Sölden or Zillertal – where is better to go skiing or snowboarding?

Sölden (and the whole Ötztal Valley, actually) and Zillertal are two of the largest and highest ski resorts in Austria. I visited the former this year and the latter last year. I would only like to return to one of them.

Skiing and snowboarding in Ötztal Valley

Sölden is the largest ski resort in the Ötztal Valley. When you buy a pass there for at least 3 days, you get the Ötztal Super Ski Pass, which also works in the surrounding resorts, giving you a total of 363 km of slopes.

According to information on oetztal.com, the Ötztal Super Ski Pass includes 6 areas:

1. Sölden – 144 km
2. Gurgl (Hochgurgl and Obergurgl) – 112 km
3. Hochoetz-Kühtai – 41 km
4. Vent – 15 km
5. Niederthai – 4 km
6. Gries – one short ski run

Hochoetz and Kühtai are actually separate resorts, meaning there are no slopes or lifts connecting them, and they are located about 10 minutes’ drive away.

Hochgurgl and Obergurgl are also not connected by slopes, but are connected by gondola.

Vent, Niederthai and Gries are such small resorts that I saw no point in visiting them.

You may have noticed that after summing up the length of the routes it comes out to about 317 km, and earlier I wrote about 363 km. Well, that’s the information on the official website of the Ötztal Valley. I don’t know where the missing almost 50 km went.

The Sölden resort can be divided into two main parts – the Giggijoch gondola area and the Gaislachkogl gondola area. Both parts are connected by lifts and ski runs, and both lead to the glacier. However, in the morning and late afternoon, there were very long queues in front of the lifts connecting the two parts.

The Giggijoch part is more attractive in my opinion. There are wide ski runs with different inclines, as well as additional attractions such as a snow park, funcross, which is a snowcross track, and a fun slope, which is a track with turns, a tunnel, and hands for high-fiving.

There is also a short route where you can measure your speed and the camera trap will take a photo that you can find online after entering your pass number. Unfortunately, the photo didn’t come out very well, and three days later when I wanted to improve it, the speed measurement didn’t work at all.

In Sölden there is also the longest ski run in Austria. It starts on the glacier, at an altitude of over 3200 m and ends at the Gaislachkogl gondola and is 15 km long. Unfortunately, it leads largely along a ski run with flats and climbs. I was unable to overcome one of them and had to take off my board.

The Gurgl resort is worthy of attention because of its viewing platform. It was beautiful everywhere and there is also a viewing platform in Sölden, but it was in Hochgurgl that the views were the most stunning.

There are also three fun slopes in Hochgurgl. There are actually several in the entire Ötztal and they are all similar.

A variation on one of the fun slopes in Hochgurgl is a figure of a policeman measuring speed. I thought that the display behind him would show my speed, but unfortunately it didn’t work.

In Obergurgl, I really enjoyed the Family Park. It’s a small snow park with wide boxes and small jumps to ride. A great place for beginners like me.

Hochoetz is a small resort compared to Sölden and Gurgl, but it has some interesting attractions. Among them is a special mogul track, ski slalom, snowboard slalom and a snow park.

Nearby Kühtai is also small, but if you like snow park fun, you’ll find something for yourself there.

Skiing and snowboarding in Zillertal

Zillertal is an even larger region than Ötztal. The zillertal.at website mentions 548 km of ski runs. They can be divided into 4 regions:

1. The glacier World Zillertal 3000 (town Hintertux),
2. Mayrhofner Bergbahnen (towns Mayrhofen, Tux, Finkenberg)
3. Zillertal Arena (Gerlos, Königsleiten)
4. Hochzillertal-Hochfügen-Spieljoch (Hochfügen, Kaltenbach, Aschau im Zillertal, Fügen)

There is really a lot of it and during our 6-day stay we didn’t manage to see it all.

The views are as beautiful as in Ötztal.

There are also long trails, there are also snow parks (the largest in Gerlos and Kaltenbach) and there is also a camera trap with speed measurement.

There is also a double slalom course with a recording of your run. For me it was a bit too steep, as you can see in the recording ;)

In Sölden, the run was also recorded in one place, but on a section of the slope that was not separated at all, i.e. only the starting gate, the finishing gate and in between them the regular slope on which everyone skis.

There is no shortage of fun slopes in Zillertal and some of them are cooler than those in Ötztal. The hands scream “woohoo” when you tap them, there are small jumps and boxes that play when you ride them.

An interesting fact is Harakiri, the steepest ski run in Austria.

There is a lot of freeride space near the slopes. It is hard for me to say whether there is more in Zillertal or Ötztal. There is also a lot in Ötztal and looking at this area I was very sorry that during my stay there were no conditions for off-piste riding at all.

What are the prices of the tickets?

I paid 430 euros for a 6-day Ötztal Super Ski Pass. The Zillertal Superskipass for the same number of days costs 369 euros, or about 60 EUR cheaper. Both resorts also offer shorter and longer passes, as well as flexible options, such as a 5 out of 7 pass, which allows you to use the lifts on any 5 days during a 7-day period.

Zillertal is therefore better – lower prices for more ski runs, nicer additional attractions such as fun slopes and the rest is comparable.

This is how I had fun there last year:

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