With vistas of pristine glaciers, turquoise alpine lakes and the highest peak of the Eastern Alps all condensed into one easy hike at minimal effort, it was impossible to turn down even for two 9-to-5 office workers of mediocre fitness -- especially when the chairlift tickets were free.
Free tickets aside, this had to be one of my three favourite beginner hikes -- the Lavaux vineyard route and the Männlichen-Kleine Scheidegg trail being the other two -- of our 16-day circular route through ten Swiss cantons starting and ending at Zürich.
If you can spot the thin horizontal line across the alpine forest, yes, that’s the trail -- a mostly flat, reasonably-maintained 6.7 km footpath with views of the majestic Piz Bernina glaciers for half of the hike, and panoramas of the Engadine Lakes beckoning below for the other half.
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But first we had to fuel up at the town’s Coop supermarket, which carried an assortment of local charcuterie specialties including Graubünden’s proud Bündnerfleisch and Bündner Salsiz. We also started to adopt the Swiss hikers’ practice of carrying a tube of Tomy mustard/mayo, indispensable when making sandwiches on the trail.
Known as Panoramaweg Muottas Muragl, the trail follows the alpine tree line at 2400m altitude between the Alp Languard chairlift and the Muottas Muragl funicular station. We chose to take the 2-person chairlift from Pontresina up to Alp Languard and hiked in the direction of Muottas Muragl, though many hikers prefer the opposite direction for its slightly downhill route.
Ending our hike at Muottas Muragl has its benefits. While the Alp Languard chairlift closes after 17:30, the Muottas Muragl funicular opens until 23:00 for the clientele of its mountain top restaurant. We could take all the time we needed to enjoy our views of Bernina Valley below with its raging whitewaters twisting towards St. Moritz in the distance.
Leading our path in front was the azure Lake St. Moritz with its emblematic luxury yachts gliding across the alpine lake with the jagged Piz Julier as backdrop. Halfway up the mountain was the expansive grassy plateau accessible by the Corviglia funicular, the locale for our next day’s hike above St. Moritz.
Behind our back was the constant view of the 4000m Piz Bernina and its neighbouring glacier of Morteratsch. After crossing a provisional tunnel in a rockslide area, we reached the one-third point of our hike signified by a popular watering hole.
Boasting fabulous panoramas of Piz Bernina on one side and the Engadine Lakes on the other, Unterer Schafberg was simply irresistible as a pit stop for these two thirsty hikers craving for some süssmost, the local variant of unfiltered, potent apple cider. I must commend the seasonal cafe for its fair prices, e.g. CHF 6 for a 0.5 L cider, considering that everything would need to be transported uphill to its location in the middle of nowhere.
The first leg from Alp Languard, 45 minutes on paper, took us 1 hour and 15 minutes with frequent stops for hikers coming in the opposite direction along the narrow mountainside trail. The second leg towards Muottas Muragl was supposed to be 1 hour and 45 minutes, and we needed to speed up in our attempt to make it back to Samedan by dinnertime.
Two-thirds into our hike we reached the most rugged section where the trail was nearly washed out by fallen rocks. The barren landscape towards the mountaintop is home to the largest ibex colony in the entire Alps, though our chance of spotting one would be higher in springtime when they tend to forage at lower elevations.
Much of our trail hovered just above the tree line at 2400m, separating the grassy alpine meadows below from the harsh rocky terrain above. Towards the final third our footpath merged with the Segantini Hut trail, another route with the same start and end points but taking a higher elevation path.
Just north of the Muragl creek the trail passed through a terrain of marmot burrows where it was impossible to miss these chubby fellows foraging diligently ahead of hibernation season.
The 110-year-old Muottas funicular beckoned from our finish line, climbing 700m up a steep incline from the valley and sporting the world’s most accurate sundial -- and moondial in the winter -- above its peak station.
By 17:40 we reached the Alp Muottas restaurant, now just a few minutes from the funicular station, among an orchestra of cowbells from the restaurant’s own herd of black Angus cattle roaming the hills above. As the string of Engadine Lakes glimmered in the sunset, it was time to return to the valley for dinner.
We took the 18:15 funicular back to Pontresina, making it a 4 hour hike with a 40 minute break at the Schafberg hut. The round-trip ticket for Alp Languard-Muottas Muragl would have absolutely warranted its regular price of CHF 35, but even better when it was paid for by our hotel courtesy of the Bergbahnen Inklusive program. If you’re planning a budget trip to Switzerland like we did, see the earlier post on doing St. Moritz on the cheap.
We rewarded ourselves with a cheap local dinner of vinegared wurst and pan-fried rösti, presented in this autumn season with a helping of chanterelle mushrooms. Special thanks to the friendly chef at Restorant Sper l'En in Samedan for reaching out to these Canadians with stories of the local ice hockey team. Danke vilmal!
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