San Bernardino Pass Road

The road over the San Bernardino pass climbs in 18 hairpin bends (maximum gradient 9% (1 in 11.1) up the steep slope below the Mittaghorn (2,609 m/8,560ft; on left), with beautiful and constantly changing views to the rear of the Rheinwald valley and the peaks rising to over 3,000 m/9,843ft on its north side. In 4km/ 2mi it reaches the bare valley of the Thälialp (1,920 m/6,300ft) and then ascends in nine hairpins to the pass.

The San Bernardino pass (2,065 m/6,775ft; simple hospice), which may have been used as early as the Bronze Age as a route through the Alps, was originally known as the Vogelberg ("Bird Mountain"). It takes its present name from San Bernardino of Siena, who is said to have preached here in the early 15th C. On the pass, with its rocks worn smooth by the ice, is the Lago Moèsola, in which is a small rocky islet. To the east is the pointed summit of Pizzo Uccello (Bird Mountain, 2,716 m/8,911ft), to the west the blunt top of the Marschalhorn (2,902 m/9,521ft), beside which the Zapporthorn, with the Muccial glacier, comes into view as the road continues south. The road skirts the lake and then continues down in 21 hairpin bends, following the course of the River Moèsa, through a rugged landscape, with magnificent views of the surrounding peaks, particularly of the precipitous Pan de Zucchero (2,600 m/,531ft) and (to the rear, on the left) Pizzo Uccello, which towers up ever more imposingly as the road descends. To the east are Piz Lumbreda (2,977 m/9,768ft) and Piz Curciusa (2,875 m/9,433ft). After the last hairpin the southern exit from the tunnel (1,631 m/5,351ft) is seen on the right.