As of: February 13, 2024, 6:25 p.m
By: Andreas Knobloch
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Press
Split
When winter sports strongholds or hiking hotspots are no longer accessible, there is usually an outcry.
Just like at Lake Antholz.
Antholz – Alarm bells ring for many people when it comes to Antholz: the South Tyrolean town is known for winter sports, especially for biathlon world cups.
Usually at the beginning of the year after the races in Ruhpolding we go to the South Tyrol Arena in Italy.
But recreational athletes, tourists, vacationers, especially cross-country skiers and hikers also like to use the region.
Lake Antholz was a popular spot, but its future is now unclear.
Lake Antholz is also subject to the new ski slope law in winter: “Paradoxical situation”
There are some photos and reports in the media from the Alpine region that skiing is hardly possible due to the weather in February, or that the lifts are even closed for the winter season, as is the case with the Jennerbahn.
The cross-country ski trails at Lake Antholz are also closed this year.
World Cup races used to take place on the lake.
It forms such a thick layer of ice that cross-country skiing is possible without any problems.
However, as the tageszeitung.it
now
writes, the cross-country ski trail is completely unprepared this winter.
A new ski slope law makes this impossible.
The mayor of the municipality of Rasen-Antholz comments on this.
Thomas Schuster says: “Since last year, certain cross-country trails that are included in a landscape plan have been included in the law.
The law includes the obligation to insure your activity as an operator.” That’s exactly what makes it so difficult.
“We have to clearly delimit the cross-country ski trail”: Lake Antholz is in a quandary
As the
Die Neue Südtiroler daily newspaper
continues, hikers also enter the lake for whom there are clear rules, but the cross-country ski trail cannot be delimited.
“So we find ourselves in the paradoxical situation that access to the lake is permitted by law, but on the other hand we would have to clearly delimit the cross-country ski trail so that cross-country skiing is still possible,” says Mayor Schuster.
Not far from Antholz, a new building for 81.6 million euros was approved for the 2026 Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo - for a toboggan run.
Lake Antholz in winter and summer.
The panorama and the surrounding mountains from the Saller Sattel.
© Imago / Panthermedia
Lake Antholz is located in the north of South Tyrol, close to the Austrian border and Tyrol.
The mountain lake offers a wonderful panorama, surrounded by mountains and is a hotspot for hikers and nature lovers even in summer.
The ski slope law, which has been in force for several years, provides for compulsory insurance for skiers, for example, and includes new provisions for operators who are punished with fines.
In July 2023, overtaking in narrow places on ski slopes was even adjusted: skiers must keep a sufficient distance.