Hintertux or Sölden: a glacier for the snow, or a resort for the week
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20265 min read
Hintertux and Sölden are two high Austrian glacier resorts, both flown to from Innsbruck, and both snow sure on our measure. Our matching puts each one first on the other's list of closest resorts, of the 55 we cover. If you are choosing between them, you already know the snow comes first.
So the question is what you want wrapped around it. Hintertux is a glacier, snowy and no frills, and skis all year. Sölden is a whole resort, sporty and lively, with two glaciers at the top and a long village at the bottom. One is a place to ski. The other is a place to go on holiday and ski. The numbers first.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Hintertux | Sölden |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,500 m | 1,368 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 3,239 m | 3,306 m |
| Linked ski area | The glacier itself, 62 km. More of the Zillertal by bus | Ötztal, not yet classified in our data |
| Piste we measure around the village | 110 km | 135 km |
| Blue and easier | 42 km, 38% of the piste | 77 km, 57% of the piste |
| Black | 2.9 km | 19 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | None that we measure | None that we measure |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 32% | 30% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 28% | 26% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 96% | 89% |
| Season | All year on the glacier | Late November to May |
| Nearest airport | Innsbruck | Innsbruck |
The rows that decide it are not the snow rows. They are the black row and the blue and easier row, and Sölden wins both by a distance.
Altitude: Hintertux keeps more of its skiing up high
Sölden has the higher top. Its skiing reaches 3,306 metres by our measure, the highest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and fifth of the 55, against 3,239 at Hintertux, second of the 13 Austrian. That is 67 metres, which you will not feel.
What you will feel is where the rest of the skiing sits. Hintertux's village is 132 metres higher, and nearly all of its piste sits higher. Half of it is above 2,853 metres. At Sölden, half is above 2,402. At Hintertux, 96 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 3,239 metres, the biggest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. At Sölden it is 89 percent, up to 3,306.
Both clear our snow sure bar easily, and nobody can promise snow anywhere. But if your one fear is a thin week, Hintertux keeps more of its skiing well above the line: 83 percent of its piste is at or above 2,200 metres, against 68 at Sölden.
Season: one never closes
This is the row that really separates them. Hintertux's season is the whole year on the glacier, the only Austrian glacier open every day of the year. Our own list of what it does best is short and honest: the year round glacier, snow sure skiing and training.
Sölden runs from late November to May, which is long by any standard. Its two glaciers, the Rettenbach and the Tiefenbach, sit at the top of the area and are linked to the rest of the mountain, not a separate day out. If your dates fall inside that window, the season row stops mattering.
Size and the skiing: Sölden gives a mixed group far more
We measure 135 kilometres of piste around Sölden and 110 around Hintertux. Hintertux's own area, the glacier, is 62 kilometres. Mayrhofen and the rest of the Zillertal share its pass, but they are a bus ride away rather than a lift. Sölden's three peaks above 3,000 metres are all linked by lift.
The bigger gap is in what the kilometres are made of. Sölden has 77 kilometres of blue and easier piste, 35 more than Hintertux, and 19 kilometres of black. Hintertux has 2.9 kilometres of black, the second least of the 55 resorts we cover, and its piste is the least evenly spread between easy, red and black of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. It is a red mountain: 59 percent red, 38 blue and easier, 3 black.
Measured, though, the two are almost equally steep. Thirty two percent of Hintertux's piste is steeper than one in four and 30 percent of Sölden's, against 26 at a typical resort we cover. The difference is in the menu, not the gradient. At Sölden, a strong skier has real black to work through and a nervous one has blue to retreat to. At Hintertux, most of the week is red.
Neither has marked off piste itinerary that we measure. Our Sölden guide points advanced skiers to steeper pitches and off piste lines, which we have not mapped.
Who each one actually suits
Sölden suits confident intermediates and groups who want to ski hard and go out after. The nightlife is the headline: bars along the strip fill as the lifts close and the evening runs late. It also has a lunch worth the trip, at the ice Q, a glass building at over 3,000 metres on the Gaislachkogl, and the 007 Elements installation beside it. Families do well if they stay up in Hochsölden, at around 2,000 metres, above the road and the noise. The thing to know is the shape of the place: a long village with a busy road running through it, buzzy rather than pretty.
Hintertux suits people for whom the snow is the trip. Anyone there to train, skiers who want to be on snow in a month when most resorts are shut, and strong skiers happy to spend a week on red in exchange for the height. By our own description it is snowy and no frills, and that is the deal. If the evening matters to anyone in your party, it matters in Sölden's favour.
The bit nobody tells you
Both resorts have steep blues, and Hintertux's are among the steepest we measure. They average 19.3 percent, the second steepest of the 55 resorts we cover and the steepest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. Sölden's average 17.3. The Austrian average for a blue is 16.4.
These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so treat them as a guide to how the week feels rather than a verdict on any one run. But for an improver, the difference between a 16 percent blue and a 19 percent blue is the difference between cruising and coping. Our Sölden guide already says absolute first timers should go in with realistic expectations. At Hintertux, with a red heavy mountain and blues that steep, the same warning applies with more force.
So, which one
the snow is the whole point, your dates fall outside the usual winter, or you are training. Also if everyone in the group is a confident red skier who would rather have the cover than the choice.
you want a week's holiday rather than a week on a glacier: more piste, far more blue to learn on and black to push on, the highest top of the Austrian resorts we cover, and evenings with real noise in them.
It is snow sure on our measure too, it gives every level of skier in the group something to do, and it has a life after the lifts close. Hintertux is the right answer when your diary or your training plan has already made the choice.