Ardez - Crap Putèr
I did this hike on the 24th of October, 2022. It was my first autumn in Switzerland, and I had heard people talking about larch trees and Engadin, and together with a friend, I therefor decided to do the hike below. We made a full day out of it, and after the hike, we went to the spa in Scoul, which was a great post-hike activity.
Full route: Swisstopo
We left Zürich with the earliest possible connection, and after two different trains, we started the hike from Ardez. Already out of Ardez, we came close to the larch trees and their golden colors. The hiking path leads down to a river, after which the ascent starts.
For the first part of the hike, you walk on a wide gravel road, while you make your way up through the forest. I absolutely love autumn, and I had never seen larch trees so densely packed as here, so I was over the moon about the views and colors.
As we made our way up, we got the first views into the valley in direction Scoul and the border with Austria in the distance. It was a great day with blue skies and a perfect visibility of the mountains surrounding us.
The last part up to Crap Putèr was steep, but not problematic, and we made it just in time for lunch. My friend had a small raclette which we had brought, and it was great with a warm lunch on top, while enjoying the views around us. We took our time to enjoy the nice weather before we started the descent towards Tarasp.
The way down was also really nice and it got warmer as the sun came higher up on the sky. After the initial steeper descent, the path again turned into a gravel road, that we followed most of the way back to Tarasp.
In Tarasp, we had some time before the bus to Scoul arrived, so we took a small walk around the lake. We arrived in Scoul in the late afternoon and used a couple of hours in the spa, before we took the trains back to Zürich, where we arrived just before midnight. A perfect full day in the mountians.
