For the past 9 years I’ve been living in Switzerland, I estimate to have done more than a hundred hikes. In the early years, I would join hikes organized by the Hiking group of the Bank or friends including some when I would have been picked up in the morning in Basel and returned on the same spot in the evening. In the last couple years, I’ve been planning more of the hikes I do with friends and family. This process takes a couple of hours, sometimes days! What I realize over the years, is that there’s not a lot of content in English about hikes in Switzerland. Inspired by Wander We Go, I’ve decided to document the hikes I’ve done, if not for my future self, perhaps for someone who is need of ideas for what to do the next sunny weekend.
I will start with a week-long trip I did with my best friend on September 2024 at one of my favourite areas in Switzerland – Engadin. I found Kesch Trek on Wander We Go’s website but added a day to do the Joriseen lake hike and changed the last day’s hike. Spoiler: we didn’t manage to do see the lakes due to the unusual winter conditions in the area the week of our trip in September!
I summarize our plan below including the planned but had to cancel days. Note that the time mentiones below does not include breaks and photo ops 🙂
| Day | Accommodation | Activity | Technical Details |
| 1 – Planned but had to cancel | Flüela Hospiz, Passhotel | Jöriseen Lake Hike (Swiss Family Fun) | 10.8 KM 750m up / 750m down Time: 05:05 |
| 1 – Actual | Alpine Inn Davos | Touristic activity and short winter hike from Weissfluhjoch to Höhenweg | Too touristic for technical details 🙂 |
| 2 – Planned but had to cancel | Hike from Flüela, Ospiz to Grialetsch Hütte | 10.9 KM 1037m up / 885m down Time: 04:47 | |
| 2 – Actual | Grialetsch Hütte | Winter hike from Dürrboden to Grialetsch Hütte | 4.2 KM 558m up / 19m down Time: 02:27 |
| 3 | Kesch Hütte | Hike from Grialetsch to Kesch Hütte | 13 KM 857m up / 788 down Time: 04:37 |
| 4 | Chamanna d’Es-cha | Hike from Kesch Hütte to Chamanna D’Es-cha | 14 KM 1044m up / 1080 down Time: 05:26 |
| 5 | Home | Return from d’Es-cha to close-to Porta d’Es-cha then down to Zuoz | 10.66 KM 377m up / 1277m down Time: 04:38 |
Kesch Trek is a multi-day hike which have been marketed recently even outside Switzerland. In fact there were four other Dutch groups/couples doing the same path as us during our trip. We wanted to start with a bang by visiting the Jöriseen lakes and walking up a 3000-der peak on the way to the first hut of the trek – Grialetsch Hütte. We instead had to take a short but very interesting hike from Dürrboden. There was knee-deep snow in some places and I wished I brought my gaters. Otherwise, I was pleased to know that I could hike comfortably in these conditions using only my summer gear.
The Kesch Trek is for sure one of the most interesting hikes I’ve done in Switzerland. The views are fantastic, the trail include unbelievably beautiful valleys, rocky terrains, breath-taking, and sometimes very steep passes (Fuorcla Pischa). We saw cows (of course), horses and lots of marmots in the valley. The trail difficulty is between T2 and T3.
All the huts we stayed in were renovated in the last 5 years or so and offered basic amenities including showers (not for free though). The huts were in fantastic locations, super clean, and the food we had was hearty and delicious. The weather during our trip definitely made it more special. At Chamanna d’Es-cha, we even met two of few mountain uni-cyclists in the world!
On our last day, instead of walking down from the hut to the train station, we did a return trip up to close to Fuorcla d’Es-cha. It’s officially a blue trail but I think only if you do the pass, which some crazy people did! It was not advisable, again because of snow on the pass. We walked very close to it until we didn’t see any reasonable path to continue on. Either because it’s a blue trail or a weekday, not many people were there. In fact, we only heard voices from the pass but didn’t really see them. The terrain up there is rocky and the view down is amazing on a sunny weather.
The Kesch Trek is designed such that you end at Preda, but we took Wander We Go’s advise and walked down to the closest train station instead. This way we could spend the time to do the return trip to the pass.
The toughest part of the trip for me was the uphill climb to Fuorcla Pischa. It was steep up and rocky, but I didn’t feel it was dangerous. It’s really more that you have to have the stamina to continue walking until you reach the windy pass. The view from there is definitely worth the effort. Otherwise, the rest of the trail was relatively easy and enjoyable although I should mention that whenever there’s an option to walk on a valley or a single-lane-path carved on the side of a mountain, we consciously chose the less exciting but much safer valley walk.
Vanie's View 