Awesome Alpine Adventure: Day 5 - Piz Nair

Day 5: Piz Nair
Favorite photo

I picked this because this is the mascot for the Piz Nair and is used on a lot of things with it.  Also you can see the ridge that is part of Piz Nair which at first I thought was an arete but then when I passed  by it I realized it was something more than just an arete. 

We had the day to ourselves and the one thing I really wanted to do was to ride the cable car up to the top of the mountain Piz Nair (Wikipedia - Piz_Nair).  What a ride that was - its one of the things that totally blew me away as a rockhound and made this trip so totally awesome, unbelievable, fantastic, amazing and any other adjective that applies.  
In all fair warning - I did take a lot of photos.

Because we had walked up to this place only to realize the cable car went into the mountain I had to get this shot. 

Like the other  cable car we had been on there was only one track but in certain spots the track splits and that lets another car to pass by.  We had gotten the very first compartment and so had an unobstructive view of where the car had been. 

This was the view we were seeing as we rode up over the town.  Doesn't it look so quaint.

Here's what it look like looking straight down.

This was looking out the right window facing down.

A little further up we passed another road and some houses.  Just look at how sharp those turns are up the road and how its a switch back. 

The area is known for its skiing and with slopes like this I can see why.  There were trails crisscrossing across the hillside so people could hike them if they wanted too.  I much preferred the cable car.  It probably would have taken us a couple of days to get up there to the top if we chose to hike it.  I was tired just from the walk around town.  I must admit though I'm  used to sea level elevations and this was definitely up in altitude.

On the one map this area was call Alp Giop.  And a little further up is said Munt de San Murezzan.  I have no clue what those mean. 

It was so neat when we started to see the snow covered mountain tops peaking behind the hillside.

Then we had to change cars.  The cyclist seemed to get off at this spot. I think the spot was called Chantarella and was 2005m and was close to the treeline. Then we switch cars and got on to the one that would take us to Corviglia 2486m or if you can read the sign 8156ft.

I thought the big wheels were amazing the way they moved the cables and such.   We were switch from the cable cars to the gondola ride.

We had a couple of minutes for the car to get there and so we walked around and got some photos.
The one thing that can't be shown was the wind.  At this location at this time it was quite breezy and it just seemed to go through you.  We didn't stay out in the cold for too long.  It seemed more like the area where the skiers would get off and ski down the mountain.

I was amazed at the road and the way people were driving on them.  With it being summer time they were able to but you knew in the winter you would have to have special vehicles for that.

They called this the top of the world and I could understand why.  The view was incredible. The higher we went the more amazing it was.

We started to go past a ridge in the mountain.  From a distance it looked like an arete. I expected it to be made up of limestone/dolomite which is what I was told the mountains were made up of. 

We got to this spot and I noticed that the rock colors had changed.  There was more of a reddish tone to them.  I thought this must be the dolomite they were talking about - the iron and magnesium must be weathering out and giving it this color.  But I started to notice that it talus were not looking the same.   I started to pay more attention to this ridge than the scenic view everyone else was enjoying.

Another car passed us by.  That made some people nervous because our car started to bounce an sway a little bit.    If we were going to go this was the way to do it-- Seeing some incredible geology.

As we progressed we got back into the greyish looking rocks again. 

This definitely looked like limestone to me. 

But dang it-  that reddish looking rock was back.  The dip to them looked almost like it was vertical.

This was looking out the other side of the window.  Maybe I could get a clue from that.

It seemed like it just had glaciated features that you would expect being in the mountains like we were but there was just too much snow covering things.   I was glad we were there in the summer when it wasn't all white and I could see some of the rock outcrops. 

Then I saw this and was like - ah ha - this has to be an igneous dike intruding into the limestone.

Needless to say it was pretty incredible to see.

More photo's of that ridge

We were approaching the end of the ride and got this scenic view. The other couple that told us about this ride said they had just come up looked around but it was overcast and really cold and windy and got right back on again.  I thought we would end up doing the same so I wanted to get as many photo's as I could. 

We get to the end of the ride and got off to this sign.  3057 m is about 10,000 feet. 

Everyone else went the left to the scenic view but I saw this mascot to the right and had to get a photo of it- plus the restroom sign was pointing this way too.
The goat  looked so life like with it being silhouette against the sky.  Our friend who went up the day before got a similar shot but it was very overcast and it was different.  

We walked around stretching our legs and realized there was a restaurant there we had been told there wasn't.  Since there was one we decide we wanted to stay for awhile.  While looking for the restroom I saw this model and thought it was interesting.

This is what it was looking like behind the building

Just look at what a heavy duty vehicle that must have been. Just look at all this snow and it was the end of June.  I could just imagine how much they get during the winter time.

This must have been where the skiers get their brews.  

They had this map up which was the exact copy of the one that they had given us in our tour package. This is how I knew what things were called and the elevation of certain things.

