Muottas Murgal Hike
Michele and I are spending a month or so in Switzerland, to chill and to hike. This was our last hike in Pontresina, and the one with the best views of the entire amazing region.
Let's start with the obvious question: I can't remember how to pronounce this, but it almost certainly isn't how you or I just did it in our heads. "Murgal" is something like myur-aye. And for "Muottas", I really have no idea idea.
During our visit to Switzerland, we spent a week hiking around Pontresina.
For the last hike of the week, Michele and I climbed to a mountain hut directly above Pontresina, giving us amazing views of the entire Pontresina / St. Moritz valley and surrounding peaks.
See the full photo album on Flickr
Hike Stats
- Strava: map, route, and stats
- Trailhead: Our hotel and/or the funicular stop at Muottas Murgal
- Trails: Route to Muottas Murgal, then the route to Chamanna Segantini, then down
- Distance: 9 mi
- Elevation: 6000 ft -> 9000 ft -> 7600 ft
- Hiking time: 4:30
- Weather: Perfect. Sunny and cool.
- Conditions: Trails in great shape. Fairly crowded - it's a popular area and a popular hike.
Journal
This is the hike we've been wanting to do since we decided long ago to go visit Pontresina. This hike crosses the huge shelf about Pontresina, yielding amazing views down to the town and out to the neighboring towns, lakes, and peaks. It was a fantastic hike to do as our last one because we could see everywhere else we'd been during the week.
I launched from our hotel room again - love that! - and headed uphill.
Michele took the funicular (short for "straight up the hill train") to a point roughly half-way up the climb, where we met. And then we had a whole lot more to hike to get to the top.
Once at the top, we chilled out with apple juice and pastries while soaking in the view along with several dozen other hikers.
From there, we descended into the Bernina Pass valley, passing a huge number of rock formations used to keep avalanches from wiping out Pontresina. I worry how those do these days, but I'm pretty sure Swiss engineers are on top of that problem. We took a chair lift down for the last few thousand feet of descent, which was an excellent call, saving our knees in the heat for the least spectacular part of the day.
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