Friday evening. We’ve both had a busy week at work, so we agree not to start too early the next day. Plus the weather’s not looking great. We find a via ferrata in the Flims-Laax region – Klettersteig Pinut – where the weather looks as if it will treat us gently, and we can start leisurely and still get home at a reasonable time.
Saturday morning. The lockdown has been largely lifted, with few restrictions remaining in place. The trains and buses are much fuller than I’ve seen them since before the lockdown. On the bus, between Chur and Flims, a woman takes the seat behind us. After a few coughs in our direction, Barbara gets irritated and decides to put on her face mask to make a point that if you are coughing, etc., you should definitely be wearing a mask. To protect others. Fortunately she gets off at the next stop.
At Flims we board the shuttle to Bargis. We jump off at the Pinut bus stop and start the half hour walk to the start of the ‘historic’ via ferrata Pinut.
First mentioned in literature in the 1700s, the ferrata was rebuilt in 1907, and completely renovated in 2007. It’s a masterpiece of walkways and rising stairways, leading horizontally, vertically and diagonally upwards, through three rock bands and at one point through a sloping tunnel. It’s graded in the easy range (K1-2). But it’s airy and exposed. So if you’re uncomfortable with huge voids of nothing below you, you may feel more than a little bit anxious.
On the very exposed start of the via ferrata Barbara on the bouncing swaying suspension bridge crossing a little ravine
480 vertical metres later you emerge onto an easy path leading towards Alp Flimserstein with its own cable car station. Don’t get too excited though and think you’ll be able to get a ride back to the valley. It’s a ‘milchseilbahn’ – i.e., it carries milk from the alp (farm) back to the valley.
A tiny wooden hut offers fresh bread, cheese, dried meat and cold drinks. It’s self serve. You can pay with Twint or by depositing the correct amount of cash into the honesty box… we don’t have enough small change with us, so we skip the cold drinks on offer and fire up our gas cooker to brew a fresh cup of coffee, and eat our mozzarella and tomato sandwich we bought at the station.
Then we set off downhill. The start of the path is unclear, but we know which direction we should head in and soon we see a ‘wegweiser’ indicating the path to Bargis. Less than 40 minutes later we’re waiting to be served cold drinks before we board the shuttle bus back to Flims.
A perfect finish to another great mountain day!
Precarious pathway – Klettersteig Pinut 
Curling upwards – Klettersteig Pinut Light at the end of the tunnel – Klettersteig Pinut
