The Cross-Swiss Walk - St Gallenkirch

Ken Baldry crosses Switzerland on Foot -

Gargellen to Davos 1990 (& 2009)

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Route: Gargellen-Schlappiner Joch-Klosters-Wolfgang-Davos

Map (not to scale) from the Official Map of the Automobil-Club der Schweiz,
(with their permission) which is on this link.

Tuesday 17th July 1990 to Gargellen LK 238 and LK248

Up at 0445, which turned out to be a mistake, as while I walked down to King's Cross and caught the 0557 to Heathrow, the 'plane itself left late and then it circled Zürich for half an hour before putting down. This meant that I missed the train to Austria and they only run every three hours. So, I went to Sargans, as being a better place to sit around than Zürich and had some lunch. The train got to Bludenz on time but the little train on to Schruns left 5 minutes late. This meant that it did not connect with the only bus, which I saw leave. I walked down to the by-pass and this was where my luck changed. The third car stopped and gave me a lift, not just to St Gallenkirch but halfway up the Gargellertal. I only had 4.5 km to walk to Gargellen 1423m, which is small and sweet. The woman in the VKB (tourist office) rang the Vergalden Hotel and said that there was a 'young man' wanting a room. I blew the girl a kiss for the 'young man' (I was 47) and walked the 2 km up the valley to Vergalden, which will save me the walk tomorrow. The dinner was an excellent - a mixed grill.

Sunday 6th September 2009, having stayed in St Gallenkirch, I walked up to where I had been dropped in 1990 & hitched a lift to Gargellen, from where I walked to Klosters again over the Schlappinerjoch, as described below.

Wednesday 18th July Gargellen to Davos LK248, with added observations from 2009

The walk up the valley was straight-forward. The path up to the Schlappiner Joch 2202m, left the valley after about 40 minutes across a little footbridge and made its way up the south-west side. Note that you can see another path on the opposite side of this side valley. While it looks better from a distance, it is not as good as the marked path, which, strangely & uniquely on the Cross-Swiss Walk, has high bushes round it. The path was being made up with water runaways by a peasant. It is a very quiet valley and pretty, in a pre-Alpine sort of way.

Gargellen from the Schlappinerjoch

Where the Schlappinerjoch path goes off
the jeep track. Sometimes this sign falls
down in the winter.

Schlappinerjoch. Note previous photo.
The jeep track left goes on up the Wintertal.

There are a couple of frontier markers at the top and a good view of Schlappin village below. I walked down on a path which was rather poorer than the Austrian one, being very cut up at the top by walkers wandering all over the hillside. If you go straight on, the path is steep zig-zags (1990) but if you go off to the right (2009), it is a much pleasanter walk & no slower. Just by the lake at Schlappin, I was waylaid by two Swiss customs men in 1990 in mufti (walking gear) and had to produce my passport, which satisfied them fortunately, but they looked at it a lot more thoroughly than the airport man yesterday or the Austrian on the train. I walked on by the footpath opposite the road, down to Klosters Dorf 1124m.

In 2009, I stayed in the Sporthotel Kurhaus in Klosters Dorf, with much to recommend it & if you have come from the North-East start & stayed in St Gallenkirch, I advise you to do the same & have an easy day tomorrow to Davos.

South from the Schlappinerjoch

Schlappin Village, where you can stop
for a beer at Berghaus Erika.

Klosters Dorf. Sporthotel Kurhaus ringed.
Note path to Klosters Platz.

Fortunately, it is possible to walk through the fields to Klosters Platz 1191m, and I stopped in the shade halfway to lunch on Sainsbury's Sultanas and water. The walk up to Selfranga was grim, as it starts on a road with me being baked by the sun reflected off it. But then, it goes into the woods up by the stream and is quite pleasant, as although it parallels the road after a bit, it is well below it until one has to join it. I had a beer at a high price at the first pub, as I had run out of water but this got me to the top of the pass at Wolfgang 1631m, where I could have a cheap pint of fassbier (draught beer) and look down the valley.

I walked down to the Davoser See and round its edge, then through the two towns, Davos Dorf and Davos Platz (town web site) 1558m, for a couple of miles to the Schweizerhof Hotel, where, to my astonishment, they recognised me, despite the sun hat and sun glasses. Paul Heeb (since retired), the wirt, rushed out to make me welcome. The room was palatial, as one would expect when paying top whack (108 Sfr - not a lot as top whacks go).

Plastering my blisters before I got them did not work properly, although they are not as bad as last year. (Note after 2004 & new boots, I never got blisters again).I rang Avis, who was not there and gave her a brief run-down on the trip so far via the answering machine. I met some English people who had just arrived. One couple were going on the Saas Fee (village web-site), which I told them was the most beautiful place in the world, unlike Davos, which I honestly described as a dump (although it has a good Kirchner Museum) and sold a lot of tours for the rep, who was French and spoke little German!!! (Swiss Travel as well). I chatted to two old dears after dinner.

Kirchner's take on Davos 1925