60,000 m³ of stored snow: how Sölden saved this weekend's World Cup opener

Training run on the Rettenbach glacier during the FIS snow inspection on 15 October 2026. Photo: © Ötztal Tourismus / Tobias Siegele

The Alpine Ski World Cup starts this weekend on the Rettenbach glacier above Sölden. The women race their giant slalom on Saturday 24 October, the men on Sunday 25 October. The course exists because the lift company stockpiled 60,000 cubic metres of snow last spring and kept it through the summer. Here is the programme, the course in numbers, and what a 30-metre World Cup ski has to do with the skis in your cellar.

• Women's giant slalom on Saturday 24 October, men's on Sunday 25 October. First runs at 10:00, second runs at 13:00 local time.
• Race course director Isi Grüner says the races were only possible thanks to 60,000 m³ of snow stockpiled in spring for the course.
• The course is 1,198 m long, drops 370 m and reaches a gradient of 68 %. Racers hit 65 to 80 km/h.
• A World Cup giant slalom ski must be at least 193 cm (men) or 188 cm (women) with a radius of at least 30 m. Most giant slalom skis in the shops have a radius of 18 to 21 m.

Times are local. The clocks go back one hour in the night before the men's race, so Sunday already runs on winter time. The organisers say the programme can change with the weather. The finish area has 1,500 grandstand seats, and the organisers count more than 30,000 fans on site each year. In Austria the TV broadcasts recently reached up to 800,000 viewers.

The International Ski Federation gave the green light after the official snow inspection in mid-October. The snow for the course did not fall this autumn. Bergbahnen Sölden stockpiled 60,000 m³ of snow last spring for the World Cup course and kept it through the summer, a method known as snow farming. A cold spell in October then allowed the snow guns to add a compact top layer.

"We were able to ensure the races only thanks to 60,000 m³ of snow stockpiled in the spring specifically for the World Cup course," says race course director Isi Grüner in the press release of Ötztal Tourismus. "Again this year, the course is highly demanding, particularly on the steepest section. With three wave-like bumps leading into the finish area, the excitement remains high right to the end."

Nature has helped since. The snowfall of 22 October brought 20 cm of fresh snow to the Sölden mountain stations, and the snow depth there stood at 49 cm on 23 October. Mikaela Shiffrin, Marco Odermatt, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, Julia Scheib and Stefan Brennsteiner have all trained on the glacier this month.

Training on the race line, 15 October 2026. Photo: © Ötztal Tourismus / Tobias Siegele

The flat start section decides the race. Racers who find their rhythm there carry speed into the long steep section, which the organisers call the pivotal point of the course. Sölden has been the opening venue for more than three decades. This edition falls in the 60th anniversary year of the Alpine Ski World Cup and is the first test before the World Championships in Crans-Montana in February 2027.

The glacier stadium and the race slope during the women's race of 25 October 2025. Photo: © Ötztal Tourismus / Johann Groder

Julia Scheib took her first World Cup victory in the women's race on 25 October 2025, ahead of Paula Moltzan and Lara Gut-Behrami. She went on to win the giant slalom season title with 720 points. One day later Marco Odermatt won the men's race ahead of Marco Schwarz and Atle Lie McGrath. The men's season title went to Lucas Pinheiro Braathen with 547 points, ahead of Odermatt and Loïc Meillard.

The FIS equipment rules for 2026/27 set hard limits for giant slalom skis in the World Cup.

A 30 m radius means the ski only bends into a tight arc at race speed on a steep, hard slope. At the speed of a normal ski day on a groomed red run it hardly turns by itself. The weight limit applies for the first time this season. We explained it in our article on the FIS weight cap.

The skis sold as "GS" in the shops are a different animal. Our catalog lists the manufacturer's radius per length for each model, and the ladder from piste ski to World Cup ski looks like this.

The first four are what most strong piste skiers mean by a giant slalom ski. They carve long, fast turns on a groomed slope and still come round at normal speeds. The two "masters" models with a 27 m radius are for gate training and amateur racing. The last two are the real thing, built to the FIS table above, and they only make sense for licensed racers on a prepared race line.

If you like long turns at speed on hard pistes, an 18 to 19 m giant slalom ski in the 175 to 185 cm range is the fastest ski you will enjoy on a normal ski day. If you train in gates with a club, look at the 27 m masters versions. If you want to find out where you sit on that ladder, the Pick-A-Ski tool asks a few questions and ranks every ski in our catalog for your skiing.

Sources: Ötztal Tourismus press releases "Green light for the World Cup opening" and "Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Sölden 2026" (October 2026); soelden.com World Cup programme and slope facts; FIS Specifications for Alpine Competition Equipment 2026/27 (July 2026); FIS World Cup results 2025/26; tyrol.com snow report for Sölden, 23 October 2026; Pick-A-Ski catalog data.