The South Tyrolean Mountains - The Dolomites

Coming from the North via the Brenner Pass, the gaze wanders from Gossensaß in the Pflersch Valley, across sunny meadows and through cool forests up to the Alpine pastures. Mountain paths and climbing tracks push their way through the raw glacial world of the Stubai Alps with the Zuckerhütl (3.507 m). Further South, at Sterzing between the Pflersch and Ridnaun Valleys, the Roßkopf rises up, and, on the extended mountain ridge, so does the peak of Telfer Weißen (2.588 m).

From Sterzing the Pfitsch Valley branches off to the left, winding its way northwards to the glaciers of the Zillertal Alps and the Hochfeiler (3.510 m). The Ratschings Valley west of Sterzing, the Ridnaun Valley and the Jaufen Valley form the Three-Valleys Municipality of the northern Isarco Valley and end in the middle of the Stubai mountain range.

The Pfunderer Mountains, with some three thousand peaks, form the south west range of the Zillertal Alps. The area is bounded by the Isarco at Franzensfeste, and by the Rienz in the lower Puster Valley, and includes the Seefeld range accessible from Meransen, as well as the rugged and higher ranges of the Wilde Kreuzspitze at the end of the Vals Valley, and the eastern Pfunderer ridge.

The eastern Sarn Valley ridge, to the west of the Isarco Valley, stretches along the communities of Vahrn with the Schalderer Mountains and the Schrüttensee, Brixen, Feldthurns with the high Alpine pastures of the Kühberg and the various mountain peaks (Kassianspitze, Königsanger, Radlsee...), Klausen with the Alpine scenery of the Latzfons (Latzfonser Kreuz, the Klausen mountain huts and refuges...), Villanders and Barbian with the long, high Alpine pastures which stretch to the Rittner Horn.

The area to the east of the Isarco belongs to the Western Dolomites, with the Rodenecker and Lüsner Alpine pastures, the Plosestock, the Peitlerkofel and the Geisler group.

The 9.400 hectare (ca. 23,200 acre) Puez-Geisler Nature Park is situated here. It includes parts of the community of Villnöß and the Ladinic communities in the Gader Valley and in Gröden. The high plateau with an average height of 2.500 m is surrounded in the north by the Würzjoch, in the south by the Grödner Joch, in the east by the Gader Valley, and in the west by the Gröden, Aferer and Villnöß Valleys.