The last four days of the Tour of the Bernina brought us back into Switzerland. There, we paralleled the train line to Alp Grüm (where we stayed in a hotel that is also a train station) and along Lago Bianco and Lej Nair. We spent our last two nights with spectacular glacier views, one a berghaus tied in with a ski area and the last at a classic Swiss hut.
This is part of a series of posts on our 2021 Tour of the Bernina. Other posts include:
- An overview and notes on planning the Tour of the Bernina
- Arrival, a day hike at Oeschinensee, and transit to Pontresina
- Tour of the Bernina – Stages 1-3: Pontresina, Chamanna Coaz, Maloja, and Fornohütte
- Tour of the Bernina – Stages 4-6: Fornohütte, Rifugios Longoni, Carate Brianza, and Bignami
- Tour of the Bernina – Stages 7-10: Alp Grüm, Berghaus Diavolezza, Boval Hut, and Pontresina (this post)
You may also be interested in our packing list for hut-to-hut hikes. Links on this page to Booking.com are affiliate links; we earn a small commission on bookings made through those links.
Day 7: Rifugio Bignami to Alp Grüm
We ate a simple breakfast–toast, jam, a piece of tart–at the refuge before starting out. Our route for the day began with a descent to 7000′, near Lago di Alpe Gera, where we crossed the Torrente Valle di Campo Moro below a beautiful waterfall.
After crossing the stream, we began climbing again. The ascent was gradual to about 7300′, where reached a junction and a small hamlet. After the hamlet, the way became steep to about 8000′, where it leveled briefly, and then we again climbed steeply to Passo Confinale (8600′). The pass is on the border between Italy and Switzerland.
Just below the pass, we watched a group of about 20 choughs harass a hawk. We also stopped often for blueberries, though we found these blueberries to be much less flavorful than the wild blueberries I grew up with in New England or those back at home in Washington.
A steady, gradual descent brought us to a road around 7000′. We followed it briefly before diverging again and entering the woods.
This began probably my least favorite stretch of the trip. The air on this side of the pass was humid and warm–I’d even say muggy–and quite the contrast to the previous days. Once the forest obscured the views, we had time to notice the change weather. The route also brought us by several enormous (2-3′ high and 4-5′ in diameter) ant hills. These were impressive, but even as someone who does not normally take issue with bugs, they made my skin crawl a bit.
A little less than three miles later, we emerged by the railroad at Cavaglia. From here, we would have to climb about 1500′ to our accommodations for the night.
Lacking enthusiasm to start back up, we decided to take a break. The restaurant by the train station had an inviting patio, and we soon had ordered food and drinks. I had a Hugo and gnocchi with butter and sage; Kyle had capunets with beer. Everything was very good, but the capunets were the star. Capunets, at least in Valposchiavo, are small, spinach dumplings, served cheese.
Refreshed, we walked through the remainder of Cavaglia and climbed to Lagh da Palü. We explored a little around the lake before resuming our climb. While it had looked daunting from below, the combination of nature and railroad to look at made it pass quickly.
Before we knew it, we reached Alp Grüm, a train station, restaurant, and our hotel for the night. Our total for the day was 10.9 miles and 5446′.
We checked in and were delighted to find we had a large corner room overlooking the station platforms, Lagh da Palü, and the mountains. We took much needed showers and then enjoyed watching the trains until dinner.
The hotel restaurant provided a filling and delightful dinner. We each had mixed salads, and then Kyle had pork saltimbocca with rosemary potatoes while I ate steak with croquettes. Dessert was excellent: Engandiner nusstorte and torta della nonna. It had been a very good food day.
Day 8: Alp Grüm to Berghaus Diavolezza
Alp Grüm offered a simple but delicious breakfast buffet in a room with great views to Lagh da Palü, making a nice start to the day.
Our hike began with a short, steep climb to Casa Alpina Belvedere. Situated at a bend in the road with a remarkable view of Val Poschiavo, this hotel felt like it was to roadways what Alp Grüm was to railways.
After this initial ascent, the trail offered a more meandering ascent up to the dam at the south end of Lago Bianco. From there, we followed the west shore of the lake. We had views to the mountains above and to the railway on the eastern shore. Lago Bianco is a curious reservoir at the Bernina Pass, with dams at both its northern and southern ends. The lake drains to the south, into the Poschiavino, Adda, and Po rivers before reaching the Mediterranean.
We covered the level trail to the dam at the north end quickly. Just past the dam, we reached the darker waters of Lej Nair. This lake drains to the north side of the pass, through the Inn and Danube rivers to the Black Sea.
We passed one more, smaller lake–Lej Pitschen–before we turned west and immediately began our next climb for the day. The climb was broken up by a bowl and small lake, Lej d’Arlas, and then the larger Laj da Diavolezza. As we climbed, we could see a procession of tractors on the road below, perhaps a protest.
By Laj da Diavolezza, our surroundings included lots of ski infrastructure, with the Berghaus Diavolezza’s cable car above. Something about this kind of scenery always makes me speed up. We completed the remaining distance and elevation quickly, reaching Berghaus Diavolezza after a total of 7.3 miles, 3566′, and just under four hours since we left Alp Grüm.
At Berghaus Diavolezza (Booking.com), we checked in, got settled in our small but private room, and took showers before other overnight guests arrived. Having arrived plenty early, we decided to get lunch, sharing lasagne and and fried buckwheat / cheese salad.
We considered the short excursion to Munt Pers (10,522′, about a two hour round trip). However, the summit was in and out of the clouds most of the afternoon. Thunder also rumbled from time to time, mostly to the south. We found ourselves getting up the motivation to head out, then seeing it cloud in and unsure if it was worth it. The views on from the Berghaus were also excellent, and so we instead just enjoyed being there.
