Easter is late this year, at the end of April. It will be our first multiple day ski tour and friends suggest the Haute Route in Graubünden, Switzerland. The avalanche situation looks fine and the weather report promises a sunny weekend.
From the tour description it does not become clear how we can connect the start and end of the tour with public transport, so we modify the last day slightly. We won’t end as planned at the Furka Pass, but instead in Brail (via Piz Sarsura and Ova de Barras) and from there take the bus back to Zernez.
We park in Zernez and sleep on a free parking lot in the car. At 7am leaves the train to St. Moritz and from there we catch the daily bus to the Julierpass.
9.30 am and we embark on the adventure. The sun is already burning. With every meter we drop another layer of clothes and add another layer of sunscreen. It’s a nice and relaxed ascent, but I’m steadily falling behind. We change backpacks and now it’s the other way around. Maybe we should distribute weight more equally.
We’ve been so busy with our backpacks, that we blindly follow the trail of someone else and suddenly reach the saddle Fuorcia d’Agnel instead of the summit Piz Surgonda. Luckily this is not much of a problem, we just skipped a few meters of altitude. The view is fantastic, and we get a little impression of our next days. Lukas can’t miss the obligatory handstand picture. Not so easy with ski boots.
We ski down to the hut and set our first lines in the untouched slopes. Only one little ascent separates us now from the well-earned dinner. The Jenatsch Hütte is a beautiful old hut. Since we’re in Switzerland we decided beforehand to cook our own food most of the time. Works perfectly, until they tell us that we can’t drink their water but buy it for only 10 CHF (1.5L). I don’t really want to believe it. So now we’re not only cooking dinner but also boiling water and melting snow. I also realize that my sunscreen efforts weren’t quite sufficient. My face has the color of my jacket – raspberry. Amateur, I think and smile to myself.
We sleep like babies and get up after everyone has left for breakfast. We have our breakfast outside, when the first sun rises behind the peaks. The snow is still frozen, and we traverse a 45° slope. I wish I’d put on crampons, but now it’s too late – a wrong step and I’m gone. Lukas doesn’t care and keeps going forward. I wish I had his nerves. We make it safe and sound to the other side, but lesson learned: We did not leave again without any. From there it’s a super nice ascent to Piz Laviner.
The view up there is amazing and followed by a forever lasting slope. Unfortunately, the first couple hundred meters look a lot better than they actually are. Bruchharsch they call it. So far, I just heard bad stories about it. The snow is a frozen layer at the surface and soft powder underneath. It’s frozen enough that you break in sometimes, but not always and turning the ski feels like a master task. I’m yelling at the snow and Lukas, well, lies in the snow – head first. Then from one meter to the other it transforms to spring snow, WHIIOOOOP this is amaaazing, soft and fluffy and skiing feels like flying again. Then we cruise along a stream all the way down to the valley. Day 2 includes a little train ride. It sounded like not much of a trouble in the description, but reality looks different.
We tie the skis to the backpacks and walk 20min along the road to Preda. We sit at the train station in this empty, strange looking place under the burning sun and wait for the train to Madulain. After 3h on the train and waiting for connections we arrive. Now comes the basically second skitter of the day, almost 1000m ascent to the d’Es-cha Hütte.
The sky is cloudy. We carry the skis up a snowless trail and then walk through heavy, slushy snow for a while. I can feel my energy fading. We cover a few meters of altitude and then make some distancetowards the end of the valley. Philosophizing about life let the time pass quickly. Then we turn right and get into the final ascent. With a monotonous step by step everyone walks for themselves. I can see the gable of the hut already. Lukas is further ahead. I’m trying to unlock my energy reserves but there is nothing anymore. The roof of the hut turns out to be a rock. The few hundred meters more to the actual hut seem endless.
