Experience and feel
Val Casies/Gsiesertal
You don’t have to travel far to get there. The paths start behind the house and lead through meadows, past farms, up to the high pastures. Those who want to can walk all the way to the Gsieser Törl and find themselves suddenly at the border with Valle di Anterselva/Antholzer Tal. Those who don’t can stay lower down and take their time. Both are correct.
To the north, the valley borders the Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park. Clear air, wide slopes, secluded paths, almost no one around. A landscape as ancient as it is uniquely beautiful.
There are places you should only visit at the right time. Lake Braies/Pragser Wildsee is one of them. Anyone there before seven has the green water and the rock face above it almost to themselves. After that, the lake belongs to everyone else. Half an hour from here, and a good reason to get up early.
Some landscapes have been photographed so often that you feel as though you already know them. And then you’re standing in front of them. The Sexten Dolomites are an hour’s drive away and a UNESCO World Heritage site. A day that’s well worth it, precisely because it doesn’t set out to be surprising.
There are two museums at Mt Plan de Corones/Kronplatz that you wouldn’t expect to find there: the Lumen, which explores the history of mountain photography, and Reinhold Messner’s MMM Corones. Both in buildings that are themselves part of the exhibition. A cultural afternoon without having to head downhill – and with a view that no museum in the world can offer.
The cycle path starts practically on your doorstep and runs through the whole valley; it’s flat enough for a leisurely day out, and long enough for a proper one. When your legs get tired, you can take the train back.
The Gsies Valley is one of South Tyrol’s best-known cross-country skiing areas. More than forty kilometres of trails wind through the entire valley, past farms and streams. You put your skis on without getting into the car first.
Twenty minutes’ drive down the valley lies one of the best-developed ski resorts in the Alps. Val Casies/Gsieser Tal itself remains untouched by all this, and that is precisely what makes it so appealing: You head there whenever you feel like it, and in the evening you return to a valley where there’s no trace of any of that.
When the snow blankets the meadows, the valley grows even quieter. Winter walking trails lead through the hamlets and up to the alpine pastures, whilst snowshoe tours take you even higher, until the view stretches across the entire valley head. No lift, no noise, just the sound of your own breathing.
There are afternoons when a sledge is the best choice. A climb up to a mountain hut, a stop for refreshments, a descent by moonlight.
