Via Engiadina

The Via Engiadina route is 160 km long and consists of twelve stages from the Upper to the Lower Engadine. Your starting point is in the tranquil mountain village of Maloja. Just above it, at the Lunghin Pass, is the triple watershed. This is where the Inn River rises. Known as En in Romansh, it gave the Engadine its name. Around 800 glaciers feed the river up to where it flows into the Danube near Passau.

West of Maloja, in the Pro Natura nature reserve, you can explore 36 glacial potholes consisting of granite gneiss, a mountain pine forest and upland moors. Past the nature reserve, the path climbs up to Blaunca with its incredible view over the valley. From the small mountain pasture settlement, you can see right across Lake Sils and the Piz Corvatsch which lies across from it. A gravel road runs across wide mountain meadows, beneath the rocks of the mountain peaks, to the next hamlet. Grevasalvas is in an idyllic sun trap. It was the filming location for “Heidi” in 1978.

The diverse path continues past narrow mountain streams and huge rock formations. The path is also quite a way above the lake. You go past beautiful old pine and larch forests and stunning flower meadows along the hillside. The panorama across the Upper Engadine lake landscape is breathtaking.

The village of Sils Maria, situated between the lakes, now comes into view. Sils Maria is the gateway to the romantic, traffic-free Fex Valley. The path continues on the hillside towards Föglias, and you are soon level with Lake Silvaplana. The constant wind in Maloja makes the lake particularly popular with kite-surfers and windsurfers.

You now go slightly uphill through old coniferous forests to Fratta. This is followed by a short descent to the young and trendy holiday resort of Silvaplana. The backdrop is the Julier Pass. Pack animals used to be driven across the pass, and later on came stagecoach passengers, merchants and traders who were travelling through. Today, the exposed and sunny location between the lakes and mountains attracts visitors from far and wide to the village.