SV Solden village and amenities
TR Transport
WA Walking
OW Our walks
EP Extra photos
Walk Photos
Welcome to our Solden page, where we give detail on the resort, transport and the walks we did on our holiday.
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OH Our holiday
SV Solden village and amenities TR Transport WA Walking OW Our walks EP Extra photos |
Walk Photos |
If you have any questions or suggestions to improve information given, please e-mail D and J.
Solden was our summer holiday destination in 1995.
We stayed at the Gurglerhof on a bed and breakast basis. This was situated on the main road and conveniently had a supermarket across the road. We had our evening meals in the local restaurants. Our favourites were the Rosengarten, Reginga, Tyrolerhof and the Windau.
Our holiday was arranged by Inghams, unfortunately none of the main operators now include Solden in their brochure. However all the major lakes and mountains operators include Obergurgl, which is further up the valley - and you could arange to be dropped off in Solden and sort out your own accomodation - many of the tour operators will allow you to buy flights or flights and transfer. Alternatively you could make your own way by car, or fly to Innsbruck, and bus to Solden (just over 2hrs).
Solden lies in the Oetztal, a long valley running south from the main Inn valley to the Italian Border. South of Solden the valley splits into two main branches, the Gurglertal leading up to the famous resort of Obergurgl, and the Ventertal leading up to the resort of Vent.
Solden is spread out alongside the Oetztaler River. The tourist office is next to the Rotkogel Chair Lift station. Along the main road are shops, banks and post office. Set back across the river is the Freizeit Arena which contains an indoor swimming pool and kegelbahn (Austrian bowling).
The Oetztal valley is served by postbus, and a bus that runs through to Innsbruck. There is also a bus service to Vent. Information and timetables available at the tourist information offices and at the bus stops. Also the postbus site. There is also a bus service to the Rettenbach and Tiefenbach Glaciers which is used in the main by skiiers and snowboarders.
There are a number of cable cars and chair lifts in the Oetz valley. From Solden there is the Gaislochkogl cable car (this was not in use when we were there), and the Hochsolden and Rotkogel chair lifts.
The Otzal Card covers the use of the local buses and the cable cars/chair lifts for the whole of the Oetz Valley. It also includes entrances to swimming pools etc. The cost for 2002 was 44 Eu for 7 days and 60 Eu for 10 days. The card can be brought from the local tourist offices and the cable car/chair lift stations.
Solden is a superb walking area and there are many walks to choose from. The valley runs from Oetz at about 900,m up to Obergurgl at about 2000m, the bus journey taking 1.5 hrs. There are a number of villages in the valley from which walks can be made.
To the east of the Oetz valley are the Stubai Alps, and to the west the Oetztal Alps. These mountain ranges contain some of the highest mountains in the Tirol including the Wildspitze (3768m), which is the highest. On the east side of the valley are a number of side valleys which also open up walking opportunities.
Obergurgl is a very popular resort and many walkers will come here and not wish to go anywhere else for two weeks. We has snow on our holiday, and many of the people came down from Obergurl for less snow and warmth! Vent is also a high resort which has a number of possible walks.
When we went we did not have the best of weather, which ruled out some of the higher level walks we would like to have done. We did walk every day, when the weather was poor we kept to paths lower down in the valley and through the forests.
We recommend Kompass map 43 at scale 1:50000 for Otztaler Alpen - this will cover you for all of the walks. In Solden wou can buy a map from Meyr at scale 1:35000
There is a walking medal for the Otztal. You need to visit a number of mountain huts and inns to get the medal, 3 for bronze, 8 for silver and 15 for gold. We bagged the gold in a weeks walking.
In this area the walking was strongly promoted. There is an excellent infrastructure of cable cars and buses to take you around the valley. In Solden they had mountain rangers who used to patrol the paths and mountain restaurants giving people friendly advice. One of the rangers told me (Dennis) off for throwing a banana skin away even though it was Jackie (he he - I looked so innocent - but I am reformed - they go in correct recycling bin now).
