ENGADIN

Julier Pass, Val Roseg & Sass Queder

February 2019

When we made our way to the Engadin valley on a Thursday afternoon, the weather was somewhat bad but when we got to the top of Julier Pass along the way, we put on our snowshoes anyways in the gloomy conditions and hiked up through the snow to a viewpoint. Just as we got to the top, some beautiful sunset light came out and we couldn’t believe our luck.

The next day, we went hiking in the beautiful Val Roseg, where I had already been twice before, but never in the winter. There was a winter hiking trail that lead up the long valley and ends shortly before the main attraction. We had to put on our snowshoes for another half an hour or so and make our way to the massive frozen lake that sits at the end of the valley. It's surrounded by mountains that rise up to 2km out of the ground and will make you feel very small. We walked around the place until the sun had set and then it was time to head back down the whole valley, which was about another 10km of hiking. While not being much of a technical challenge, it did get quite a bit colder though and so we just didn't stop walking until we got back to the car a few hours later. One exception to that was stopping at a bridge to take some photos of the stars which looked really pretty above the winter landscape.

On Saturday, we headed out once again, this time one valley further east than the day before. Ascending with the cable car in the early afternoon, we set out to do a short hike from the Diavolezza station to a nearby peak called Sass Queder, where you felt like you’re standing on top of the. We hiked up there once again with our snowshoes on and enjoyed the amazing views in all directions until we had to start descending again because of the last cable leaving at 5pm, just shortly after sunset. There was quite a bit of time left to enjoy the view of the glacier and the massive peaks behind it though before we had to leave. On the way down from the top, you get a really nice panorama view out of the cable car which was just incredible in these kind of blue hour conditions.