Day 6 – Skiing To The Lago di Dobbiaco

Jan 19, 2024

Today’s Adventure

We woke up Day 6 to find that it had snowed overnight (again). There was only about 3” of new snow here in San Candido, but it was apparently much heavier east of here because a number of trains originating in Austria were being cancelled due to weather. The Austrian border is literally within walking distance so any train issues there can have an immediate impact on the Italian side of the border as well.

Our original plans for today had called for train travel but rather than getting caught up in a big unknown we decided to go with a plan B that didn’t require train or bus. Some quick checking of trail maps confirmed that we could get onto some very nice cross-country (XC) ski trails within walking distance of our apartment.

Plans made, we grabbed a quick breakfast, put on our ski gear, and walked over to the base of the Monte Baranci ski resort. We bought a single day XC ski pass at their ticket office and then found an access point for Trail 13 at the far end of the parking area. This nicely-groomed ‘red’ or intermediate trail took us west along the valley floor to Dobbiaco.

Along the way we skied past the ingenious power plant that provides electricity for both Dobbiaco and San Candido. The plant burns wood chips, originally produced from manufacturing and construction wood waste shipped in from all over the EU. Sadly there is now a significant blight affecting the forests in this region (not unlike much of the Western US) so they are able to harvest more than enough dead timber locally to sustain operations at a very low cost and without having to ship/import anything.

At Dobbiaco we stopped briefly as we skied past the Bahnhof to reflect on the fact that what is typically a 5 minute train ride had just taken us an hour on skis. It was much more enjoyable to take the long way, though!

From the Bahnhof we turned south to follow another ski trail heading south through the Nordic Arena and then up into the mountains towards Cortina d’Ampezzo. This trail runs through some beautiful country and makes up some serious elevation along the way. The good news is that the trail follows what was originally a WWI-era military rail line, so both the curves and the grade are rather gradual as a result.

We followed the trail (now part of a Nordic skiing championship course between the Nordic Arena and Cortina) past the Lago di Dobbiaco and up to the first pass. Because we were planning to eat at one of the lakeside restaurants on Lago di Dobbiaco it was time for us to turn around.

When we got back to the northern tip of the lake we walked across the bridge to reach the Restaurant Seeschupfe. We had visited here once before in February of 2023, but at that time only for some coffee and apfelstrudel. After perusing the menu Cindy ordered their house macaroni (a local tradition) while Stuart chose their fresh trout. Both were excellent choices!

Lunch finished, we somewhat reluctantly put our skis back on and followed the trail back through the Nordic Arena and into Dobbiaco. We arrived at the Bahnhof with perfect timing. The next eastbound train to San Candido was arriving soon so we wandered over to Gleis 2 (track 2) and boarded just a few minutes later.

When we reached our apartment we changed out of our XC skiing gear and went back out to pick up a few things at the Eurospar grocery store, conveniently located just about a block away. After three trips to the area we have shopping in that store down to a fine art. I will share some photos of the store in a later post just to show what shopping is like here.

All told we skied 8.8 miles with 883 feet of vertical in just over three hours. We’re both thoroughly knackered so it’ll probably be an early dinner, a couple of episodes of The Sopranos, and then lights out in preparation for another big day tomorrow!

For Innichen’s main page click here.

For Seefeld’s main page click here.

For the entire trip’s main page click here.