 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
Group of 40 year old lads heading to Austria for 4 nights at end of February.
Have been to st. Anton and ischgl in last few years.
Looking for another resort along those lines.
Have narrowed down search to solden or soll.
We're all intermediate skiers who very much enjoy the apres!!
Am aware that soll is less snow sure than solden-is this likely to be an issue at end of feb?
Any recommendations either way between these two resorts?
Other suggestions of resorts welcome too...
Cheers.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Definitely Solden, better skiing, better snow and way better apres, the apres is much closer to that of St. Anton and Ischgl than Soll's is. Neither are as good as St. Anton or Ischgl on any level, at least in what I am looking for. Mayrhofen and Salbaach-Hinterglemm might suit, certainly better than Soll.
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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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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 wasn't keen on Soll, but I loved Hoch Solden.
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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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Solden.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Many thanks for your inputs.
Slightly favouring solden at the moment but now also looking into mayrhofen.
Will be arriving into Munich airport at 1030 on a Saturday morning and was hoping to get a few hours skiing in on Sat afternoon. Depending on weekend traffic could be struggling either way but would have a better chance with mayrhofen. 3 hr 30 mins transfer to solden (according to maps app) is excessive.
Is 2 hour transfer time realistic on a Saturday morning from Munich airport?
Does mayrhofen compare favourably to solden?
Thanks.
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kaiserchief, as you are only doing 4 days away I would try and get to a resort as close as possible to Munich.
There are places that are within 2 hours, but how often that time is achievable in the ski season is the question. As you land at 10.30 you cannot guarantee to be on the road before 11.30 simply due to the large volume of traffic on a Saturday in and out of the airport. Having got yourself on the road so to speak, you are then slap bang in the middle of the "Bettenwechsel Staus" (changeover day). The end of February is the time of the Dutch Half Terms, so half of the Netherlands will be heading south to the slopes while the other half are heading home again (depending on which weekend exactly!). If the weather is bad, you could be crawling along for hours I'm afraid to say. I never use the autobahn to or from Munich on a Saturday in the holiday seasons as it is just not worth the bother. Your return trip however, should be no bother as the traffic mid-week is quite normal.
To be honest getting to Sölden on a Saturday in the ski season in time to ski that day when you start mid-morning is a pipe dream. Whichever route you take you are going to have hold-ups that could take out the whole day. You may be luckier by choosing one of the Ski Welt resorts (Söll, Scheffau, Ellmau, Westendorf, Brixen). The main day tripper rush hour will be well over by the time you start, so you may actually get a good run in. I would advise you to have a Sat-Nav with you to get past some of the bigger jams (going cross-country from the airport to Rosenheim for example often beats traffic on the main drag).
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kaiserchief, How are you planning on getting from the airport to resort? Will you be hiring a car, using an airport transfer company or taking the train? From Munich to Mayrhofen on a Saturday in February by car on the motorway, can take anything from 2 to 5 hours. I don't know if your maps app gave an alternative to the motorway? A route that I regularly used to avoid the motorway jams was to drive over Achenpass, past Achensee and Tegernsee. I used to drive to Munich airport from Fuegen, Zillertal twice every Saturday (Oh, what a fun part of my job that was!). It was unusual if the drive was more than 2 hours via Achenpass... Mayrhofen is another 20 minutes up the valley from Fuegen, often longer on Saturday. Though an option could be to drive to Kaltenbach, ski there for Saturday afternoon and then drive to Mayrhofen in the evening.
Or, stay in Kaltenbach for 4 days? The skiing in Hochzillertal is good. For apres ski, there are a couple of bars but the only one that I go to is Postalm which is great 
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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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You would be able to make Solden in time for skiing on Saturday afternoon. If you were very keen you could stop in Garmisch on the way into western Austria.
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Thanks for your comments.
Saraj, we'll be getting a hired minibus transfer to resort - must contact them before we go to optimise the route.
We're currently siding with solden as it appears to tick all the boxes, transfer aside.
Potential queuing issues at penkenbahn in mayrhofen a potential downer as it will be busy with Dutch mid-term....and none of us are early birds!!
Lengthy transfer not ideal but if we get a couple of hours skiing done on Saturday afternoon it will be a bonus.
Cheers!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We've been to both Soll and Solden, and for snow sure conditions in late Feb, Solden would be my first choice every time. We went to Solden for the first time this year 25th Feb and were so impressed we booked again for Feb 2013. Our friends went back to Soll and “enjoyed“ the early arrival of alpine flowers!
The two large glaciers in Solden are a good safety net, but the lifts close when the wind arrives, and there is a bottle neck for the chair lift that takes you up to them, you just have to accept this but once up there the area is large and copes well with the numbers. The only downside we could see to this resort is that most of the skiing is above the tree line so very few pretty wooded runs, but the 15 km run down from glacier to village makes up for this! And the lift system is very good, no drag lifts!
There is sometimes a queue for the Giggijoch lift in town, first thing, but this is definitely the best end of the resort to be based in, although there is a free ski bus that goes there and back between the 2 ends of the resort. Shame you can’t fly to Innsbruck, it’s such a short transfer!
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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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sharon1953, And a month later last season we were enjoying deep powder on the pistes in Söll and Ski Welt area. You cannot base your choices on one particular season. You are not comparing like with like! The Haute Savoie for example would be empty if you used that reasoning as it had a very snow dry season!
I find it hard to believe that there were "early alpine flowers" in Söll in February 2012, which is on record as one of the coldest Februarys there has been! I live just up the road and can assure you it was bloody freezing all through February, so much so that my car gave up the ghost and was in the workshop until the middle of March!
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Samerberg Sue, most of Austria had periods of extreme cold last season, but having spent the last 14 years skiing exclusively in Austria we have found that on average the higher altitude resorts always do better when spring comes early! I merely offered my opinion having been to both resorts 
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FAQ
The season continues into april every year no problems and driving past the other day the Hohe Salve was already white!
