Hail on the pass: Alp Flix to Ausserferrera

Alp Flix is where this stretch of the Alpine Passes Trail lets you stop for the night. We did not stop. We laid out a Swiss picnic on the grass, bread, cheese, tomatoes, dried meat, and pushed on towards the next pass with the afternoon clouds already stacking behind us.

The weather turned the way it does in the Alps, rain first, then, right at the top, lightning and hail. There is no shelter above the treeline, so we spread out, made ourselves small and waited. It swept through in minutes and left us soaked, laughing and considerably humbler than we had been at lunch.

The night made up for everything. A tiny hut near Savognin with a self-service bar, our wet clothes strung out to dry, and late walkers arriving to find every bed already taken; ours were booked ahead. Dinner was raclette: half a wheel of cheese, a machine I had no idea how to use, and two Swiss table neighbours delighted to demonstrate. I ate far too much and regret nothing.

The second day began with rain again, so we ate an early picnic under a village roof and let it pass. Then a long, steady gravel climb to the Pass da Schmorras: marmots, startled cows, streams multiplying with the overnight rain, and behind us, every time we turned around, the wall of mountains we had crossed the day before.

The descent into the Ferrera valley is long enough to make knees philosophical. When Ausserferrera finally appeared we wanted exactly two things, dinner and calories, and it delivered both. Two days, two high passes, and hardly another walker between them.