Piz Urlaun 3359m

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.

Overview

The Piz Urlaun 3359m is a mountain in Switzerland, in the Swiss-canton Glarus and Grisons. He is on the boarder of Glarus and Gisons (Graubünden). In the north from Piz Urlaun is the famous Tödi 3614m with a lot of "traffic", but the Piz Urlaun is a solitary mountain.

To the north of the summit you find the glacier "Bifertenfirn". To the south-west you find the glacier "Glatscher da Gliems". Bifertenstock is a popular mountain in summer as well as in spring with Ski.

The Piz Urlaun is not achievable with ski.

Route & Difficulty

The only one common route is:

From the Punteglias-Hut (Camona da Punteglias) 2311m to the "Fuorcla da Punteglias 2814. Afterwards over the south ridge to the summit of Piz Urlaun 3359m.

Difficulty: WS (PD) or T6

Accommodations

Punteglias-hut 2311m - Link: www.punteglias.ch

Getting There

By public transport:

Train from Chur (capital of Grisons) to Trun 861m. The starting point to the Punteglias-hut.

Online train schedule (public transport Switzerland): SBB schedule

By car:

From Chur to Flims and then until Trun 861m.

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

Books & Map

Guidebook Summer:
Alpinführer Glarner Alpen
Author: Peter Straub

-

Online map for Switzerland:

www.mapplus.ch

Map Search - Online Maps

Weather conditions in Switzerland

Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology

Weather SFDRS

Meteo News.ch

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

Links

Link to Piz Urlaun tour: trip urlaun

Switzerland Tourism: www.myswitzerland.com

Glarus tourism: www.glarusnet.ch

Canton Glarus homepage: www.glarus.ch

Canton Grison / Graubünden: www.graubünden.ch

Good and favorable accommodations: www.rooms.ch

Images

View Piz Urlaun 3359m Image Gallery - 21 Images