Ruinaulta
Ruinaulta – the Romansh word means ‘high pile of rubble’. The name says it all. Around 9,500 years ago, over a cubic kilometre of rock broke away between the Flimserstein and Piz Grisch, plummeted a thousand metres to the ground and buried the Upper Rhine Valley under a mass of rubble several hundred metres thick. The Rhine dammed up to form a lake – and over the millennia that followed, carved its way back. The result is this fascinating gorge.
The Oberland line of the Rhaetian Railway runs through this natural wonder – part of the Glacier Express route from Zermatt to St. Moritz. On 25 June 1930, the first Glacier Express, carrying 70 passengers, travelled from Zermatt to St. Moritz – a journey that took just under eleven hours at the time. Today, it is considered the slowest express train in the world. A title to be proud of.
In the background is Versam-Safien station – a small stop, little more than a platform, in the middle of the gorge. Anyone who alights here stands between white limestone cliffs and the young Rhine. Those who remain seated continue to gaze through the panoramic window – at a landscape that has not adapted to the railway for 9,500 years. Quite the opposite.





























