Via Albula/Bernina
Verified OSM relation clipped to the Swiss national boundary: SchweizMobil regional hiking route 33, Via Albula/Bernina, Thusis toward the Italian border (128.5 km OSM 2-D Swiss span). Official route continues into Italy; only the Swiss section is shown. Vertical figures sampled from Copernicus GLO-30.
Byline
- The Hiking World editorial · author
Desk byline for seed records. Named surveying editors replace this once a trail is verified.
Figures marked provisional are seed data and still need verification. Source and last-checked date sit under each cited value.
Editorial v1 · Provisional catalog
Moderate (UNESCO Albula/Bernina mountain stages)
- SAC T2 (mapped — no official SAC grade)
- Mountain hiking. Continuous trail, some steep ground, sure-footedness helpful.
- YDS Class 1
- Class 1. Walking on an established path; low fall risk.
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Ingested from OpenStreetMap relation 912415 (ODbL) and clipped to the CH national boundary (OSM admin_level=2 relation 51701, ODbL). The mapped Swiss span and 2D length are derived from that truncated geometry. Ascent, descent, and high/low points are sampled from Copernicus GLO-30 (copernicus-dem:glo-30) and remain provisional. Water, permits, and hazards were not taken from OSM tags and must be verified.
OSM 2D length is 128.5 km (relation 912415 clipped:ch-boundary; network=rwn, operator=Wanderland Schweiz, ref=33). lengthKm is verified: 128.5 km is 2.95% under the official 132.4 km (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/route-33; ch.astra.wanderland Route attributes (opendata.swiss langsamverkehr-wanderland-schweiz, dataset 2026-02-25, parsed 2026-09-09)). Official km is the ±3% Swiss-section cross-check, not this DataPoint. Geometry is OSM relation 912415 spatially truncated at the CH admin_level=2 boundary (clipped:ch-boundary; intersection computed on existing OSM ways, not an authored trail). Official route continues into Italy beyond the Swiss border; only the Swiss section is shown here. Foreign geometry, km, and fees are not published.
DEM high 2,469 m. GLO-30 cumulative ascent 4,739 m is the same order as the official 4,956 m figure (ch.astra.wanderland Route attributes (opendata.swiss langsamverkehr-wanderland-schweiz, dataset 2026-02-25, parsed 2026-09-09); that federal ascent includes the short Italian tail to Tirano, which is not sampled here). High point left as Copernicus.
typicalDays 10 is the official SchweizMobil stage count (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/route-33, checked 2026-09-09), not Math.round(lengthKm/12) and not a duration statute. A calendar season is not published on the federal Route record; it is not invented here.
Official route continues into Italy to Tirano (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/route-33; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirano, checked 2026-09-09, CC BY-SA). Only the Swiss section is shown. No Italian geometry, km, elevation, or fee is published.
Water was not mapped to named WaterSource points (no honest atFraction). Villages and inns exist; they were not positioned from an official named list this pass.
Water
No water sources recorded.
Permits & fees
No permit required.
Getting there
Sourced legs to the Thusis (clipped Swiss start) base start station — where this trail record begins. This is not a route planner: durations are approximate and marked provisional until an official transport page confirms them.
Rail · Zurich (ZRH) → Thusis
Zurich Airport is a usual air gateway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurich_Airport, checked 2026-09-09, CC BY-SA). RhB continues to Thusis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thusis, checked 2026-09-09, CC BY-SA). SchweizMobil route 33 starts at Thusis Bahnhof (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/route-33, checked 2026-09-09). Official route continues into Italy to Tirano; only the Swiss section is shown here. No Italian geometry, km, or fee is published.
en.wikipedia.org · 2026-09-09 · wikidata · official · provisional
No walking permit on the Swiss public Wanderland network (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland, checked 2026-09-09). SAC and private hut booking is logistics. Continuation into Italy is logistics, not a DataPoint.
Plan from your location
Type a city, then pick a match. These links open external search tools — they do not fetch fares or timetables.
Trailheads
- Thusis Bahnhof (clipped Swiss start) car-free: yes
- Campocologno (clipped Swiss end) car-free: yes
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Hazards
- Alpine/mountain weather on this Swiss span: official 4,956 m of walking ascent over 10 stages on the whole SchweizMobil record (ch.astra.wanderland Route attributes (opendata.swiss langsamverkehr-wanderland-schweiz, dataset 2026-02-25, parsed 2026-09-09)), which includes the short Italian tail. DEM high 2,469 m is a Copernicus sample of the Swiss span, not a glacier grade.
- Official route continues into Italy to Tirano (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/route-33, checked 2026-09-09). Only the Swiss section is shown; foreign geometry, km, and fees are not published.
- No walking permit on the Swiss public Wanderland network; SAC and private hut booking is logistics, not a trail permit (https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland, checked 2026-09-09). There is no walking fee on that page.
Questions
Do I need a permit for Via Albula/Bernina?
No trail permit is listed on this record for Via Albula/Bernina.
How difficult is Via Albula/Bernina?
Via Albula/Bernina is graded Wanderland: technical and physical grades on the route page · SAC T2 (mapped — no official SAC grade) · YDS 1. A sourced hazard on this record: Alpine/mountain weather on this Swiss span: official 4,956 m of walking ascent over 10 stages on the whole SchweizMobil record (ch.astra.wanderland Route attributes (opendata.swiss langsamverkehr-wanderland-schweiz, dataset 2026-02-25, parsed 2026-09-09)), which includes the short Italian tail. DEM high 2,469 m is a Copernicus sample of the Swiss span, not a glacier grade.
How long is Via Albula/Bernina?
The OSM 2-D length on this record is 128.5 km (verified). Published figures may differ. See /guides/how-long-is-the-trail
How do I get to Via Albula/Bernina?
The record’s base start is Thusis (clipped Swiss start). A primary gateway on the record is Zurich Airport (ZRH). Trailhead transit notes are not included in this public FAQ.
Related trails
- Aargauer Weg · Switzerland
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- Chemin des Bisses · Switzerland
- Chemin des Trois-Lacs · Switzerland