Summit talks at 3200 m

Holidays are something special. At least we have only a few free weeks and if we come away, we are searching not everyday life experiences. A really special hideaway in South Tyrol is the mountain-hotel Grawand. At 3200 above sea level.

The air is rare up here, every step is heavier as below in Vinschgau Valley, where you reach from Schnalstal Valley the Grawand glacier and the homonymous hotel by cable car. It is the highest situated hotel in the Alps, it owns 45 rooms in the 3 stars category and offers a fantastic view over 350 3000 m peaks, over Piz Bernina the only 4000 m peak in the Eastern Alps and - when the weather is fine – even over the Dolomites.

The mountain hotel Grawand is operating only during the winter season. The Schnals glacier and the Grawand peak are part of the Ortler Skiarena and as successful ski area since the 70ties, without which South Tyrols ski-landscapes would be unthinkable. Alone because of the reason, that here it is possible to ski also in summer. Ski teams from all over the world attend the altitude training. The rare air, it is hard to believe, is healthy: the number of red blood cells increases in height and the performance, too.

Touching the stars

Why the hotel in summer is closed and only the restaurant is open, is obvious. "In summer are training some ski trams here. But they stay overnight down in the valley. It doesn’t pay off operating the hotel in summer, " says Arthur Gfrei, managing director of the mountain hotel Grawand. In winter however reign a continual coming and going, particularly in the weekends. Then at short notice it is over whit idyllic mountain-peace, the holiday makers are getting heavy legs and can’t sleep at night. That’s because of the height: Gfrei misadvise tourists with high blood pressure to stay in his hotel at 3200 m above sea level. The ones with low blood pressure need some time, to feel fine in this height.

After the holidays the stay at 3200 m makes impact: the stay acts performance enhancing and somehow everything seems smaller and easier, when you have touched the stars at 3000 m above sea level.

Informationen

The winter season in the mountain hotel Grawand lasts from October to the end of April. Than the restaurant opens in the middle of June and closes in September.

You reach the hotel Grawand only by cable car. The valley station is situated in Kurzras in Schnalstal Valley. The last tour is at 4.30 pm.

Berghotel Grawand
Kurzras 111
39020 Schnalstal
Tel.: +39 0473 662118
Fax: +39 0473 662172
E-Mail: info@grawand.com
www.grawand.com