Piz Avat (2910 m) - bike & hike from Sumvitg

In this area you will hardly meet any other hikers, and at the time of writing there was only one other report describing Piz Avat here on hikr.org. I started this hike at elevation 1380 m above the village of Sumvitg. Basically I drove up by car as far as it is allowed without any special permit. I brought my mountain bike along, but mostly pushing it along up the hill. Then at elevation 1900 m I left the bike, and continued on foot.

At elevation 2200 m I had a nice chat with a hunter who was on the lookout for the chamois. Not to disturb his activities, I skipped going to Piz Schigels, and instead I went straight up the ridge towards P. 2463 (see attached GPS track). Piz Avat was partially hidden in low clouds and fog, but luckily it cleared up later on. I traversed towards Fuorcla Crap Ner, but ascended to the ridge a bit further up (T4).

On the ridge it was quite easy terrain (T3) until elevation 2770 m. Staying on the ridge would probably be a T5, but I went a bit on the west side of the ridge instead (T4). Shortly before a minor peak at elevation 2840 m, I was back on the ridge. Afterwards a short section was overcome slightly on the east side of the ridge (exposed, but with good grips - T4+). Then I again went on the west side of the ridge for the final ascent to the summit. When optimizing the route, climbing difficulties do not exceed I.

The summit book from the year 2003 only contained 2-3 entries from the summer of 2016, so Piz Avat has not become more popular since PStraub visited in 2009.

The view from the summit was great, even though some clouds and fog lingered around. From the summit I witnessed two different airshows. First, the patrouille suisse jets passed by. Shortly thereafter, two ravens started their own airshow which was quite impressive to watch for a few minutes.

For the descent I chose the route which is probably used in the winter. That means going down the couloir on the east side of the summit (T4), and continuing on the stone run towards Lag Serein (T4-). I really cannot recommend this route in the summer. Many of the rocks are unstable, and it is anyway very strenuous to cross this type of terrain. It would have been better to descend the same way as I ascended avoiding most of the stone runs. At the lake Lag Serein I again reached the marked hiking trail, and got back down to my mountain bike. Finally the last 500 m elevation loss were easily overcome using the mountain bike.

Total distance: 19 km
- hiking 14 km
- biking downhill 5 km (not included in the height loss figure)

Equipment: hiking sticks