Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner)
… 🧊 Glacier area
Photo: qwesy qwesy · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Season start “early October”, no day named yet
Sölden's lift company says the glacier ski area will open in early October and has not yet named a day. Some overviews list 2 or 4 October; neither comes from the lift company itself. What is fixed is the alpine World Cup on the Rettenbach glacier on 24 and 25 October.
As of 27 September 2026. Always check the current situation with the resort.Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) lies in the Tirol region and is a mid-sized ski area: 146 kilometres of piste served by 31 lifts.
The area runs from 1350 to 3340 metres above sea level, giving around 1,990 metres of vertical. That takes the terrain above the 3,000-metre mark, which markedly improves snow reliability on the upper slopes.
The ski terrain reaches up to a glacier, and the season runs Oct – May. There is no summer skiing here any more, but the state of the glacier remains a live issue.
An adult day pass costs EUR 86.50.
Of note: The figures cover the whole area; in autumn only the Rettenbach and Tiefenbach glaciers run. The Alpine World Cup opens here in late October. Summer skiing ended in 2006.
Piste map, map & webcams
Interactive piste map
Every piste and lift colour-coded by difficulty, zoomable, built on OpenStreetMap. Community-maintained data; where it differs, the official piste map next to it is authoritative.
Open on OpenSkiMap →Official piste map
The lift company’s drawn piste map, plus lift status and tickets.
soelden.com →Webcams
Live images from the mountain on the resort’s official site, usually several locations.
View webcams →Piste maps and webcam images belong to the lift companies and are protected by copyright. That is why we link directly to the original instead of copying it.
Frequently asked about Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner)
How high is Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner)?
The ski area runs from 1,350 to 3,340 metres above sea level, a vertical range of 1,990 metres. For snow reliability the lower figure matters more: that is where the snow disappears first, and where a mild December is felt before it is felt at the top.
How many kilometres of piste does Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) have?
146 kilometres on 31 lifts, according to the operator. There is no binding standard for measuring piste kilometres, so the figure is comparable between resorts only to a point. The lift count says at least as much about how big a place feels.
What does a day pass at Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) cost?
EUR 86.50 for an adult day pass at the standard rate, as of summer 2026. Booked early it is often less; on a peak Saturday it is not.
When does Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) open?
The usual season window is Oct – May. No starting date has been announced for winter 2026/27 yet. Most resorts commit only in the autumn, because a postponed opening costs more goodwill than a late announcement.
Does Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) have a glacier?
Yes. Glacier terrain makes the early season more reliable, because the snow layer is supported from below by ice. The summers since 2022 have shown that this is no longer a guarantee either: several Alpine glacier areas have given up summer skiing altogether.
Sölden (Rettenbach- und Tiefenbachferner) in the magazine
Will the Sölden World Cup go ahead? The figures say yes, and the ski area still stays shut
On 24 and 25 October the alpine World Cup is due to open on the Rettenbach glacier. At 2,900 metres, 86 hours over the next sixteen days are cold enough to make snow; nine hundred metres lower, ten Swiss areas together manage 95. Why a race is easier than a season.
The warmest September in 36 years. It says almost nothing about the winter
September 2026 was the warmest at 2,000 metres in our series. We ran the numbers on 35 winters: after the ten warmest Septembers, 316 centimetres of snow fell on average; after the ten coldest, 267. The relationship points the opposite way to the one people assume, and it is weak.
Six glaciers have a date. Zermatt does not
Val Senales has been running since 19 September, Pitztal follows on the 26th, Hintertux in late September, Stubai and Sölden in October. Kaunertal has called its start off, and the Theodul glacier above Zermatt has nothing announced. Every date with its source and status.
No summer skiing left in the Alps: 24 areas have given up, four of them in three weeks
On 15 August 2026 the Stelvio was the last area to stop summer operations. Since then nobody in the Alps has been skiing in summer, for the first time. The record of 24 closures, the decade in comparison, and the reason that is not the ice.
Where this resort stands
Nearby ski areas
Distances are straight-line, not driving time. In the Alps a ridge between two valleys can turn 12 km into a two-hour drive.
Key figures
- Region
- Tyrol
- Season
- Oct – May
- Kilometres of piste
- 146 km
- Elevation
- 1350 to 3340 m (1,990 m of vertical)
- Lifts
- 31
- Adult day pass
- around EUR 86.50 (guide value)
- Summer skiing
- no
- Glacier
- yes
- Snow park
- no park
- Coordinates
- 46.935, 10.933
- Official website
- soelden.com
All values are guide figures still being verified. For day-to-day information, use the resort’s official website.