2021 - 2022 Far West Skier's Guide - 48

thick cloud that encompassed the entire lift
system. Most of the skiing in Sölden is above
the tree line, including two separate glaciers,
the Rettenbach and Tiefenbach Glaciers,
which rise up to 3250 meters.
Only the lowest 400-500 vertical meters
of ski terrain is made up of forest, and that
seemed much too tight to ski without a chain
saw in one's rucksack. Not so. Alex first led
us to a secret cut in the woods slightly below
the Gaislachkogel middle station. When he
saw how much we enjoyed a powder romp in
the forest, he guided us over some avalanche
barriers into a steep glen in the woods.
The visibility was much better at the
lower elevations because of the perspective
one gained from skiing in the trees. We now
looked down over a varied landscape of steeps
and hollows sprinkled with enough small
trees, ravines, knolls, and small rock faces to
make for a highly interesting obstacle course.
Alex, like many mountain men, is somewhat
reticent with words, and often says not
much more than the required minimum. I
soon learned that it was worthwhile to take
heed of the few words he imparted. As we observed
the landscape below, we carefully tried
to choose a line. Alex mumbled something
about staying to the right, and proceeded to
disappear out of sight in a trail of powder exhaust.
Rather than follow his words or tracks,
I saw what appeared to be a good line further
to the left. It was a good line, too, at least for
a dozen turns, until I hurled over an unseen
rock face, gasped for air, and uttered a splitsecond
prayer in free fall before a soft, white
touchdown, just centimeters away from a second
granite outcropping. From that point on,
I listened intently to Alexander's every word.
We worked our way down through the
glen to a road, which could have deposited us
easily back onto the piste, but our ski sorcerer
had other plans. He dipped back off the road
into even thicker forest. Now, only a short distance
above the village, the 60 centimeters of
new snow had a consistency akin to porridge.
Alex cut and swerved, adroitly avoiding the
woodwork, while we sweated, kick-turned,
and used a variety of survival turns to negotiate
our way through this lowest level of
trees. Our leader was having so much fun, he
probably didn't even notice that he was leaving
us winded in his wake, or perhaps this was
his subtle way of letting us know that he was,
in fact, the sorcerer, and we were but would
be apprentices.
While we tried to re-energize with a wellearned
lunch at a cozy hut called 'S Pfandl,
the clouds magically began to dissipate into
The scenery in Sölden is spectacular!
thin air and the dramatic landscape of the
Ötztal suddenly became a reality to us. Steep
jagged peaks line both sides of the village. One
could easily see that Sölden was not really one
village, but a group of hamlets, both on the valley
floor and on the low and high alms. In
fact, the community is made up of small
clusters of houses which all have names in
their own right, such as Rechenau, Rainstadl,
Grunwald, Mapuit, Rettenbach, Innerwald,
Ausserwald, Unterwald, Wohlfahrt, Platte, and
at least a dozen more. Winding through the
scattered hamlets is a stream called the
Ötztaler Ache.
48 Far West Skier's Guide 2O21 - 2O22
Up the valley, the lifts of Obergurl and
Hochgurgl could be seen amidst pristine white
fields of virgin powder. Near the end of the
Ötztal stood the Hauslabjoch, where, a few
years ago, the preserved remains of the 5200year-old
man was found in the eternal ice near
the Similaunhütte.
We could also see that the east face of the
Rettenbachtal, just a couple of chairlift rides
away, had just enough perfectly formed tracks
on its face to tantalize any powder skier. We
quickly gobbled up the last few bites of lunch
and made our way to the top of the Gampettttt
2021 - 2022 Far West Skier's Guide

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