Hiking over the Niemet Pass to Montespluga in Italy

Sunday July 24, 2022: DAY 4 of our five-day Vacation in Rheinwald, Graubünden

We knew the weather would be very good for this day's hike, so we reserved a spot on the Alpine Taxi into Val Niemet, which is another side valley to the Ferrera Valley which we had hiked along on the first day. There is a road up to a single alpine farm in this remote valley, and taking this tourist taxi service there saves us at least two hours (and almost 500m altitude) of monotonous uphill hiking.

As it was a Sunday, the bus was full. In fact, the company had to hire a separate taxi to take an additional person up! From the alpine pasture it is a relatively "easy" 90-minute hike to the Niemet Pass, which forms the border of Switzerland and Italy and from where you can walk down to the Montespluga reservoir lake just south of the Splügen Pass in Italy.

On the Italian side of the pass is an alpine hostel called Bertacchi and a beautiful alpine lake (Lago di Emet) which, as we discovered to our dismay, is a particularly popular destination for a Sunday hike for Italians coming up from the city of Chiavenna. (And apparently, every Italian family has at least one dog who comes on the hikes). We had planned to have something to drink at the hostel, but it was simply too crowded and noisy. And who wants to hear dogs barking in the mountains?

We took a detour to the Montespluga Dam and left the masses behind. Due to the long hot period we have been having -- and too little rain -- the massive lake is almost dried out. The major Italian River (the Po) is almost dry and the Italians are begging the Swiss for water.

Our five-hour hike ended with a one-hour hike along the West side (Trail no.50: Via Spluga) of what was left of the lake and a bus ride back to Switzerland over the Splügen Pass. It was a long hot hike (fortunately often with a breeze) but I could have done without the masses of people....

Highlight of the day: Our hosts' goats being herded down the main street of the village going out to pasture at 7:30 a.m, and returning at 6:00 p.m.!

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This time my blog starts out with a video.... The goats being herded from their barn down "main street" at 7:30 a.m. From here it only takes a minute to get to the bus stop.

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Today's weather much better than yesterday, as we get a good view up valley to the mountains where the Hinterrhein River has its source. The bus from Bellinzona pulls off the highway here to pick us up. At this early hour (7:35), we are the only passengers....

There is a bit of early morning fog in the valley as we head through Splügen by bus (due to the rain the day before), but this soon lifted.

As we are again headed into the Ferrera Valley, we have to change buses in the Roffla Gorge (The bus that came from Andeer was quite full). A year earlier we discovered that the owners of this hotel have built a trail into the gorge (100 years ago!). It costs 5 CHF to view and well worth it, which we did at the time. The photos for that are HERE.

At Innerferrera we got off the Post Bus and joined the driver of our Alpine Taxi. It turns out that many of the people on the bus also wanted to go up to Alp Niemet, which makes sense, as it's Sunday and the bus runs only on weekends. A separate taxi took the hunters (on the right) up as well. 

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Our bus continues up the valley toward Juf (the highest year-round inhabited village in Europe) but just barely squeezes through the space between the houses....

We were pleased to discover that the Beverin Nature Park offers these tourist taxis for a couple of months each year, for only 10 CHF for a ride. There are about five of these taxis offered in the region, and they save us about 90 minutes of hiking each time. This one into Val Niemet is close to where we hiked down the Old Avers Road on the first day. 

The Alpine Taxi dropped us off here at the farm houses in Alp Niemet at 08:45 a.m., and the valley is still in shadow here. 

Hiking up to the Niemet Pass takes 90 minutes from the farm at Alp Niemet

A look back down the Niemet Valley (9:20 a.m.)

There were many cows spread across this wide open alpine pasture

Some cows were following us, we thought we might have to take refuge in this cabin!

They're thinking: "Do we run or is it safe to stay?"

Niemet Pass, 2294m above sea level. We got here at 10:30, 1 hour and 45 minutes after starting at the farm houses.

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Having  just crossed over onto the Italian side, we took a coffee break here to admire the alpine lake called "Lago di Emet". At this point there were only about a dozen people up here. We determined to stop for something to drink at the hostel below: Rifugio Bertacchi, before continuing down to the Montespluga Lake

It took almost two hours to get to the Pass da Niemet, then we crossed into Italy. Most of the hikers we encountered came up directly from the parking lot on the East side of the lake. We detoured south to approach the dam from the south. Including the section of the Via Spluga Trail on the west side of the lake, it was about 5 hours of straight walking. Having started at 08:45, we got to Montespluga at 15:20 

This looks so idyllic. It was deceptive though. By the time we got to the hostel, it was teeming with Italians, loud, noisy, lots of dogs barking, and people already settling around the lakeshore for the day.  

