A Day on the Pizol, Switzerland Backcountry Skiing
Upper part of the Pizol tour. Summit is the rocky point to right of saddle. We wanted to scramble that by using an easy ferrata that's set on the back side, but part of the steel cable was buried by ice, and we didn't bring our spikes. Lesson learned. If you want springtime summits in the Alps, bring spikes and perhaps the rando rope. Even without the absolute top, this was a perfect tour for our first day in Switzerland.
Just as it is back home in Colorado every spring, the situation here is “find something mechanical to convey you to snow line,” otherwise you’ll spend all morning (or all day) dirt hiking.
Don’t get us wrong, we like hiking. But we’d rather ski when the nieve beckons from above like some kind of shining scepter of the mountain king.
Lisa at Wildseelugen saddle. You head up to this from Pizol Hutte, drop over, then tour up to the Pizol. The main tour is very easy, and you can add bonus vert by re-skinning and climbing surrounding corn snow slopes, or on the way back you can drop a bit lower in one or two places and skin back out (while being careful of afternoon warm snow avy danger).
So in the case of the classic Pizol tour a short distance northerly from Chur, Switzerland, the tour began with a ride on the cable to a truly excellent starting point at the Pizol Hutte. This smaller gasthaus serves both lift skiers and backcountry folk. It’s located in a windy but scenic spot so they built it squatty at one story high, with a huge horizontal bank of triple glazed windows taking in a stupendous view. (By the way, thanks Reto for the recommend, this was the perfect tour for first day here.)
Lisa at Pizol Hutte window bay looking southeasterly. Mandatory espresso stop.
Looking down at Pizol Hutte from first part of the tour.
Gps-ing the Pizol tour
Lou is still going crazy with the fill flash. He must be reading too many Euro climbing magazines. This is Lisa at the saddle next to Pizol summit, experimenting with Wildsnow Girl poses.
Lou skiing down the Pizol
Lisa heading down.
Lisa finds a handsome man in die Schweitz
Directions with advice on footwear
Expansive views from the gondola
Apologies for not giving you travel fanatics a better map. Best we can do with limited time is the Google map below, with Pizol Hutte marked. It appears that the Pizol (peak) is not indicated in Google Maps.
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Comments
7 Responses to “A Day on the Pizol, Switzerland Backcountry Skiing”
Beautiful terrain. Enjoy.
Gorgeous area.
I love that wide open white Swiss terrain and post ski Glutwein. Check out the Pitz Jenatsch hut, out of St. Moritz if you have time.
Nice, Lou!
While you are in the Chur neighborhood, you might want to check out the Toedi. there’s plenty of snow this year (at least there was last week), and it’s one of the longest descents in the Alps.
The Oberalpstock out of Disentis is also really nice.
Switzerland has some of the best maps in the world (along with watches and chocolate). Check it out at http://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en
awesome link Tim…thanks.
For those interested, here’s the equivalent link for France:
http://www.geoportail.fr/