Journey 02 · Switzerland
Larch Gold, First Snow
The Engadin in late October
Published 26 Dec 2025 · Travelled 18–28 Oct 2025
- 8 moments
- 11 days
- 33 km
- Autumn
- Switzerland
- 28mm · f/8 · 1/320
- 46.4331° N, 9.7625° E
- Sils Maria
- 08:50
- -1°C, frost, then sun
The village sits between two lakes like a comma between clauses. Nietzsche came here every summer to think; the view suggests he was outsourcing. First morning, frost on the meadow, woodsmoke straight up.
- 28mm · f/8 · 1/640
- 46.4237° N, 9.7382° E
- Lej da Sils
- 15:10
- 6°C, wind, broken cloud
Every afternoon the Maloja wind arrives on schedule and combs the lake against its grain. The windsurfers know it to the minute. I stood on the shore and let it decide the horizon for me.
- 28mm · f/5.6 · 1/400
- 46.4571° N, 9.7955° E
- Above Lej da Silvaplauna
- 16:30
- 5°C, low sun
Larches are the only conifers honest enough to admit the year is ending. For two weeks the whole valley runs gold above the lakes, then the wind takes it. I was there for days nine through nineteen. Correct.
locals call it 'goldener herbst' with a shrug, the way you shrug about a miracle that recurs
- Engadin valley
1,800 metres: the floor of the Engadin, higher than most European summits people bother naming. 14 days: the average life of larch gold, according to the woman at the Sils bakery, who has watched forty of them.
- 28mm · f/8 · 1/800
- 46.4304° N, 9.9599° E
- Montebello curve, Val Bernina
- 11:25
- 3°C, clear
The red train takes the pass in wide deliberate loops, like handwriting. No cog, no drama, just adhesion and patience. I rode it three times and shot it from outside once, at the curve below Montebello, where it bends against the massif.
- 28mm · f/8 · 1/500
- 46.4092° N, 9.9319° E
- Morteratsch glacier
- 13:40
- 0°C, cold, clear
The path to the glacier is marked with year-signs: here in 1900, here in 1970, here in 2015. You walk the retreat at reading pace. The ice itself, when you reach it, is still enormous and still leaving.
- 28mm · f/4 · 1/250
- 46.4106° N, 10.0227° E
- 28mm · f/4 · 1/250
- 46.4106° N, 10.0227° E
- Ospizio Bernina → St. Moritz
- 16:50
- -4°C, snow above, dusk below
Two thousand metres up, the season is three weeks ahead. Snow on the rails at Ospizio Bernina while St. Moritz below was still pretending it was autumn. By the time I came down, the town had conceded and the first dusk lamps were on over the frozen edge of the lake.
- Lago Bianco
- 10:05
- -3°C, overcast, snow light
- Last frame
Last ride over the pass, right side, window down despite the cold. The lake was half ice, the colour of milk glass. I made one frame from the moving train and closed the window. Enough.
- 28mm · f/5.6 · 1/1000
- 46.4009° N, 10.0158° E
The route
8 stops
Journey completed
Eleven days, eight stories
- Distance walked
- 97 km
- Frames exposed
- 540
- Trains taken for the window seat alone
- 4
- Mornings below zero
- 6
- Larches, approximate, personally admired
- all of them
- Favourite moment
- Snow starting over Lago Bianco while the larches below the pass were still gold
- Best food
- Nusstorte from a Sils bakery, dense as a decision
