Page Type Page Type: Mountain/Rock
Location Lat/Lon: 46.41474°N / 9.88505°E
Additional Information County: Grigioni
Activities Activities: Mountaineering, Scrambling, Skiing
Seasons Season: Spring, Summer
Additional Information Elevation: 11634 ft / 3546 m
Sign the Climber's Log

Overview

 

This page will be kept in honour of Cyrill Rüegger, the SP member known as Cyrill, who was the former owner of this page, died on June 13th 2009 on Piz Palù together with his wife.   

 

Piz Tschierva 3546m
Piz Tschierva 3546m

Piz Tschierva 3545 m

Piz Tschierva is an imposing and harmonious mountain, with a beautiful summit, dominating the Eastern side of the Val Roseg, in the Bernina Group, canton Grisons, Switzerland. Piz Tschierva is located  West to the ridge dividing Val Morteratsch and Val Roseg,  close to the Piz Morteratsch 3751 m, the Tschierva-Hut 2583 m. and the Boval Hut 2495 m. It's separated from this main crest by the Fuorcla da Tschierva and shows three sides and as many ridges. To the North it overlooks the glacier "Vadret da Misaun" with a mighty triangular wall and to the South-East  the glacier "Vadrettin da Tschierva" with a narrow wall. Piz Tschierva is a popular mountain in summer as well as in spring with ski and a very panoramic summit, offering wide views over the main peaks of the Bernina Group, as Piz Morteratsch, Piz Bernina main summit and Piz Roseg. The name Tschierva is a dialect term meaning "deer-female", the deer-female mountain.

View of Piz Tschierva from the Southeast
View of Piz Tschierva from the Southeast

Getting There

 

Morteratsch Glacier seen from Bovalhütte
Morteratsch Glacier seen from Bovalhutte

Piz Tschierva can be climbed both from the Boval Hut and the Tschierva Hut. The starting pont to reach the Boval Hut is Morteratsch, a little settlement at 1896 m. of altitude located along the Retic Railway. The starting point to reach the Tschierva Hut is the village of  Pontresina.  Both Morteratsch and Pontresina are located on the road joining St. Moritz and the Bernina Pass.

- By public transport SBB & RHB-railway from St.Moritz to the railway station Pontresina Online train&bus schedule (public transport Switzerland): SBB schedule

- By car from Switzerland Across the Julierpass 2284m (Pass dal Güglia) or the Berninapass 2307m (Passo del Bernina) to Pontresina and Morteratsch

- By car from Italy From Milano reach Lecco, then follow the road 36 along Lago di Como to Colico; here turn to right taking the Valtellina road to Sondrio and Tirano. Here leave the Valtellina road and turn to right, entering in Switzwerland, reach Poschiavo, Bernina Pass and Morteratsch. An alternative access is via Chiavenna, Maloia Pass, Silvaplana, St. Moritz, Pontresina and Morteratsch.

Online Route scheduler: route scheduler in english and TCS.ch

Huts

Tschierva Hut  2584m
Tschierva Hut 2584m

 

 

* Chamanna da Boval (Boval-Hütte) 2495 m - CAS Bernina Open: 15 of March - 15 of May and 15 of june - 15 of October Size: 100 persons + 12 in the winter-shelter Getting There: 2 hours by walking on a path running on the left orographical side of Morteratsch Glacier Phone: 0041-8266403

* Chamanna da Tschierva (Tschierva Hütte) 2573 m - CAS Bernina Open: end of March - 15 of May and 15 of June - 15 of October Size: 100 persons + 30 in the winter shelter Getting There: from Pontresina via the Val Roseg - 3,30 hours on path Phone: 0041-8266391Other links to the shelters: Link to Tschierva hut Link: www.chamannadaboval.ch

Red Tape

A giant of Bernina: Piz Roseg seen from Tschierva summit
A giant of Bernina: Piz Roseg seen from Tschierva summit

 

No permits required. A fee is due in the Morteratsch parking. Cars are banned in Val Roseg.

Routes overview

From the Boval Hut:

- East Ridge

Difficulty: F+ (Alpine scale)
Difference in level: 1050 m from Boval Hut

Beta of Piz Tschierva East ridge
Beta of Piz Tschierva East ridge

 

 

 

 

It's the Normal route and also that of the first ascentionists (Johann Coaz and co. summer 1850), usually climbed to reach the summit. A pleasant climb, a lot of fun on the rocks and the easy summit ridge! The view from the top is wonderful over some major peaks of Bernina group, as Piz Morteratsch and Piz Roseg.

