Dangerous and Yet Beautiful: Mountaineering in Graubünden

“Wretched folks!” wrote the naturalist Albrecht von Haller, “praise only the smoke in great cities, where wickedness and betrayal walk under the guise of virtue.” In his famous 1729 poem The Alps, Haller contrasts the city—seen as a place of corruption and moral decay—with the mountains, which he portrays as the realm of purity and virtue.

And in Graubünden? Here, alpinism has its roots in priests and naturalists. Some early alpinists fear they might encounter mythical dragons or fierce eagles. The experienced mountaineer Father Placidus à Spescha from Disentis, on the other hand, suffers a serious sunburn—as well as snow blindness—during what is believed to be the first ascent of the Rheinwaldhorn in 1789.

Despite both imagined and real dangers, mountaineering took root in Graubünden—eventually evolving into something of a popular sport by the 20th century. Old dangers such as eagles and modern comforts like gondola lifts cannot take away the sublime feeling that awaits alpinists at the summit: the sense of rising far above the valleys of life. Porta Cultura offers further insight into what mountaineering is all about.