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W1 Brunnenkogel Hut
W2 Bergler (Peerler) See W3 Rettenbach and Braunschweiger Hut W4 Schwarzkogel (3016m) W5 Siegerland Hut W6 Kuhtrainschluct W7 Martin Busch Hut |
W8 Gampealm and Goldeneg Alm
W9 Schonwiess and Langtalareck Huts W10 Edelweiss Hut W11 Stuiben Waterfalls and Larstig Alm W12 Amberger Hut W13 Keblealm and Stabele Alm |
| This was our first walk - we did the longest ascent (1371m) of the holiday! From Solden we took path 50 to the Brunnenberg Alm (1974m - stamping point), and then up path 24 to the Brunnenkogel Haus (2738m stamping point). From here there is a path that continues up to the summit of the Rotkogel. However we had done enough ascent for the day, so had a hot drink at the hut and descended to the Brunnenberg Alm. We then continued down path 24 to Solden. Unfortunately we didn't get many good views. | |
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| An Alm en route. | Brunnenberg Alm. |
| From Solden we walked up to Hochsolden, via the path that follows the chair lift. We then walked along part of the Dr Backmann Weg (path 35A) to the Bergler See (2450m). This is marked on the Kompass map as the Peerler See. It is a small tarn with a backdrop of mountains. The weather wasn't too kind to us to start, but later we had sunny clear spells with excellent views across to the Stubai Alps. From the tarn we descended to Jausenstation Hochwald (1580m - stamping point), and along the road through Granstein to Kaisers. We then followed the path alongside the river back to Solden. | |
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| Oetztal valley. | Jausenstation Hochwald. |
| We took the bus from Solden to the restaurant at the Rettenbach Glacier (2670m). From here we followed the path across and up the glacier to the Pitztaler Joch (2995m). Walking poles would be very useful here and in certain conditions crampons. From the col we descended to the Braunschweiger Hut (2759m - stamping point). There are some excellent views from here of the glaciers and the mountains. The return was back over the Joch - there was a little scrambling and then down the glacier back to the Rettenbach Restaurant. From here we walked down the valley to the Rettenbach Alm (2158m - stamping point). We would have had a long wait for the bus so decided to walk back down to Solden. 1867m of descent in total today! | |
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| Braunschweiger Hut. | Scramble. |
| This is a easy 3000m peak that only entails just over 600m of ascent. We took the Rotkogel chair lift to the top station (2414m). A path from here leads up to the Rotkogel Hut (2650m - stamping point). The stamp for the Schwarzkogel is also kept at the hut. We then walked up the path to the Schwarzee and onto the Schwarzkogel. We stayed at the summit for half an hour admiring the views which were extensive. We then returned to the hut and top station for the chair lift back to Solden. | |
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| Approaching the hut. | Stubai Alps. |
| This was a long walk, and we were out for 10 hours. We walked from Solden up through the Windachtal Valley. The first part of the walk is on road which then becomes a path. We passed the Lochle Alm (1870m - stamping point) and Fiegle's Gasthaus (1985m - stamping point) before continuing up the valley to the Siegerland Hut (2710m - stamping point). The last part of the walk can be a bit soul destroying as you can see the hut from quite a way back and don't seem to be getting closer to it. The hut is pleasant and we rewarded our efforts with goulasch soup and a drink. The young girl helping out at the hut warned us that the weather over the next few days was going to be poor. We returned the same way back to Solden. We were so tired that we couldn't be bothered to go out to eat so Dennis had bratwurst and chips from Hermann's Wurstl Grill just outside our hotel. Although it was a long walk the Windachtal is a beautiful valley, and the walk is well worth doing on a sunny day. | |
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| view up valley. | Windachtal Hut. |
| The forecast was right - we woke to heavy rain. After it eased a little we did a 'low level' walk from the hotel through forest to the Gaislach Alm (2040m - stamping point). We then descended down the path that meets the Zwieselstein to Vent road at Freistabl. We walked to Zwieselstein via road and then path 40 from Jausenstation Bodenegg (stamping point). From Zwieselstein we took path 5 which follows the impressive Kuhtrainschluct gorge back to Solden. Although in the end it rained for most of the day, there was a dry spell towards the end. | |
