A very good weekend route in the Swiss Alps leads from Flüelapass over Schwarzhornfurgga to Grialetschhütte. It works well as a two-day hike and offers several ways to extend it. You can add the summit of the Schwarzhorn or continue over Scalettapass towards Keschhütte on the second day.

Getting to Flüelapass without a car

In the morning, we first took the train to Landquart and continued via Sagliains to Susch. There we changed to the seasonal bus over Flüelapass, which took us directly to the start of the hike. For a weekend tour, this is a particularly practical journey: you do not need a car, yet you begin already high in the mountains.

Low cloud drifting through the valley below Flüelapass
The high start saves a long approach, but the pass can sit directly in fast-changing mountain weather.

Day one: over Schwarzhornfurgga

There are several ways to reach Grialetschhütte from Flüelapass. We chose the longer option over Schwarzhornfurgga. Our first day came to roughly 8.5 kilometres, with 840 metres of ascent and 520 metres of descent.

Bare high-alpine basin, snow patches and cloud near Schwarzhornfurgga
Above the pass road, grass gives way quickly to a wide, stony high-alpine basin.

From Schwarzhornfurgga, it is possible to add the Schwarzhorn, which rises above 3,100 metres. We decided against it. By the time we had reached the col, we were already a little tired and still had a substantial part of the route to the hut ahead of us.

Instead, we continued below Piz Radönt. The landscape becomes increasingly bare and alpine before the line drops again towards Grialetschhütte. The final section was somewhat more demanding in places. We descended over larger blocks of rock while the hut eventually appeared in the distance. That blocky section was the clear key passage, but it was not a long stretch of technical terrain.

Loose rock and blocky terrain on the traverse beyond Schwarzhornfurgga
The key passage is short, but this view shows why the recorded line should not be presented as the normal T3 hut approach.

An evening near the glacier

After several hours of hiking, reaching the hut felt appropriately good. Grialetschhütte is comparatively modern and felt comfortable to us. The hut family was also exceptionally friendly. As in almost every Swiss mountain hut, the prices are not exactly low, but in return you get a remarkably comfortable place to spend a night in the middle of the mountains.

We still had some time, and I did not want to spend the whole afternoon inside. I followed a smaller, at times barely visible path in the direction of the Grialetsch Glacier and Piz Grialetsch. A real ascent would have required glacier and mountaineering equipment, which was of course not my plan.

Milky glacial pools among exposed rock near the Grialetsch Glacier
Milky water, fresh debris and bare rock fill much of the forefield below the remaining ice.
Exposed terrain and remaining snow near the Grialetsch Glacier
What remained most clearly in my memory was the amount of bare rock and debris below the remaining ice.

What struck me most was how clearly the glacier’s retreat could be seen. Large areas consisted only of scree, bare rock and newly exposed ground. Inside the hut, older photographs showed a much larger and more substantial glacier. Looking at those images and then stepping outside made the difference especially visible. Places that had once been covered completely by ice now consisted almost entirely of rock and debris. That is one of the things I remember most clearly from this hike.

I continued a little farther until I found a good view of the remaining glacier and the surrounding mountains. Afterwards, I returned to Grialetschhütte. I particularly liked this short additional walk because hardly anyone else was still out after the main hike, and the surroundings felt almost entirely ours.

Dinner at the hut was simple but completely sufficient after the day. There was not much left to do afterwards except enjoy the evening in the mountains and eventually go to sleep.

Day two: down to Dürrboden

We set off relatively early the next morning. The direct descent from Grialetschhütte to Dürrboden is about 4.2 kilometres with 534 metres of descent. From there, we took the seasonal shuttle back towards Davos.

Narrow trail descending through the green Dischma valley towards Dürrboden
Day two is shorter and greener, following the valley out towards Dürrboden.

Many other hikers headed in the opposite direction that morning, continuing over Scalettapass, for example towards Keschhütte. For us, two days were exactly the right length. After the descent to Dürrboden, we travelled home, ending a short but very successful weekend around Flüelapass.