Sud Tirol 2012 – Latsch-Laces – Vinschgau Valley | Sharon and Lee

Our next destination was Latsch – Laces

71km away is Latsch/Laces. Again we got a drive, you can easily take a train to Latsch from Bolzano

Thursday Ride:

We shuttle to below the St. Martin gondola and took in some views of the Vinschgau Valley. You can take this Gondola with a bike after 4:00. We had some coffee, then Lee joined us on some sections he could walk to to take photos while we rode! On the South facing side we rode Chilli trail to Montasola back to Hotel Jagdhof. Then we drove back up the North side to the Tarscheralm Hutte for lunch and down Trail #1 to the bottom traversing trail – Red Fountain – and back to Hotel Jagdhof

Friday Ride:

Friday we rode the Goldsee trail. Lee has been going on about it since the Ride Magazine article by Thomas Giger. Unfortunately he couldn’t join, so we had to go anyway. It was below freezing at the top of the pass which is at 2800m so the trail was muddy due to the melt. We rode to the Furkel Hutte then back down to Spondigna. Another time we will ride the whole Goldsee trail. This pass is the Border of Bormio and Sud Tirol or Austria pre WW1. The road to the pass on the Sud Tirol side was originally built in 1820! The Swiss border also touches on this pass and they were a bit pissed during WW1 when the Austrians and Italians shot over their country. Over 40,000 people died here during the war mostly due to human and naturally triggered avalanches. There was a recent news article talking about the receding glaciers exposing some of the bodies of the soldiers killed during this time. Note – Mountain bikers should be past this area by 8:00am to have mimimal impact on the sheep that graze in this area. This is an agreement to allow mountain bikers to use this trail. You should be at the Furkel hut by 10:00.

We were guided by Martin Pirhofer from the Hotel Jagdhof.

Another amazing hotel, part of the Dolce Vita family of Hotels they also have awesome food, a spa and swimming pool and are great people! Martin’s brother and sister also own hotels in Latsch so it’s obviously in the family blood. It is also a Bike Hotel Sud Tirol. You can find more information on their bike programs HERE. Check it out for a very affordable guided bike vacations in this unique area.

We stopped by Bike Eldorado in Latsch to get a Sud Tirol Jersey, thanks Martin! Then drove up to St. Martins

First we had to carbo load

Then we rode down

Daniel

Martin

Sharon

Daniel

More snack time and Cheese Dumplings!

Then we go down

Daniel scares some chickens

Daniel

Martin

Sharon

Our second lap started with lunch of traditional cheese and bread at the Berghaus

Then we rode down a sweet 1000m descent, single trail all the way!

Photo By Martin Pirhofer

After the ride we had a beer! Michael from Zurich joined us for our second lap. Lee was in Physio at this time…

The second day we drove up to Stelvio pass/Stilfserjoch, the old border between Austria and Italy, now the border of Bormio and Sud Tirol.

Lee letting his inner Sud Tirolian out!

Looking up the road. The Giro d’Italia goes up here and other insane roadies.

We push up more

Road in the back

Ortler group in the back

Old Castle structure at the top with the Swiss and Italian Flag.

Daniel

Little Sud Tirolianlee!

Lots of shots of us riding

Lee with the pass in the background

Helmut our driver

The trail is pretty buff with some rocky sections to navigate

Photo by Martin Pirhofer

The last section is through some trees.

You can see from Martin’s shorts that the top section of trail was muddy!

We ate at the Furkel Hut. Note – Mountain bikers should be past this area by 10:00 to have mimimal impact on the sheep that graze in this area. This is an agreement to allow mountain bikers to use this trail.

We then continue down on some lower trails. You could continue in the alpine for another 5 hour ride, but we wanted to save that for when Lee get’s better.