Piz Palù seen from the little glacier Boval Dadains before sunset
Piz Palù seen from the little glacier Boval Dadains before sunset

With beautiful view in the direction of Pizzi Palù take the path rising in the direction of the Corn Boval, reaching the base of the same Corn Boval. At about 2800 m. of altitude head towards SW, in the snowy depression occupied by the remains of the small glacier Vadret Boval Dadains, then follow the glacier, heading to the rocky wall and getting its bottom at about 3000 m. of altitude.

People getting the base of the rocks below Fuorcla Boval
People getting the base of the rocks below Fuorcla Boval

Start to climb it on rocky steps, easy at the beginning, then steeper (II grade UIAA scale). Traverse left on a ledge, then reach the Fuorcla Boval (2.30 h from the shelter). Descend on the Vadrettin Tschierva and traverse right in the direction of Piz Tschierva. At the end of the glacier, a steep slope of rocks and scree leads to the Fuorcla da Tschierva. The easy East ridge leads to the summit (3,15 hours from the shelter).

Piz Tschierva 3546m
Summit of Piz Tschierva 3546m

See also the page Piz Tschierva Crossing for the description of the route rising from Boval Hut and coming down along the Tschierva Hut side. The East Ridge can be easily climbed also starting from the Tschierva Hut:

From the Tschierva Hut:   

- East Ridge

Difficulty: F (Alpine scale)
Difference in level: 960 m from Tschierva Hut

From the shelter reach the Terrassa 3120 m., then head to East to the Vadrettin da Tschierva and follow the glacier toward East to reach the Fuorcla da Tschierva, the wide saddle between Piz Tschierva and Crasta da Boval, then follow the East Ridge as for the previous route.

Tschierva
Climbing Piz Tschierva

Other easy routes from the Tschierva Hut are:

- South East Ridge - F (Alpine scale)  From the Tschierva Hut reach the Terrassa 3120 m. as for the previous route and across the SE snow-fields and easy rocks reach the summit
- South Spur - F (Alpine scale) From the Tschierva Hut reach the bottom edge of the Terrassa, then climb directly the South Spur
- South West side -  F (Alpine scale) There are two more demanding routes starting from the Hotel Roseg via the Fuorcla Misaun, nowadays rarely climbed (WNW ridge and North Wall).

Piz Tschierva 3546m
Nearing the summit

- Ski tour route

Tschierva Hut - Vadrettin da Tschierva - East ridge - Piz Tschierva
Difficulty: WS (PD) ¦ Route: 753 ¦ 960 metres in altitude

Piz Tschierva 3546m
Piz Tschierva

When to climb

Piz Tschierva 3546m
Piz Tschierva 3546m

Mountaineering: for the summer ascents the best period goes from July to the end of September.
Ski-mountaineering: from March to May

Guidebooks and maps

Bernina Group Guidebook

Guidebook summer:

"Bernina" N. Canetta and G. Miotti - Guide dei Monti d'Italia CAI-TCI
"Bündner Alpen 5" Pierino Giuliani

Guidebook winter / ski tour:

*"Skitouren Graubünden" Vital Eggenberger

Map: * "Bernina" Swisstopo 1277 - 1:25000 Online map for Switzerland: www.mapplus.ch Map Search - Online Maps

Meteo forecast

MeteoSwitzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research Davos: www.slf.ch

Links

Myswitzerland

Good and favorable accommodations: www.rooms.ch

In Memory of Cyrill Rüegger

 

A note from the SP staff Cyrill Rüegger, the member we all used to know as Cyrill and Digitalis, died on June 13th 2009 in an avalanche on the summit ridge of Piz Palü together with his wife Tanja and a common friend. They were swept down by the avalanche into a couloir underneath the east summit and died instantly. Their bodies were retrieved from the Palü Glacier by helicopter a day after the accident.

Cyrill joined SP in March 2006 and soon was one of the most prolific contributors on the site with almost 70 mountain and 5 range pages to his profile. He was an accomplished climber, bagging almost 1000 summits in not quite seven years. Among them are 35 4000ers and 272 3000ers, almost all of them in his home country Switzerland.

While contributing a lot on SP, Cyrill's real internet home was www.hikr.org where he contributed 585 mountain profiles and reports in his native language German. Cyrill also posted on www.bergsteigen.at and other climbing sites, often under his real name but also under the pseudonym Digitalis. He was a botanist by profession and also contributed his knowledge about medical plants to different websites. Cyrill will be greatly missed by all.

This page will be kept in honour of Cyrill, one of SP's most prolific members and most active mountaineers.

Rest in peace, brother! The picture above was taken on the summit of Matterhorn on July 28th 2007.



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