The Glacier Road

I hadn't expected to be knee-deep in powder in the middle of April. On our first morning in Sölden a blizzard had dropped so much fresh snow that nobody had had time to groom the run, and our instructor had to assure us it was there at all. We could barely see our own skis. The next morning dawned cloudless, and the sun stayed out for the rest of the week.

Snow, of course, was the point. Sölden, an hour from Innsbruck at the head of the Ötztal, is about as snowsure as the Alps get: 144km of pistes, two glaciers above 3,000 metres and skiing well into May. Its old reputation as a party town has gone. Serious money has been poured into the lifts, and it is now an upmarket, international resort. Even in the busy week before Easter it never once felt crowded. Gondolas lift you from the valley, where April already feels like summer, up through the trees and into the clouds.

A ribbon of road so dramatic it belongs in a Bond film. Which, as it turns out, it does.

There is one run everyone should ski here once: the Schwarze Schneid, 15km long and dropping almost 2,000 metres from the Rettenbach Glacier to the valley floor. It follows the glacier road for part of the way, and the scenery is extraordinary.

Our base was Das Central, a five-star a few steps from the centre of the village. We rarely stay in a five-star when we ski; Austrian standards are so high that you seldom need to. Here, though, the difference is undeniable. Set back behind a horseshoe drive and looking across the river to the Ötztal Alps, the building is large and imposing, yet it keeps a warm, traditional Tyrolean feel with a contemporary edge.

Rooms run from lavish, traditional Tyrolean to the calmer, muted palette of the new wing. Ours was close to palatial: a bedroom with unusual windows reaching from the ceiling to just above head height, curtains drawn back on a postcard view, and a sitting room with floor-to-ceiling glass facing the river and the mountain beyond. Add vast bathrooms and an evening turndown, which I can't remember having on a ski holiday in years, and I will admit it: I loved every minute.

The real luxury, though, is service. The hotel collects and returns your rental skis for you. Sölden has two valley lifts, so naturally Das Central runs two shuttles, and I never waited more than a couple of minutes for either. On a ski holiday, that alone is worth paying for.

When your legs give out, the 1,500-square-metre spa takes over: ten saunas, ice and brine grottoes, and every massage ritual you could wish for. There is a personal trainer in residence for the virtuous.

I'm not one for attractions, and I'm not even a Bond fan. Much.

Sölden is also where Spectre was filmed, at 3,000 metres. I'm not one for attractions, but 007 Elements, at the summit of the Gaislachkogl, won me over. In true secret-agent style it hides inside the mountain: an hour moving from one concrete chamber to the next, mostly underground, through screens, sound, gadgets and special effects, with windows onto the peaks where the car chase was shot on that same glacier road.

Next door is Ice Q, another location from the film: a glass restaurant at the top of the world. Swap your ski boots for luxury slippers (you don't need to ski to come up here) and settle in.

The week vanished. Our kit came from Glanzer Sport, the shop to use, with skis delivered to the hotel ski room before you notice. We left at a civilised nine, were back at Innsbruck airport by lunchtime, and soon after that a long way from James Bond and the quiet opulence of Das Central. The best five-star ski weeks don't feel like a performance; they simply take every bit of friction out of the mountains. This one did.

Photographs by Caron Bluestone.