Paul Rivers from United Kingdom writes:
Review of Solden & Chalethotel Hermann
The resort
As is well documented, the resort is well spread out between the Giggijoch and Gaislachkogl gondolas. Both are efficient, although we encountered 15 minute queues at the Giggijoch at peak times. The town is lively, and our grown up children enjoyed the late night clubs on offer, with Fire & Ice being the favoured destination.
The skiing is extensive, and in good conditions, the runs back to the town are enjoyable, although the red run 9 crosses busy nursery slopes, 2 T-Bars and bizarrely two roads! The area above Giggijoch has good blue run skiing with plenty of variation on the routes down. As has been commentated elsewhere, there is a strange habit of placing piste markers in the middle of the piste (as on Black 14 from Hainbachjoch), which is a hazardous practice when visibility is poor.
The glacier skiing is excellent, although it takes the best part of an hour to get up to the top lift station from the town, and queues were such a problem on a sunny mid-morning that we baled out – the Einzeiger chairlift is a particular bottleneck, as there is no other route up to the cross-valley Gletscherexpress gondola. Once up on the glacier, the views are outstanding, and we found typically excellent snow conditions, and there is an enjoyable black run (where the World Cup Tour starts every year apparently) on the Rettenbach Glacier. There is an enormous but functional self service restaurant at the bottom of the Tiefenbach Glacier with a large variety of food on offer and sundecks which will no doubt be very popular in sunny conditions. Beware though, that there is only one route back from the larger Tiefenbach Glacier, which is a six-person chairlift, so queues will be common mid to late afternoon.
The lift system, apart from the couple of bottlenecks mentioned, works well, and most key lifts are either gondolas or detachable chairs with hoods. A special mentioned must however go to T-Bar KarlesKogl on the upper part of the Rettenbach Glacier, which is only open in the Autumn, but with the drop off to one side must be a hair-raising experience!
There appeared to be plenty of off-piste opportunities in the right conditions, although the snow base was early-season in nature with rocky terrain close to the surface at the time of our visit.
The restaurants we tried were generally very good and typically good value. A particular favourite was the small Stabele Schirmbar at the base of the Stabele chairlift (accessible via Red 11, Blue 30 or Blue 6) which served enormous burgers, although capacity inside is limited.
For an additional 10 Euros (payable only when buying a 6 day pass) a day in Obergurgl/Hochgurgl can be enjoyed – accessible via a free ski bus service. Despite its reputation, the snow in Obergurgl was less good, and had clearly suffered from wind blown conditions, being on the East side of the valley during a predominantly North Westerly weather pattern. Nevertheless a great time was had with lunch at the Superb Hohe Mut Alm and a live band at the Nederhutte.
For some of its constraints, we enjoyed Solden and it seems to provide enough variety to offer something for everyone.
2012-01-06 |