After a delicious lunch, we had high hopes for dinner. It started well, with a nice barley salad, but this was followed by relatively flavorless soup and veal, with a small fruit salad for dessert. We enjoyed Braulio and Appenzeller as digestifs.
We turned in early, but I woke up during the night to enjoy seeing the stars over the peaks.
Day 9: Berghaus Diavolezza to Chamanna da Boval
We awoke to a crisp, clear morning and enjoyed sunrise views from the Berghaus’s patio. The alpenglow was spectacular on Piz Bernina and other peaks. We also observed multiple helicopter flights to near the summit of Piz Bernina.
Thanks to the cable car, we enjoyed a breakfast larger than typical for a mountain hut. A small cloud bank rolled in as we ate, giving still different views. By the time we finished, it had cleared.
Though we could see our next night’s hut from the Berghaus – under two miles away but across glaciers – we had an 8+ mile day ahead of us. Consequently, while we were tempted to stay and enjoy the views from the patio for hours, we set out not too long after breakfast.
The first part of our route retraced the last stage of the previous day’s hike. We descended to Laj da Diavolezza and then continued wrapping northwest around the mountain. Around 7100′, we turned right on a sort of balcony trail. This trail popped in and out of the forests, staying about 400′ above the valley, with its river, railway, and road below.
Alas, we eventually had to give up this elevation, descending 900′ feet when we reached the Vadret da Morteratsch. At the mouth of the valley, we crossed the railway, passed the Morteratsch train station, and then crossed the tracks again. From here, if we needed a shorter itinerary, we easily could have completed the short hike into Pontresina and completed our trip.
Instead, we immediately began climbing again, ascending to a lateral moraine on the west side of the valley. This trail also drove home just how much the Morteratsch glacier has retreated. Signs marked the end of the glacier in past years; the years were surprisingly recent while the current terminus of the glacier remained sadly far away.
We continued along the moraine, with the peaks and glacier soon growing closer. Larches dotted the mountainside and valley below. I have since seen photos of this valley glowing gold in autumn, and I would love to return to see it like that sometime.
After a mostly steady climb, a short, steep section brought us the last distance to the Chamanna da Boval. Our distance for the day totaled 8.2 miles and 2250′ feet. Including lots of stops for views and to watch the trains, it had been about five hours since we left Diavolezza.
At the hut, we supplemented our lunch with radlers and delicious apricot tarts. We ate these and spent most of our afternoon on the hut’s patio, which had wonderful views of Piz Bernina and surrounding mountains and glaciers.
Clouds thickened in late afternoon, so we did not get the best sunset. A good meal–creamy mushroom soup, green salad with corn, pork roast, and a chocolate mousse-like dessert–made for a nice end to the day. After dinner, we read before turning in.
Day 10: Chamanna da Boval to Pontresina
We woke up early to enjoy sunrise, which featured sorbet-colored skies, alpenglow on the peaks, and then long shadows of the mountains growing steadily shorter as the sun got higher.
With not that far to go for the day, so we took our time leaving. We followed the trail back along the moraine almost to Morteratsch. Along the way, we turned around often to enjoy the mountains and glacier in the morning light. Instead of descending, we turned and followed a trail around 6600′ through the forest. This continued to descend gradually, reaching the valley floor on the outskirts of Pontresina. A few minutes later, we were in town. Our distance for the day was 6 miles and 952′ (mostly up and down on the balcony walk), in just under three hours.
It was much too early to check into the hotel, so we stopped at a café for a leisurely lunch. We shared capons, a mixed salad, an elderberry lemonade, an apricot lemonade. Capuns are meat (sausage and/or ham) wrapped in chard, and typically served in a cream sauce. For dessert, I tried another specialty of Graubünden: vermicelles, a chestnut puree pastry. Kyle ordered a coffee which ended up being more like a hybrid between a milkshake and a sundae.
We then headed back to Hotel Abris (Booking.com). They kindly had both our left luggage and a plate of delicious cookies waiting in the room. We cleaned up and did a little bit of packing. This was toward the end of travel restrictions, so we will needed a negative COVID test to get back into the US. To get tested, we took a bus to St. Moritz, where the Polyclinic offered free COVID tests and the necessary documentation.
The test was straightforward: we showed up at the appointed time and were in and out in just a few minutes. As a bonus, we had a nice walk by the lake to get between the bus and the clinic.
Back in Pontresina, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel, because the first night had been so good. This time, we decided to eat their half-pension meal. It was very good, but I think not quite as good as their à la carte menu.
Lucerne and back home
In the morning, we enjoyed Hotel Albris’s excellent and extensive breakfast before heading to the train station. We originally planned scheduled to fly out of Zurich, but British Airways schedule cuts meant that we instead had to depart from Geneva. This made for a long day of trains. That was okay, though. We were each ready to sit for a while and watch the scenery go by.
We took advantage of having a day pass to travel at our own schedule. This also gave us the flexibility to add in a nice stop in Lucerne. There, we dropped our luggage in lockers at the train station and walked around. We enjoyed the lake, the Chapel Bridge, views from the Männliturm, and gelato, before returning to the train.
Back on the train, we had a nice dinner in the dining car. With an early flight, I had booked us at an airport hotel. For multiple trips, I have booked us at various Geneva airport hotels because the idea of a “short” walk to the terminal has always seemed appealing for morning flights. I have since reached the opinion that this is a terrible idea. The walks are never as short or straightforward as I convince myself they are, and the rail line runs so reliably and quickly into Geneva that I now believe that it is unambiguously better to just stay in Geneva. This is made even easier as Geneva hotels now send guests transit passes which you can use from the airport.
Ready to start planning your own Tour of the Bernina? Return back to our overview post.
