Val Fex: walking the car-free valley from Sils Maria
The Fextal Wanderung, the walk into the Fex valley, starts at the edge of the village. Val Fex opens south from Sils Maria and is closed to private cars: residents drive in and a handful of permit vehicles serve the hotels, while everyone else walks or rides behind a horse. The valley floor rises gently between roughly 1,800 and 2,000 metres past hay meadows, larch stands and a scatter of hamlets, and it ends under a glacier. The gradient stays mild and the surface is a made track most of the way, which makes this a long, level afternoon on the valley floor.
Walking in from Sils Maria
The way in leaves from the village and climbs the wooded step at the valley mouth, then flattens out. Sils Tourismus gives 30 to 40 minutes to Fex Platta, 50 to 60 minutes to Fex Crasta and one and a half to two hours to Fex Curtins, with Alp Muot Selvas at the far end at two and a half to three hours. Vaüglia comes first, then Platta, then Crasta with its old church on the rise, then Curtins. Each is a handful of houses, and several keep a kitchen open through the summer, so you can turn any of them into the far point of the day and walk back down the same track. For a bigger loop, the path over Muott'Ota climbs the eastern flank and drops back to the valley floor near Alp da Segl.
The horse omnibus and the carriages
Because the valley is closed to through traffic, the horse-drawn omnibus does the job a bus would do elsewhere. It runs to a fixed summer schedule, boarding at Hotel Maria in Sils Maria and calling at Fex Platta, Fex Crasta and Fex Curtins by Hotel Fex. Clalüna-Sils runs it, weather permitting, and asks for a reservation in good time, so check current departures with them before you plan around it. Walking in and riding out is the combination most guests end up choosing. The omnibus is a summer service; horse-drawn carriages and sleighs run in winter, which is covered on our horse-drawn carriage rides page.
The glacier at the valley head
Carry on past the last hamlet and the meadows give way to moraine at Plaun Vadret, where the Vadret da Fex closes the valley under a ring of three-thousanders that includes Piz Tremoggia, Piz Chapütschin, Piz Fora and Piz Güz. The glaciers around the valley head have retreated markedly since the 1980s, and the stream running past the hamlets carries their silt and runs grey in high summer. The valley itself has been worked far longer: Sils Tourismus dates the first written mention to 1303, when a charter calls it Fedes, from feda, sheep, which is a fair description of what the meadows are still used for. Runners take the same track early in the day, as our trail running in the Engadin page describes.
Summer is the season for it, from snowmelt until the larches turn. Walking shoes are enough for the valley floor, and a warm layer is worth carrying because the shade comes early against the western wall. Pair it with a crossing on the Lake Sils boat for a full day on foot and water. Reception at Schweizerhof, Sils Maria keeps the current carriage times and can point you at the right turning for the valley path. Schweizerhof is a Faern Collection Hotel.