Worldwide Ski Resorts • Austria • Soll
Overview
The pretty village resort of Soll, lies within Austria’s Ski Welt, which provides the country’s most extensive linked area. It has been a popular resort with the younger British skier for a long time, and despite recent efforts to improve its image, has gained a rather unfortunate reputation as the winter home of the lager lout.
This is a shame, because it is in an area that is ideally suited to the less confident intermediate and is an excellent location for family ski vacations. There is a large choice of accommodation available here, ranging from some smart 4 star establishments, comfortable guest houses, large catered ‘club’ chalets and plenty of self catering apartments. For any non skiers in the party, there is an excellent sports centre with swimming pool and sauna and plenty of coach excursions on offer to places of interest, including Salzburg.
Profile
The village stands at a modest 700m and provides access to the entire Ski Welt area with 250km of piste served by 91 lifts. Its overall lack of height makes the resort heavily reliant on its extensive snow making operation, but even so snow cover can be poor unless the season is very kind. Experts will find little to challenge them on the piste, but there is plenty of off piste action to make up for it.
For less advanced intermediates however, there is a massive selection of wide open blue cruising runs and even many of the reds are manageable. Novice snowboarders have plenty of areas on which to practice, although the more advanced will find little to keep their interest for long. There is no terrain park in the resort. Beginners will also enjoy the plentiful, sunny nursery slopes and the wide choice of progression runs. Ski school has a reasonable reputation and child care facilities are good. Cross country skiers will find little to interest them here.
Mountain Information
The runs here tend to be rather short, although they pass through some very pretty tree lined scenery. A gondola from the village carries the skiers up to the half way point at Hochsoll from where the runs radiate out in all directions toward Hopfgarten, Brixen, Scheffau and Ellmau. A further gondola provides access to the highest point of the resort - Hoche Salve at 1830m. This is where the experts will find the main black runs that go down to Hochsoll and Kalbersalve. Intermediates simply have the whole area to explore — other than the rare black runs, there is nothing that even the most timid cannot attempt. There are a number of very pleasant rustic mountain restaurants to be found.
Apres Ski
Although the village is trying to clean up its act and sell itself as a family resort, there is still a very lively time to be had here. Live music bars are everywhere and get very crowded. Whisky Muhle is the local disco that really kicks off at night and among the other bars, Buffalo’s Pub and The Salvenstadl are very popular. Floodlit skiing and a toboggan run provide extra entertainment.
Austrian Resort Guide
Resort Information • Soll
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Resort Height | 700m |
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Top Station | 1829m |
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Bottom Station | 700m |
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Vertical Descent | 1129m |
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Drag Lifts | 2 |
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Chair Lifts | 6 |
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High Capacity | 4 |
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Opening Dates | Dec - April |
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Rating Expert | 6 |
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Rating Intermediate | 10 |
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Rating Beginner | 8 |
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Apres Ski Rating | 8 |
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Snow Reliability | 6 |