What a day! The hut is tiny and beautiful and the hosts amazing. A hot chocolate brings back my energy while Lukas makes dinner outside. We sit on the terrace and watch the peaks disappear in clouds and darkness. I’m really proud, covering almost 2000m of altitude on one day is my personal record. A little later, I’m asleep.
We wake up and see nothing. We’re in the middle of the clouds. Together with a couple from the UK we leave our favorite hut. They rely on their map and compass and are pleased to follow our GPS through the white around us. Distance and altitude wise it’s a lot easier today, but much more technical. We traverse a slope (this time with crampons), walk by foot across a saddle and again with ski to the ski depot of Piz Kesch.
By now the ski is blue. We ask the people coming down about the snow conditions and the difficulty of the climb. It sounds good and equipped with crampons and axes we reach the summit, which is again in the clouds. Sometimes we get a short glimpse of the view.
This time, the reward comes a little later. We ski down the mountain, first through fluffy powder, then it turns into softest spring snow. We caught literally the absolutely perfect moment. We can’t believe how lucky we are. At three 3pm we arrive at the Kesch Hütte. The majestic summit of Piz Kesch rises behind us without a single cloud. With a huge smile we sit in the snow and enjoy a cold beer.
They tell us again that tab water is not portable. I honestly doubt that but I also neither of us wants to risk it. The prices are similar and so I rather melt some snow again. That works just fine, until suddenly the gas is gone. You should have seen my stupid face, wooop all dinner plans disappeared. The low temperature makes a huge difference. We had to sign up for the evening menu, which is very delicious but does not exactly fit my student budget. However, the mountain view through the glass walls is priceless and we learn from our new friends how to navigate with compass and map.
The fourth day starts with a long, icy ride into the endless valley. Later, we reach a mountain cirque surrounded by peaks. One of them will be our interim target today. The left ascent looks nice, but our GPS and the tour description leads us to the right side. At the saddle, the strong wind gives us a hard time staying on our feet.
The next part of the route descriptions doesn’t make any sense. We decide to do what seems most logical and brings us in direction of todays’ hut. Further down we realize that we’re right, only that the tour will bring us back to the same ridge line we just came from. Lukas is laughing at me because I put the skins back on with a seriously grumpy face. But the 360° view of white summits was worth every step. At the horizon we see Piz Kesch and can’t believe that it’s been only yesterday that we were standing at the other summit.
The wind gets cold, we remove the skins, ski down and put the skins back on, up to the next saddle. – we getting faster! The climb to the Piz Grialetsch doesn’t look very challenging but our clock tells us that we’re too late to go through a South wall.
One hut looks nicer than the other. We sit outside the Grialetsch Hütte and with a typical swiss carrot cake, the local opinion and a map are we planning the the next day.
The afternoon passes and the sun paints the mountains in warming sunset colors. When we leave for a walk, it feels like walking through our own dream. We would stay here, for a little while at least.
At dinner we meet Brigitte & friends. We have the same planes for tomorrow and since we will leave the set route we’re not unhappy to form a group with these experienced mountaineers.
With the first sun we ski down the icy slope and ascent on the other side of the valley. We will go through Fuorcla Sasura and up to Piz Sasura. It’s Easter today. At the summit, we see what the Pieps is really meant to be for – searching Easter eggs on 3000m.
Then it’s time to leave winter for this season. We put the skins in the backpack, traverse the backside of the slope to the Fuorcla Barlas and jump right into the final slope. We ski down through the valley Ova de Barlas to get to Brail. The snow is still frozen at the beginning and quickly turns into fantastic untouched spring snow. Today the mountain is ours. I’m last and watching Lukas skiing down. He has learned soo much in the last days and weeks. I guess he is right, you learn most at the edge of you comfort zone.
In the valley, the trees show their first greens and the snow becomes heavy. Spring!
Lukas hitchhikes the last kilometers to Zernez and picks up the skis and me in Brail. With open windows, Bombay Street 77 singing Up in the Sky we drive back home. Smiling, lighthearted and very proud.
