very hard to read – mainly because it pretends to be 3D, i.e. the main peak has runs and lifts going around it (the runs are numbered the same as the lifts too) which confused us for some time. This could have / probably was just our own incompetence.

Conclusion:
Thoroughly enjoyed it, great week. We probably won’t be rushing back as we pretty much skied it all but definitely a recommend for all but the most advanced skiers and great for those wanting some comfortable skiing and comforting food.

Help!!

TR Soll 28/02/15 - 07/03/15

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