Morteratsch Glacier

The weather forecast wasn’t great for today - dry morning, but rain in the afternoon, it said. So I planned only a short trip, up to the Morteratsch glacier. 

Once, it used to be an easy walk up the valley to the glacier terminus. But during the last couple of years, the glacier shrunk so much that it disappeared behind a big cliff and was inaccessible for hikers. (In the first extra you can see the difference between 2013 and now.)

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a brand new, marked hiking path go up that cliff. It was a steep climb, but of course I wanted to get close to the ice again. And although the glacier has lost much of its former mass, it’s still very impressive. 

When I got back from the glacier, it was just early afternoon and the weather stayed sunny. I took a train to St. Moritz and walked back from there; along the lake (second extra), around the smaller lake Lej da Staz and through beautiful pine forest to Pontresina.

After almost 25000 steps, I am done walking for today, and my hiking holiday comes to its end. I’ll spend the evening with an old friend before the trains take me home tomorrow.

Edit: At the end of the day, I had done 29K steps - a personal record for the last couple of years.