Piz Surgonda (3196 m) from Julierpass to Chamanna Jenatsch CAS

A group of other four friends and I decided to plan for a 2-day ski tour in the Albula alps, booking an overnight stay at Chamanna Jenatsch SAC for Saturday 15 (Feb 2025). It seems that stays at the hut, especially during the weekend, are particularly coveted. The hut was essentially full, this was their first day of opening for the Winter season, and the choice of the day was essentially given by the remaining availability at the time of booking.

We had some bad luck with transportation and we managed to start skiing only around 10:30. On the other hand, we enjoyed perfect weather conditions (cloudless sky, mild temperature of about -6 C, no wind). Avalanche risk 2+. We started skiing up from Julierpass up in the Val d'Agnel, in the direction of the saddle (Fuorcla d'Agnel). To reach Piz Surgonda, the path takes a turn to the right after passing Corn Alv; then, you climb Piz Surgonda from the SE flank. There were plenty of tracks already available, making the climb not really challenging. After about three hours we reached the summit of Piz Surgonda, enjoying a fantastic view over the Alps!

From the summit, we planned to continue skiing down in the direction of Chamanna Jenatsch SAC descending from the N flank of the PIz. This first requires a 200 m traverse walk in the W direction from the summit, to find a suitable spot for descending. The tour is marked WS (Little Difficult), but I would like to spend a word of caution here. There was enough snow on the crest to make walking with boots relatively easy, still, an ice axe may provide some extra safety. The first 30 meters of the descent are extremely steep (> 45 degrees) and, on that day, very icy. Some of our colleagues didn't have crampons for their boots, so we decided to make an anchor on the top and lay a sail to help the descent. Could have we made it without? Most definitely yes, a fall was perhaps not that dangerous considering there was plenty of powder further down. However, we had the material with us, so why not use it. But if you're planning to take this route, bring crampons with you.

Skiing down in the direction of the Chamanna has been fantastic. There was still quite some powder left from the snowfall of a few days prior (~30 cm), and plenty of snow below it. Once reaching Val Beverin, it is up to you if you want to keep the left flank to maintain some elevation, or ski down to the stream. Either way, you'll have to put skins on again for the final climb to the Chamanna (50 to 150m up).

Overall, it has been an amazing day on skis. The climb to Piz Surgonda is rated WS-, skiing down from Piz Surgonda is rated WS, and that is - a relatively easy, fun ski trip. The traverse of Piz Surgonda from the summit until you can actually start skiing requires some caution, I'd rate it perhaps II.

On the next day, we skied back to Julierpass via Tschima da Flix W (3301 m). I posted a report about that other trip as well.

P.S.: The gpx track was suggesting to take the right turn before Corn Alv and not after. Both work.