I started to walk to the edge wondering how steep it was. I figured it must not been too bad because people do ski in this area.  It was fun watching the clouds rise up the mountain too. Later I found out that this area was more for the scenic view and the skiers really don't go to this area - they stay near Corviglia.

That's when I noticed that ridge we had gone by.  I was thinking I got to look at this better.  Just look at how the snow is on the north side and not the south. 

I headed back to the other side of the building and couldn't resist getting this picture of icicles to send back home.  They were having weather in the high 90's.  Trouble was our cellphones wouldn't let us send pictures like this - oh well I just had to show it later.

 Now to the view that was on the other side of the building.  The first thing you notice was this - Piz  Julier (3380m) (Wikipedia Piz_Julier )

There was a walkway that just had railings that led to a platform that had plexiglass around it.
While we were there the clouds would come and they would go.  When we first got there they were pretty low and was obstructing some of the mountains.  But all we had to do was wait a couple of minutes and they would float by and the view would be clear again.

Piz Julier

And here's what it looked like from the platform a later in the day.

I was glad they had this viewing platform.  The walls sure did help with blocking the wind and it wasn't near as cold as I was expecting it to be.  In fact it felt warmer there than it did below where we switch cable cars.

As we walked around we noticed this diorama.  This way we at least had some idea what we were looking at.

Here is a close-up of that ridge that makes up Piz Nair.

and here it is again from the platform. 
Seeing it in this profile I knew that this was definitely a dike that had intruded into the rocks and the rocks have eroded away leaving this more resistant rock behind.

Here's another cleaner image of it.  I liked the way the cable lines where with this photo.

view from Piz Nair

This was the view that was what most people were looking at.  The lake below is the St. Moritz lake.

Here's another shot of  Piz Julier with it not being blocked by anything.  Later in the day it was a lot clearer and I was glad about it because we were able to see things better.

But just as I was thinking that - more clouds came in to show me who was in charge here.

This was to the right of Piz Julier.  Isn't the way the snow and the rocks are interesting.  I liked the patterns that was made.

When I tried to get this shot - it looked like the cables were disappearing into the clouds.

Another shot of the mountain tops,

and the lakes below.

view from Piz Nair. 

view from Piz Nair

I think this lake was Lej da Champfer and the mountain was Piz Albana

Here was the restaurant that was there at Piz Nair.  We stayed for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the view and didn't want to leave.  They also had a little gift shop there and that is were we got our souvenir's and  t-shirts for our kids.  So much for our shopping excursion but I did have to get keepsake to have which was a little cowbell with an enameled mountain view with St Moritz on the front of it.

Restaurant at Piz Nair, St Moritz Switzerland

Had to include this one with the cable car - it was time for us to go back down the mountain.

Views from the trip down.

I could tell the light was hitting it differently and it changed the colors of the rocks.

Just look at this.  I had a hard time figuring this out.  It almost looked like the limestone was intruded into the other rock. 

I wasn't too sure as to what this was for but it must be one heck of a climb up those stairs.

The cable car passed us again.

Looking down on that field again I decided that had to be scoria talus.  Somewhere I saw something that looked like scoria labeling this area and I was wondering if that was what this was.

My husband thought it was interesting how some of it had a greenish growth on it wondering if that was moss or something else. 

I saw these lines before and thought they must be there for slope stability and didn't think much about them.  But this time as I was going down I saw a little critter running down one of the lanes.  I tried to get a photo of it but it was too quick form me.  When we were in the restaurant the waitress talked about these little critters called Marmot - some of the people had seen them outside.  I was hoping to get a shot of one but just in case I didn't I went ahead and got a postcard of one just in case.  Now I wondered if these weren't there paths to there homes on the mountain. 

Here we were back switching cars.  This was the view to the back.

Another view of the Piz Nair ridge - made me more convinced that it was an igneous dike.

We got back onto the cable cars and were headed down. 

I was noticing these holes in the ground and started to see some movement with them too.  I wondered if they were Marmots poking their heads up. It seemed like they were too far away and too quick to get a good photo.

But then I finally got one.  This is it cropped down. 

Marmots playing

And then I couldn't believe this guy was right below us. 

The cropped and enhanced version of the above image.

Marmot on Piz Nair, St Moritz Switzerland

With slopes like this I could see why this is such a great place to go skiing in the winter time.

We were back into the city.
I did notice this outcrop and just had to go by it.  When I looked at it - it seemed to me it was dolomitic but I didn't have any HCL acid with me to tell for sure.

Right below was this and it did seem like it was limestone. 

To be continued ....

PS:  I do want to thank the group that took us on this awesome adventure and all the wonderful people we got to know while going on it.  You know who you are - THANK YOU.

Also I have to thank my husband for wanting to do things to make me happy and go along on this excursion to Piz Nair.  You truly made  this an awesome day and time.