DOBBIACO (TOBLACH)*

Location: South Tyrol, Italy

Description:
Dobbiaco (1243m) is the main town in an east-west running valley that lies to the north of the Dolomite mountains. From this and other nearby towns, skiers can ski along the picturesque valley or follow trails up side-valleys into these mountains.

Getting There:
From the nearest airport in Innsbruck trains run south through the Brenner tunnel into Italy on their way to Bolzano. At Fortezza a line branches to the east through Dobbiaco then soon passes back into Austria and on to Lienz. A slower alternative would be train from Vienna via Lienz.

Accommodation:
The town has hotels ranging from 4 star down as well as pensions, bed and breakfast places, private rooms and apartments to let. The southern end of town (Dobbiaco Nuova) is close to the rail station and a short ski to the XC stadium and ski-school as well as the start of the trails. The centre of the old town is not so handy being about 1km away.

Trails:
A total of about 200km. of groomed trails (mostly skating as well as classic) are directly accessible from the town. To the south one can climb 15km. to a pass at 1460m then run down 15 km to Cortina. (The track uses the path of an old narrow gauge railway line, complete with tunnels and a bridge and is used in a 42km race every February). A trail east along the valley to San Candido then south east leads up into a cirque at 1450m and to the west of town yet another side trail climbs to nearly 1500m.Three FIS homologated courses (5,7.5 and 10km) start at the stadium. Grooming and maps are good and there are no fees for hotel guests.

Other Features:
Fantastic scenery especially when one gets up into the mountains and, being Italy places to get food and drinks out on the trail! A bus (cheap pass) serves most parts of the trails giving a ride-out ski-home option (or visa-versa)

Opinion:
Easy to get to, a great variety of uncrowded trails and at an altitude that favours good snow conditions.

Contacts: www.toblach.it

*Dobbiaco is Italian, Toblach German. This mainly German speaking region became part of Italy after World War 1; Italian and German place names are both still used, but for simplicity I have used only the Italian.

This report by Stan McDonald   snjemcd@bigpond.com                   back to menu