Hike to the Morteratsch Glacier Tongue – See a Glacier up close

The hike to the Morteratsch glacier provides a unique opportunity to see a glacier tongue up close and to experience firsthand the fast-changing environment of Glaciers.

The partially collapsed Morteratsch glacier tongue

This beautiful glacier, which is part of the Bernina range, is one of the most easy to approach to get close to. Not only that but one where you can also go through the various stages of a retreating glacier.

Additionally, seeing the glacier tongue that close is still a unique experience. One that does require entering potentially dangerous terrain if you want to get close to it.

Table of Contents

Overview of the Hike to the Morteratsch Glacier & Map

The Morteratsch glacier trail is a very easy walk up to the last part when you have to approach the glacier tongue.

From that point onwards, you have to enter an unstable and fast-changing environment and hike over glacial debris, in between the walls of the valley where there is constant rockfall.

So while the trail is 95% just a “walk in the park”, the last bit is more difficult and goes through an unstable environment where carefulness is required. You will find plenty of warnings in that area.

Here is the map of the hike. The trail is well-marked and easy to follow so you won’t need a GPS file. However you can still download it for free from the activity below, should you want to:

How to get to the Morteratsch Glacier and Parking

• Driving Directions: to get to the Morteratsch glacier trailhead, you have to drive toward the Bernina pass. If you are coming from a northerly direction like Zurich/Chur, you’d have to turn right toward the Morteratsch campsite 5/6 km before reaching the Bernina Pass. If you are coming from the South (Italy), you’d have to drive over the Bernina Pass and then drive for the same 5/6 km toward the Morteratsch Campsite.
• Parking: paid parking is available at the trailhead. you can pay with Twint, Easypark, or Parkingpay.
• Public Transport: if you have a ticket on the Bernina train (not the panoramic carriages that require booking) you can hop off and hop back on at the Morteratsch train station. There also is a bust stop on the main road, before the campsite.

The Morteratsch train station

The Morteratsch Glacier Hiking Trail

The trail starts at the Visitors Center and after crossing the Bernina train railway, the road turns into a dirt road that follows the river upstream. The path is wide and easy to walk on and you have some nice views of the glacier from afar.

The beginning of the Morteratsch glacier hiking trails.

The trail provides some beautiful views of the mountains and glaciers in the Bernina group.

The trail is essentially flat too, and goes through a stretch of land that passes by trees, the river, and a few panoramic benches here and there. Not only that, but along the trail you will also find info points and boards that explain the development of the area. There also are signpost the various levels of the glaciers through the last several decades.

It’s also a beautiful environment, though the closer you get to the glacier tongue the less you see of it. That’s because there is a huge rock wall in front of it. And when you reach that point, the trail changes from an easy walk on a dirt road, into a proper mountain hike over unstable terrain.

This is where the easy walking trail ends. Once you cross the bridge, you are entering unstable and dangerous grounds.

At the end of the gravel road, there’s a wooden bridge you’d have to cross to approach the glacier on the more difficult, and dangerous, part of the hike.

Approaching the Morteratsch Glacier

As I mentioned in the intro, there is a lot of debris in and around the trail – all that’s left by the retreating glacier and by the rockfall, on either side of the valley. You do have some very explicit warnings if you decide to approach the glacier’s tongue – so these are risk you should be aware of.

As you can see, the info board is quite explicit about the potential risks.

I could hear a lot of rockfall when I was there. Every 2-5 minutes there was a small discharge echoing to the valley. So make sure you do not go off-trail or anywhere closer to either side of the valley. More importantly, keep in mind this part of the trail is not risk-free.

On the other hand, that’s also what makes you realize both how fast the glacier has been retreating and how “alive” such an environment can feel. it is a truly beautiful glacier and being able to see it that close makes the experience a rather unique one.

Apart from the dangerous terrain, the hike isn’t particularly difficult in itself. The main problems are, again, unstable rocks. This is debris left by the retreating in the last few decades after all.

Also, this is where most of the elevation gain is. The trail is, however, well-marked and easy to follow. This part took me about 20 minutes to complete.

The glacier is hidden from view in this section of the trail. Then it quite suddenly comes into view, in all of its majesty. The Morteratsch glacier is the largest in the Bernina Group, and from here you get a good sense of scale.

There are a couple of benches at the end of the trail, so this is a good place to rest a bit and take in the views of this beautiful, melting giant.

The Morteratsch Glacier Photos and Photography Tips

The hike to the Morteratsch glacier is a good one for a cloudy day. This is also what I did. I visited on a rainy day during a three-day tour of the area. The glacier faces north so it does not catch much light if not in the middle of the day.

Actually, I had drizzle too, and overall the dark atmosphere with light diffused by the cloud helped manage the contrast that would be too harsh on sunny days.

However the mountain in the background can catch some light at sunrise/sunset, so I think it’s worth giving it a try if you are around at that time of the day.

In terms of lenses, I found the 24-70mm (full frame) to be more than enough here. This is especially true considering it isn’t safe to get too close to the Glacier, in the event of a collapse.

This sport is good for catching bot wider landscape as well as just framing parts of the beautiful glacier.

Where to stay

There are a couple of Hotels by the trailhead as well as a campsite with three different camping sites.

This is a good area to stay at if you are planning to visit more of the various glacier trails or hike high up in the Diavolezza/Bernina Pass area. So it would make sense to stay here, or in a hotel around the pass.

Wild camping is forbidden on the Bernina pass, both sides. This applies to campers and vans too. You can, however, camp at the Morteratsch Campsite, which offers three different locations.

One proper camping site with plenty of facilities next to the Morteratsch Glacier Hotels. Then, they offer two more parking lots turned into camping spaces with a bathroom and a shower in containers by the Diavolezza Cable car station. You can book your space at the Morteratsch campsite here.

Additional Resources

• If you want to discover more beautiful glaciers in Switzerland, take a look at the Rhône Glacier, the Steingletscher Hike on the Sustenpass, or the Aletsch Glacier. For something a little bit out of the ordinary, check out the Chüebodengletscher and Gerenpass Hike.
• For a comprehensive overview of Hikes in Switzerland, check out my main Switzerland page.