Hiking the Seekoffel

This was a pure-hiking day. The weather is perfect, with cloudless blue skies. We drive out of town to the North, park across from the sports store and hop on the shuttle that takes us up into the park and to the parking lot at the Rif. Ra Stua. Here we start hiking up the valley in the cold morning wind. Along the road for a bit and then we turn off onto the trail which starts switchbacking up, up the Crepe de Socroda. A few hundred meters higher and we're in a rolling green and gray landscape with lovely mountains all around. Further along the trail until we get to the Lago Gran de Foses. Here across the idyllic field, past the idyllic hut, along the idyllic lake, past the idyllic little hill with 4 or 5 marmots on it, and then up, up, and around until the Seekoffelhuette comes into view, with the Seekoffel itself towering above. Been a while since we saw that. :-)

We take a food break and enjoy the views and then continue on to the hut. Surprise along the way as a flock of chickens crosses the trail in front of us, guess they must have fresh eggs at the hut! Past the hut we go, up to the pass, and then up, up along the switchbacking trail to head up to the Seekoffel itself. Up, up we go, through the maze of trails and cairns, always up and along until we get to the peak. Just fantastic views from here and not a cloud in sight until somewhere in Switzerland (theoretically you can see the Piz Kesch from here, but it's certainly under clouds). We have a nice relaxed food break and soak in the views and general loveliness of it all before starting back down. Rather than follow the exact same route, we opt to stick with views for as long as possible and head back along the ridge, hoping for a nice view down to the hut. The hut view comes rather late (still nice though), and then we rejoin the main route down, down and back to the pass.

Now further along the trail that takes use up over a hill and to the Sennes Huette. Now we're repeating part of day 2 from the trip long ago with Andreas and following the Via Alta 1. This takes us down to the Rif. Fodara Vedla, where we stop for a cool beverage and a piece of apple strudel before leaving the Via Alta and heading back to Rif. Ra Stua. This is a nice walk through a mix of woods and open, heading down, down at the end to drop us back at more or less the same place in the valley where we had started heading up, up the other side in the morning. Back the last bit to the hut, where we arrive just in time to catch the next shuttle out of the park and back to our car.

This was a really, really nice day of hiking with some fantastic weather. It was loads of fun to revisit some of the places from that 2004 trip.

Stats: 7:50, 21.4 km, ~1350m up and down