Dosso di Fuori and Piz Russenna- Hiking with the locals/hikr makers

Here’s my version of Anna’s report about our hike together last week - on the day before the snow got to the “Unterengadin”. The best way to find out the details about the exact route is to just ask Anna and Stani to come along with you. The path is not marked and usually only locals, hunters and the shepherd know about it. Anna and Stani are locals and great people, they also seem to like hikr-visitors!

After missing them the last time I was in the Unterengadin, this time it worked out. Even though the hotel in Scuol didn’t have internet and the internet café was closed due to “Zwischensaison”, I “found” the hikr makers in Ramosch, just when they were about to walk Zina. After a short chat in the evening before, we made up to meet at the bus stop the next day to “go up there” (Stani pointed to Piz Russenna).

Meeting point 7:44h at the bus stop  Ramosch, Fermada. It was quite cold and Zina came running towards me to greet me - as if she knew that I would be the one who would throw pine cones for her almost all day long...

We walked along the Inn to the wooden bridge (Resgia). We then followed the gravel road up the hill. Shortly after we crossed a little river (with some sort of a collection point for water, probably for a power plant), all of a sudden we turned left. There was a little path going into the forest, which I probably would have missed if I would have been by myself. Anyway, there were actually two paths close to each other, we took the second one. The path is pretty obvious once you’re on it, because hundreds of sheep walk up and down there every year. After a while it gets pretty steep. The "internal heater" started working and we took off some layers soon, later the path got flat and we walked east for a while, then it started to go uphill again. At around 1500m we crossed a river. From there it just went up: sometimes steep, sometimes very steep, passing a few hunters huts on the left and right.

After I found out that Zina is a “terrorist dog” and her weapons are pine cones, I started playing the game: Take the pine cone she throws on the path in front of you and then throw it as far as you can – and don’t just take any pine cone, she wants you to throw the one she placed in front of you! She would go and get it no matter where it landed and take it back to the path to throw it right in front of you just to start over and over again. (She made at least double the way like this).

Playing the game and walking up; at some point we reached “the deluxe hut” (P. 2072 for those who like maps), a really well built hut, solid wood and a good roof. Anna and Stani said the city built it and you can rent it if you want to. Soon after the deluxe hut we got above the forest line and in the warm sun. We took a short break and ate a little bit. (I was glad, because when I left the hotel in the morning, there was no breakfast yet and walking up about 1000m on an empty stomach gets to you…).

Refreshed and energized we walked up the now open and wide grounds: the enormous sheep pastures look impressive. Anna and Stani told me in the summer there were vicious Italian dogs here; they were so wicked that they’ve had to turn around!

Then we get to the last hut, the shepherds hut, it is at P.2315. From there it isn’t far to the pass called Forcella di Fuori (or Äussere Scharte), the Swiss/Italian border. We then walked along the ridge on a marked path (coming from the Italian side) up to the peak called Dosso di Fuori (the German name would be Äusserer Nockenkopf, I assume the people from the Italian Tirol call it like that). There’s a little wooden cross there, but the main big cross with the Gipfelbuch is a little down on the Italian side. Of course we went and sat there for a while looking down to Italy, the damn and the church half way under water, discussing Italian/European and Swiss politics and other things.

After going back up to Dosso di Fuori, we looked over to Piz Rusenna. We soon all agreed to visit it as well, not only because it looked close, but also because the time would still allow us to get back down to Ramosch before dusk. So we walked along the Swiss/Italian border to Piz Rusenna and in “no time” we were on top of it.

Afterwards we walked back to the shepherds hut, first following the ridge and border, later on the west flank. Looking down and over to Piz S-Chalambert kind of felt like being in an enormous amphitheater. From the shepherds hut we then followed the same path down to Ramosch as we came up.

As soon as we reached the forest line, Zina found pine cones again and we continued the game – that dog is really hard to wear out!


Ramosch – Resgia – P. 2072 – Madals – P. 2315 – Forcella di Fuori – Dosso di Fuori - Piz Rusenna - P. 2315 – Madals - P. 2072 – Resgia -  Ramosch