Bernina Pass Hike
Michele and I are spending a month or so in Switzerland, to chill and to hike. This was a simple, casual hike with spectacular views of the mountains off the Bernina Pass above Pontresina.
During our visit to Switzerland, we spent a week hiking around Pontresina.
For our second hike of the week, we headed to an easier and shorter route with amazing views - first circling a lake right at the top of the Bernina Pass, then descending past huge vistas to a famous train stop.
See the full photo album on Flickr
Hike Stats
- Strava: map, route, and stats
- Trailhead: Ospizio Bernina train station
- Trails: Around Lago Blanco, then down to Alp Grum station
- Distance: 5 mi
- Elevation: 7400 -> 6900
- Hiking time: 2 hrs
- Weather: Spectacular
- Conditions: Easy trails, not too busy
Journal
The first hike of the week had been fairly strenuous, so we decided to sleep in and then hike easy on our second hiking day. Both of those were fantastic decisions.
We took the train up to the last stop before crossing the Bernina Pass - Ospizio Bernina. We sat alongside the Lago Blanco for our picnic, watching bikers tackle the slightly technical trail in front of us with varying degrees of finesse.
Our trail went around the lake, which turned out to be far prettier than I had thought. The stark mountains, the streams filling the lake, the flowers still in bloom... so pleasant. At the far end of the lake, we had a decision point as to whether to just complete the lake circuit or to follow the frail farther and down, then grab the train at the next stop.
Feeling good, we chose to keep hiking. The trail from that point kept opening up to amazing view after amazing view. I really want to come back later to hike into some of those canyons we saw.
We grabbed the next train through Alp Grum, which turned out to be a Bernina Pass reserved observation train, so we crowded into the one car that wasn't reserved and rode the entire way down to Pontresina with no stops. That worked out great.
A spectacularly gorgeous hike for a so-called "recovery" day.
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