Rich colors during hiking and biking on the Sibylline Mountains, high above Fiastra and around Monte Bove.

Access road to the Rifugio del Fargno, Sybilline Mountains, Marche, Italy

Colorful mountainside above the Rifugio del Fargno, Sybilline Mountains, Marche, Italy

Biking Monte Bove, Sybilline Mountains, Marche, Italy

Sunrise, fog, chilly air, and a nice calm pond with a view to Lake Constance – it does somehow feel like the first day of fall…

Bommer Weiher, Thurgau, Switzerland

Bommer Weiher, Thurgau, Switzerland

Fantastic hike above Flüelapass near Davos to the various Jöri lakes with all shades of blue and grey depending on their sediment load.

Wollgras (alpine cotton grass, Eriophorum scheuchzeri), Jöri Lakes, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland

Jöri Lakes, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland

Jöri Lakes, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland

Another great day, this time making my way back from Poschiavo in the Italian speaking part of Grisons canton across Bernina Pass to St. Moritz. From there just an easy and cheap (hmm…) cable car ride to 3000m ASL on Piz Nair to savor the last downhill run of this series across Suvretta Pass and along the Ova da Suvretta (Suvretta creek) and its high alpine valley into Val Bever and back to St. Moritz. What a day! Just don’t take the same wrong turnoff as I did on the way up to Bernina – I ended up carrying the bike half the way!

Suvretta Pass towards Piz Nair, St. Moritz, Switzerland

Ova da Suvretta valley and Val Bever, Grisons, Switzerland

Ova da Suvretta waterfall, Bever, Switzerland

Quite a bit of elevation gain to fight – from Pontresina to Bernina Pass, Livigno Bike Trail to a few alpine lakes and as a finale the Val Viola all the way to the pass forming the border between Switzerland and Italy, with a lovely view down to the rifugio – but the birra for me waited down on the Swiss side in a lovely chalet in Campo.

Wollgras am Livigno Pass, Graubünden, Schweiz

See am Val Bügliet, Livigno Pass, Graubünden, Schweiz

Flussquerung im Val Viola, Graubünden, Schweiz

Originally I wanted to spend a few days in the Lower Engadin valley, trying a few mountain pass crossings from and to Scuol and the Val S-chanf. Unfortunately I only found out the day I was due to depart that they had suffered from a flash flood and that the entire valley was an emergency zone and that the road and path had gone. On short notice I thus had to change my plans and went to the Upper Engadin (think St. Moritz) instead. I spent the first evening in Pontresina and managed to get two rides to the ever-retreating Morteratsch Glacier and the lovely Roseg Valley.

Roseg valley with view to Piz Bernina, Pontresina, Upper Engadin, Switzerland

Skylight in Morteratsch Glacier, Pontresina, Upper Engadin, Switzerland

Braided outflow of Morteratsch Glacier, Pontresina, Upper Engadin, Switzerland