 Poster: A snowHead
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Just to let you all know, i just got back from my week in Soll had a great time and enjoyed skiing in the best snow conditions Soll has had for 8 years (according to the rep). And it was starting to snow again, as we were leaving. If anyone's interested i can do a mini review when i get a spare 5 minutes.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Mini Review
Yes Please
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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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Okay, here goes. If I miss any bits out please ask.
I booked the holiday through Airtours as a last minute deal, 3 star allocated on arrival. We were on the early flight which left London Gatwick at 5:55 AM, arrived in Salzburg about an hour and 40 minutes later where we collected our luggage from the bus stop outside the airport which confused us a bit as we expected it to come via the luggage belt, we then met the rep and were allocated our hotel which was the Eggervert. The bus transfer was pretty painless at about an hour and a half due to their being no traffic on the road and as a result we arrived in resort at about 10:30AM (which according to the rep was the quickest transfer ever) so not surprisingly our room was not yet ready so we went for a walk round the village and did a bit of exploring. Soll itself is quite a small little village so doesn't take too long to go from one end to the other.
The hotel we stayed in was a nice clean, well-run hotel with friendly staff, the only thing it lacked was a nice bar area, food was good but basic. Soll village is approx 20 mins walk from the gondola, which take you up to the ski area. There are ski busses, which stopped outside our hotel, but because we were at the end of the village they were often full up before they reached us. We were warned about this in advance and were advised to get the first bus which was 8:20am, which we did and just about managed to get on the bus (standing room only), there is ski and boot storage at the bottom of the gondola which I would advise any late risers to take advantage off, so that you can walk to the gondola in your trainers etc and not have to lug all your ski gear about. One day we had a late night and got the last bus at about 10:00am which we managed to get on, standing room only but by the time we got to the gondola there was a 30 odd minute queue  One other time we tried to get the second ski bus at 8:40, but it was already full so waited for the next one which was also full and eventually got one about an hour or so later and hit the gondola queues again. Moral of the story is get the first bus or walk up to the gondola.
Once up the gondola you reach the ski area which, fortunately for us had the best snow conditions for 8 years or so, they had well over a meter of snow the day before we arrived, and the sun was out and the skies blue just the way I like it  all the pistes were very well maintained. Piste bashers were out all the time keeping the pistes nice and flat but there are plenty of moguls and jumps slightly off the pisted area giving you the choice. Our biggest gripe was the piste maps, they were utter rubbish, some runs aren't listed, most are numbered incorrectly. Best way to navigate around the ski welt is to rely on the signposts on piste and the piste maps at the bottom/tops of lifts, which were very good. On the second day we ventured around to ellmau / scheffau and struggled to find our way back because we were using the piste map (paper one) and were looking for a red 51 leading on to a blue 43 when in fact the runs were actually red 50 which led on to blue 40, we weren't the only ones who were confused by this 
The skiing in the ski welt is fantastic for someone of my level (lower intermediate) as it's mostly easy reds and lots of nice tree lined skiing, I love skiing amongst the trees, very pretty. Although some of the runs are quite short and you need to zig zag a bit to get across resorts etc Lift queues were the usual european bundle type jobbies which were a bit busy as we were there on one of the busiest weeks of the year, but the queues all seemed to move fairly quickly. Also this is the first holiday I ever experienced the dreaded T-bar style lift, there are a couple about, I found them quite easy to use, dunno what all the fuss is about 
We took an afternoon off skiing and tried out the toboggan (sled) run that they have in Soll, it was a right laugh (covered in bruises now, but never laughed so much) we hired our sleds from the hire shop just below the gondola at the nursery slopes and cost us 9 euros for 2 sleds as opposed to the airtour arranged toboggan afternoon of about 27 euros per person 
In the evenings we spent most of our time in the Hotel Austria bar as they have a couple of pool tables although we did venture up the whisky muhle (Sports bar side) one evening and got chatting to one of the local workers who helped try and explain the rubbish piste maps to us, nice little bar with atmosphere. We didn't venture in to the nightclub side as we felt a bit old for that kind of malarkey 
In summary, I have really waffled on here, Soll is an excellent base if you want to ski the Austrian ski welt, a nice friendly village with good apres-ski if you're up for it. I would recommend it to anyone who is in the intermediate-ish bracket ski wise, perhaps a bit limited for expert skiers as there only a couple of Black runs which to be honest didn't look very challenging and first week skiers may be a bit scared by the blue run back to resort which is a narrow-ish track (6 foot across) as it has quite a steep drop on one side and the fact you need to ski a couple of reds to get to the easy blues above. I wish I were still there, oh well, holiday over, back to real life again 
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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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If I'd have caught you earlier I could have presented you with my lovely template:
http://www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=5047
If you want to put a post in at the end of the thread then I can edit what you've put above into the standard format...
I quite like Ski Welt - actually we've mainly skied in Westendorf which is semi-detached from the main Ski Welt area. They do appear to have ridiculous amounts of snow at the moment, more than anywhere else in Europe I think.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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A lot of the confusion around the Ski Welt comes from the fact that sometimes the same lift can be used to get you to the runs home as got you to where you are in the 1st place an example of this is the Two 4 man chairs that run parallel to the top of the Eisberg you use these lifts to ski from Ellmau to Sol but you use the same lift to get you back home, the Piste map (only in 2 dimensions) does not show this clearly because to get back you use runs on the back of the mountain.
As piste maps go I thought the Ski welt map was quite good and the signing of the runs at the top of the lifts was good also.
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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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The_Mac_Daddy, glad you enjoyed it. And I'm sure you're not too old for the Whiskey Muhle! You should have tried it! Did you try the Postwirt Bar? They used to have a lot of live music in there - not Europop either!
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johnboy, I'm sure you're going to have an excellent time, Soll is a really great place some of the best skiing i've had.
hayley t, sadly we only popped into the postwirt for the welcome meeting, there's so much apres to do in Soll, we couldn't fit it all in. Maybe i'll have to go back one day and try it out
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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FAQ
