In Sölden there is a lot of fun, some call it megalomania: an event on the Giggijoch.
Image: Lois Hechenblaikner
Glacier skiing, World Cup, après ski – it’s starting again in the Tyrolean mountains. Is this hustle and bustle still relevant? Or sustainable? A visit to Ötztal.
Sölden, Rettenbachferner, mid-September. Excavators and a demolition squad are busy on the race track. Every effort is being made to ensure that the Ski World Cup can start the new season on the last weekend in October. The people of Ötztal want to show how beautiful their valley is with spectacular pictures of the glacier world and they want to attract skiers. Ex-professionals like Felix Neureuther and active people like Mikaela Shiffrin, on the other hand, question the entire event.
On the last weekend in October, Sölden starts the new season with the Ski World Cup with two giant slalom competitions.
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Image: dpa
Sölden stands for high-end tourism – especially in winter: perfectly groomed slopes, modern cable cars, glacier skiing from October to May. There are also après-ski bars, table dance clubs and award-winning restaurants – everything that for many people is part of a successful ski holiday, just not quite as excessive as in Ischgl. The offer is well received: tens of thousands of winter sports enthusiasts are out on the slopes of Sölden every day. The approximately 20,000 Ötztal residents live well from their almost 30,000 guest beds and count four million overnight stays every year – with more than 80 percent of guests traveling by car and only four percent by train. The mountain railways alone recently generated annual sales of more than one hundred million euros.
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