Albula

DESCRIPTION

The Albula Pass is one of the historic crossings from northern Graubünden into the Engadin, climbing to 2,315 metres through the Albula Alps. It has carried travellers since the thirteenth century, but its modern shape dates to the carriage road built between 1842 and 1865 under the engineer Rudolf Albertini of Zuoz, with a hospice set near the windswept summit. High and exposed, the pass lies buried under snow between roughly November and June, opening only for the warmer months.
Today it is a quiet, sweeping drive past the turquoise Lai da Palpuogna, marmots whistling on the slopes, before the road softens down toward La Punt in the Engadin. Its real wonder, though, runs hidden below. Beneath the pass climbs the Albula Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage line of 1903 that – to scale the same mountain wall – corkscrews through three spiral tunnels and soaring viaducts between Bergün and Preda, then bores under the watershed between the Rhine and the Danube. If you are lucky, you'll have the opportunity to watch a little red train winding improbably through the cliffs far below.

SELECTED ROUTE

NAME

Filisur

START ALTITUDE

1'014 m

SUMMIT ALTITUDE

2'315 m

DISTANCE

21.3 km

ELEVATION GAIN

1'315 m

NET GAIN

1'301 m

AVG. GRADIENT

6.1%

MAX. GRADIENT

12.1%