100 Hut Walks in the Alps - A Walker's Guidebook

Guidebook of 100 walks based around the excellent network of Alpine huts – from southern France, through Switzerland, Austria and Italy to Slovenia. The huts range from simple unmanned shelters to mountain inns with hot showers and restaurant. Day- and multi-day walks, and suggestions for hut-to-hut tours.

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Walk 55 - Boval Hut (2495m: 8186ft)

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Valley base: Pontresina
Start: Pontresina (1805m: 5922ft)
Distance: 10.5km (6½ miles)
Time: 3½hrs one way
Total ascent: 690m (2264ft)
Map: LS 1277 ‘Piz Bernina’ 1:25,000

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With tremendous glacier views up, down, and across the valley, the Boval Hut is one of the busiest in the Swiss Alps. Used as a base by climbers tackling the major peaks of the Bernina Group, it is also immensely popular with day visitors, for whom the approach from Morteratsch Station (on the St Moritz-Poschiavo-Tirano branch of the Rhaetian Railway) makes a spectacular walk of just 2hrs. The Morteratsch Glacier is one of the dominant features of this walk. Beginning on the Bellavista crest at more than 3800m, this glacier descends in a seemingly motionless cascade, and pushes its way north towards the Val Bernina. However, like all Alpine icefields, the Morteratsch Glacier is rapidly receding, and marker posts indicate the speed and extent of its retreat in recent years. The Boval Hut is sited on the left-hand lateral moraine, at the foot of Piz Boval.

Whilst it is perfectly feasible to ride the train from Pontresina to Morteratsch Station, it is recommended to walk all the way. After all, it only requires another 1½hrs, and there are undoubted pleasures to be gained by taking the woodland path along the edge of Val Bernina.

Begin by crossing the valley from Pontresina towards the mouth of Val Roseg, where a path will be found heading left to Surovas, a railway halt. For a while the walk goes alongside the railway line, a woodland path of some charm which, as you progress, strays to the right and gains height in order to avoid an unnecessary detour to Morteratsch Station. Coming to the mouth of the Morteratsch Valley, join the main path and veer right to be confronted by a glorious panorama of snow- and icecapped mountains forming a huge wall in the south. As the path progresses, so the view broadens: the triple buttressed Piz Palü is at the far left, then the creamy waves of Bellavista rising to Piz Zupò, followed by the Crast’ Agüzza and finally, from select places only, Piz Bernina itself. Left of the path the snout of the Morteratsch Glacier spews out its torrent like a flood of cold coffee, among the dirty terminal moraines.

The path is well-defined and will, no doubt, be shared with plenty of other walkers and climbers, all with the same destination. It leads without difficulty directly to the hut, from whose terrace you should be able to pick out ropes of climbers on neighbourhood peaks, or descending the glaciers.

The Boval Hut belongs to the Pontresina-based Bernina Section of the SAC. With 100 places it has a guardian usually from mid-June to October, during which period meals are provided (Phone: 081 842 6403). In the summer a local guide often leads walkers across the glacier from the Boval Hut to Diavolezza.