Standing on the terrace at the Rifugio Bertacchi, we watched as streams of hikers came up the mountain from the city of Madesimo below. This was only a small fraction compared to those coming up from Montespluga further North.

A final look past Lago di Emet to the Niemet Pass where we'd descended from. We didn't stay here as it was getting noisy, especially the dogs barking.

The next section of the trail before descending to Montespluga Lake is this high trail (not the one going down into the valley). This is where we had to pass dozens of hikers coming up from the parking lot at Montespluga to spend Sunday afternoon at Lago di Emet

Many people on this trail, also going our way

Every family had a dog, some came with many! Considering there were so many people coming toward us, it went surprisingly well with passing each other along the trail. 

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They even came up this trail with pack-horses, something we could not understand, considering the narrowness and popularity of the trail with hikers. Fortunately, we didn't meet up with them on a narrow section.

Hiking along the narrow cliff trail at the back of the "Madesimo" Valley

There were many people on this trail, mostly Italians coming up to swim in Lake Emet. It was never a problem to pass each other

A look down the valley toward the city of Madesimo

Someone had a cool idea!

Our first look at the sad-looking Montespluga Lake. The water level should be almost up to the village of Montespluga at the back and to the trail on the other side of the lake. Most of the hikers came up this way, as there is a large parking lot below. We had our picnic lunch here

We walked south for 2 km along a road like this, before heading back to approach the dam from below. 

This was a surprise when we turned the corner! This could be used for a milk commercial

Always those cows aloong the trail. These ones moved out of our way, though, as we head toward the dam from the south. 

This is the dam you see when you come up the road from Chiavenna. The restaurant on the right (Stuetta) was very busy and particularly popular with motorbikers. Urs wanted to buy something to drink, he waited at least 10 minutes in the sun for someone to bring him a small bottle. We then walked up the hill to the left side of the dam (as seen from here)

This is the second dam, where the river runs down the Cardinello Gorge. 

Various looks at the two dams and the low lake level

A look across the Montespluga Reservoir, which sorely lacks water. The water level should come up past all the rocky area on the left, where our hiking trail is. 

We chose to walk the long trail (over an hour) along the West side of the lake, as there is only a busy road on the other side. 

Looking down the Cardinello Gorge, part of the Via Spluga Trail to Chiavenna. The gorge was used during Roman times, but gained importance as a trade route in the 17th Century when they were able to break through the cliff walls. 

The water level should come up almost to the hiking trail. So much water has been let out to try to supplement the watershed of the Po River, but not enough rain to fill it up again. 

Looking across to the village of Montespluga (and the Splügen Pass to Switzerland behind that). When there is enough rain, this whole flat-land is flooded. At this point, people are walking about 1 km along dry ground to reach the water

An Italian Alpine Rescue Helicopter

We could have crossed the dry area as well, directly to Montespluga, but we wanted to stay on the "Via Spluga Trail". This side valley is called Val Loga

A look back at the Montespluga Lake, and the hills we descended from

Usually it's cows I photograph, but this was pretty. 

Another look into Val Loga, before we get to the main pass road at Montespluga

Here at Montespluga there was so much traffic, so many people, so many cars parked and driving, that it was exhausting. We got here at 15:20, almost an hour early for the bus that crosses the pass back into Switzerland. 

Fortunately we found a nice cool spot around the side of the restaurant where we could wait with a glass of something cold to drink. (Panaché of course, and Urs found ice cream)

From this satellite image you can see how high the water level should be in the Montespluga Lake! The Taxi took us from Innerferrera to the farm at Alp Niemet, from where we crossed into Italy and walked to Montespluga, from where we caught the bus back into Switzerland via the Splügen Pass

Leaving Montespluga as we head up to the Splügen Pass

On the Swiss side of the Splügen Pass is a fantastic pass road with lots of hairpin turns. We walked here last year to some lakes high in the mountains on the right, the photos can be viewed HERE.

The Splügen Pass Road is fairly new, so I wonder why they are doing major construction here? This caused some delay getting back down into the Rheinwald Valley. 

Approaching Splügen from above. Here we had to change again to a bus up the Rheinwald Valley to our accommodation in Nufenen. 

Back at Nufenen for our fourth and final night in the 300-year-old house!

We were back in plenty of time to watch the goats coming back up the road to their barn for the night. 

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A final video of the goats returning from pasture at 6 p.m.

(Probably my favourite event of this vacation!)