Thursday 26th September: Weather: 10°C Davos: 2°C Weissfluhgipfel: 5°C Panoramaweg: 16°C Davos: Cloudy
Panoramaweg Davos: 16.0k walk:2k Davos Platz to avos Dorf:8k Panorama weg: 6k Wolfgang to Davos Platz
Ascent and Descent: Ascent 440m, Descent 437m,
Time: 9am to 4.30pm: Cable car to Mittelstation: Panoramaweg 3hrs plus 1 x 30min: Wolfgang to Davos 2hrs
Accommodation: Alpen Chic Promenade 73 Davos
Weissfluhjoch t 2,662 m 2°C
Amazing views from Panoramaweg
Looking down from Panoramaweg
School group near ski lift
Cable car down to Klosters
Kids leave train to walk to Davos
A spectacular day hiking the panorama hohenweg hovering between 2,200 and 2,300 metres above Davos. No rain, but it was very cold at 5°C and really windy. We took a cable car to Weissfluchjoch at 2,662 metres, stepped out the door to a windy 2°C, then in 10 minutes we were back in the cable car to Mittelstation at 2,219 metres to start the Panorama weg.
We had a good night’s sleep in our warm, small studio. It’s one step to the kitchen, one step to the dining table, one step to the bathroom and one step to the queensize bed. Compact you might say. The problem is the humongous wardrobe that takes up most of the space. So my side of the bed is 15 cm from the wardrobe doors. Anyone staying in an Air BnB does not need a double wardobe full of clothes - even if its ski gear!
We have a hot cup of tea with powdered milk and check the weather - it’s not raining or snowing - then check the cable cars up to start the Panorama weg suggested to us by the Tourist Office. Breakfast of meusli and yoghurt for Ian, and bread and banana for me. Leaving at 8.45am, we walk the 2k down to Davos Dorf to the Parsenn cable car, but don’t see it. Then we realise it’s a cog train running through a tunnel beneath us. Down to the station and we buy 2 x 20CHF discounted tickets which allow us to go up and down any cable car on any mountain all day. The next Bahn doesn’t leave until 9.30am so we visit Migros and Coop to fill in time. Davos Platz, where we are staying, seems to have bigger and cheaper grocery stores than Davos Dorf, the main village.
Back to the Parsenn Bahn. It’s not busy and there’s only us plus another hiking couple plus 2 girls with mountain bikes who hop on the 60 person Bahn og train. In ten minutes we’re at the first station Hohenweg/ Mittelstation and the bikers get off. We stay on and get to the Weissfluhjoch station at 2,662 metres. It’s Mars like - barren, rocky and steep. The four of us step out onto the platform, and the hiking couple don their warm gear and take off - somewhere? It’s 2°C and blowing a gale. We take one photo and step back inside to wait 10 minutes in the freezing cold for the cable car to descend. The next gondola up to the next level at Weissfluhgipfel at 2,844 metres is closed - we weren’t going there anyway!
It’s 10am, when we get back to the Mittelstatiion, in a “warmer” 5°C and see the signs to the path leading to the Panorama weg. It’s overcast and really windy, but quite clear and we can see the alps all round capped with snow. The path is Mars like - barren and rocky but well defined and spectacular. By 11am we’re at the junction of the Panorama weg, and meet a group of school kids coming towards us all rugged up in beanies and gloves. There’s a deserted chair lift cabin 50 metres down where we go to find shelter from the relentless wind for a cup of coffee. My hands are like blocks of ice when my brother John calls from the UK. He’s been tracking us on Life 360 and can see we’ve stopped. A quick chat before I need to grab the hot coffee that Ian has made with two hands to warm up. Two Arnotts Spicy Fruit Rolls go well with the coffee.
Then off again along this magnificent Panorama Weg for over an hour and at 12.30pm, we reach our destination cable car Gotschnagrat at 2,285 metres where the sign tells us the temperature is 5°C. The place is deserted except for the cable car driver. The next car leaves at 1.05pm so time to share an apple before jumping in and dropping down to the next transfer station at Gotschnabeden at 1,779 metres then again to a warm Klosters at 1,191 metres. Warm is relative, it’s 14°C. The bottom Cable car station is right at the train station, and we hope to catch the next train back to Davos. Then we see the timetable which shows us that the 2.02pm train will stop at several stations between Klosters and Davos. Most trains don’t stop, so we plan to go half way and walk the rest of the way into Davos. Time for a cup of tea and a piece of pannetone on a seat in railway square where the temperature is still showing 5°C up at Gotschnagrat.
The train leaves from platform 3AB, whilst Platform 3CD is for those going to St Moritz on the same train. Our cariages drop off at Davos Platz. Checking the map as we chootle along slowly up hill, we decide to get off at Wolfgang, 6k from Davos and walk the rest of the way through the forest. There’s an electronic sign in the train to indicate which station is coming up and there’s a yellow label in German that I google translate to “Stop when requested”. The first time we’d seen a train with a press-to-stop button. And so we did.
At Wolfgang theres’ a group of school kids hop off as well and start walking down a path towards Davos. We’ve seenso many school kids hiking, and there’s not an overweight kid amongst them. We follow them for a bit until they take the steep short cut to Davosersee, while we follow the graded track around the lake. It’s a “warm” 16°C when we get to Davos Dorf, and we check out a few supermarkets on the way to buy some salmon and a wine to save walking all the way up to the Davos Platz Bahnhof to the large COOP. Eurostar has no fish, Migros has expensive fish, Coop Pronto has none, but Denner, a German supermarket does at a reasonable price - 3.5 CHF for 150g, the same price as Aldi. We buy with a packet of smoked salmon and a box of Swiss wine made from “different countries”.
Back in our cozy studio, it’s beginning to rain. We have a wine/beer with some macadamia nuts before dinner of salmon and salad mixed in our Aldi plastic bowl. Some map planning and a shower before bed at 9pm.