Poster: A snowHead
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Have found a very tempting offer for 5th March?
What are lifts like?
Snow conditions?
Ease of getting to slopes etc
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We had a great holiday in Soll. We were there the first week in March a few years back, and as its quite a low resort, there were a lot of patchy places . We did have to take our skis off to clamber over muck/rocks on one particular run !!
The skiing is a bit of a trek from the village, there is a free bus up/back, although it is walkable .. particularly in the evenings when we used to stop en route for a few a bevvies (just to break up the journey of course).
Its interconnected with the ski welt .. so you can ski from village to village (Scheffau, Ellmau, Hopfgarten, Gong, Brixen, Itter), and Westendorf is a bus ride away.
The apres was good fun ... low key and unpretentious .. typical Austrian Apres ... with a club or two into the wee hours if you're so inclined. And the village itself is small enough, typically Austrian.
We had a great holiday .. although you may find it slushy and a bit mucky in places in March.
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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?
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I havn't skied the Soll area for a long time, but my memories of it are not that great! I just remember that there were a lot of short runs interconnected by short lifts about which I can't think of anything very positive to say. Boring! The same applies to the whole of the Ski Welt in fact!
I would recommend going the extra 15 kilometers down the valley to Kitzbuehel or Kirchberg. Much better ski area, and in fact not much smaller than the Ski Welt, especially now that Kitz has build an extra lift to connect it to the Pass Thurn area, the skiable area is truly enormous. Highly recommended for all levels of ability.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've been twice Johnboy, once on the week you mention and had a great time both years. Plenty of snow one year, in fact too much - lots of power both on the piste and off. The other year was fine except for the lower part of the home run and one other run in Soll. Some of the runs are short around Soll, but if you head over to Hopfgarten, Brixen, or over to Scheffau, Ellmau there are plenty of longer inter-connected runs and its skiable from Soll and back again. Lifts are varied, some older style, some new. I haven't been for nearly 3 years so I imagine its improved since. Queues were ok as its all hand free lift pass. Some bottle necks but these can be avoided if you plan a good route and there weren't too many for it to be a major problem.
Its about a 5 min walk to the main gondola from the town centre - uphill! There is a hotel or two nearby, the rest are in the town, some on the other side of town which will add another 5 or 10 mins to the walk. There is ski and boot storage at the bottom of the nursery slopes. I found this to be the best way so the walk wasn't really an issue in the morning/afternoon. No ski in/out hotels. The ski bus gets busy but I only used it once on the 1st day to get to the gondola. I'm personally not too bothered about skiing covenience as it hikes the price up. I quite like a walk in the morning/end of the day to warm up/down!
You'll find the skiing excellent value for money in Soll, good scenery and plenty of terrain suited to an intermediate, so if you get a good price, this will outweigh the main downsides such as getting to the gondola and planning a daily route. There is good snow cannon coverage also. The nightlife is limited to a few pubs/clubs but they are pretty raucous and a match for any larger resort, the beer is also the cheapest I've come across as are the mountain restaurants.
One tip, there is a resort about 30 mins away which the tour ops used to offer a day trip too. Its on the lift pass and its called Kelschau. It was really quiet with some good runs, but choose a cold day as the snow wasn't as well groomed as in the Ski Welt and got cut up really quickly. If you fancy a change of scenery its worth looking into.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I went that time last year and the only place I really found a queue was to get on the nursery slope drag lift up to the main gondola....but that was just me being too lazy to walk
You can get Gondolas all the way to the top of the Hohe Savle now, and the run all the way back to Soll via Rigi is quite long and mostly nice wide reds. Maybe it wasn't set up like this when Mike was last there.
I enjoyed it there, but I've not got much experience of different resorts.
Snow was good as well. Full coverage all week, even the nursery slopes right at the bottom.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There's a bar by the underpass ( for the path that leads down from the gondola atation ) on the main road that had excellent live music the year that I was there - Sorry, can't remember the name......... darned apfelsaft
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Timberwolf, that would be the Salven Stadl - a great bar for apres.
I'd second the comments made by hayley t, there's a lot of good intermediate skiing in the SkiWelt area and Soll is a good base for it. I've been there for the last 6 years and always had a great time. We went the same week last year and had great snow conditions - a couple of days with fresh powder and a couple of sunny days at the end of the week. Some of the low slopes can get a bit slushy but most should be fine. That week there should also be very few queues on the lifts except on the Sat/Sun when there are a lot of weekenders.
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Soll? no problem, good for easy sking and very good apre-ski. It will be great, for sure..!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Dr Che, You must have been there when I was there!
I agree that the Salven Stadl was a great bar for apres ski! Far too many schanpps stood under the patio heaters!
johnboy, Don't Forget to visit the swimming baths (panorambad) near the main gondola. The outdoor hydrotherapy pool was a godsend
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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johnboy, you'll have great craic!!
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You know it makes sense.
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