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| Friendly cow. | Kuhtrainschluct gorge. |
| This was our first walk outside of the Solden area, starting at Vent. From Vent we took the well defined and easily graded path up to the Martin Busch Hut (2501m - stamping point). Dennis had a very good piece of apfelstrudel with cream here. We returned the same way down to Vent for the bus back to Solden. From the Martin Busch Hut it is possible to walk up to the Similaun Hut, near to the hut is the place Otzi the Ice Man was found. Another possibility is to climb the Kreuzspitze at over 3400m. Both of the above walks would be easier if you stayed at the Martin Busch hut for the night. | |
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| Hut. | Vent. |
| It was wet and cloudy in the morning and so we decided to do a walk from the hotel, takingthe path up through the forest to the Gampealm (2000m - stamping point) we then continued on a pleasant path just above the treeline via Davidlas Tajas to thr Goldegg Alm (1908m - stamping point). The weather had improved and we got some good views. From Goldegg we took the path to Pitze and then back to Solden. We had now bagged sufficient stamps (15) for the gold medal. | |
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| Alm. | Scupltures. |
| The night after the Goldenegg walk it had rained heavily in Solden with snow above 2000m. We took the bus to Obergurgl and walked up the well defined track to the Schonwies Hut (2266m - stamping point) and then on to the Langtalareck Hut (2430m - stamping point). We had a hot drink and soup here. Although there was snow around there was no difficulty in reaching the hut. We returned to Obergurgl making a short detour to the top of the Schonwieskopf (2324m) and coming down on the path though Ziebenwand. | |
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| Obergurgl. | Obergurgl. |
| The night after the Obergurgl walk it had snowed and the snow level was down to 1600m.
We decided that we would do a short walk from the hotel on the path
up to the Edelweiss Hut (1830m - stamping point?), unfortunately the hut was closed.
The snow was quite thick even at this altitude. We walked down the path to Granstein
and then back through the forest to Solden.
No photos today. |
| The weather had not improved a great deal so we decided to take the bus down the valley to a lower altitude, and walk up one of the side valleys on the eastern side of the main Oetz valley. From the village of Umhausen, we walked up to the small village of Niederthai passing the Stuiben Waterfalls on the way. These were very impressive after all the rain that had fallen in the last few days. From Niederthai we tramped up the Horlach valley to the Larstig Alm (1777m -stamping point). We retraced our steps back to Umhausen for the bus back to Solden. | |
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| Waterfall. | Larstig Alm. |
| We took the bus down the
valley again, this time to Langenfeld. From Langenfeld we walked up the Nederweg
path through the forest and then along the Sulztal to the
Amberger Hut (2136m - stamping point). The snow was a few inches deep by the hut,
however it was a popular walk and the hut was busy.
We treated ourseves to a Kaiserschmerrn each, and a hot drink before returning to
Langenfeld.
No photos today. |
| Our last walking day for the holiday. The weather unfortunately had not got any better
and we had snow and rain showers all day with cloud base of 2100m. We walked up the
path to the Keblealm (2015m - stamping point) and then the forest road down into the
Windach valley. We crossed the river and went up the forest path to the Brunnenberg
Alm (1974m) which we had visited on our first day's walk. The alm was full, so
descended to the Stabele Alm (1910m - stamping point), where we had a hot drink
before continuing down to Solden and our hotel.
Needless to say the next day (going home day!) was sunny with bright blue skies. |
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| Sulztal. | 5 star duck accomodation. |
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| Solden village and river. | Solden campsite. |
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| Our hotel. | Another view of village. |
This page was last updated on 28th March 2009.