Grüsch-Danusa Panorama Winter Hike

This winter hike is an easy short loop with wide open views of the surrounding mountains. The snow is groomed on this wide path, so you don’t need snowshoes. It is mostly gentle ups and downs, easy to walk, and can be shortened to 2km if necessary. We saw several families pulling kids on sleds and sledding the downhill parts of the trail, definitely recommended.

Near the winter hike, there is a restaurant with a panorama terrace, a 1.5 km sled run serviced by a chair lift, a ski garden for children, easy blue runs for beginners and longer red runs for intermediate skiers. These features make this outing a good choice for families and groups that need a variety of activities.

Location

The Grüsch-Danusa resort is in eastern Switzerland near Klosters/Davos. It is easily accessed by car and possible to reach by public transportation, but a little complicated (see below for details).

Overview of ski resort

Here is the winter map of the Grüsch-Danusa resort. You ride two gondolas to the top at Schwänzelegg. The winter hike is the yellow line that does a loop, starting and ending at the gondola station. The sled run is a purple line to the bottom of a chairlift, which brings you back up after each sled run. 

Trail Map

Here is the winter trail map from the Grüsch brochure. The solid line is the winter hike. The dotted line is the snowshoe tour. The “Bünda” is the main panorama viewpoint. The “Weisse Oasis” has a few lounge chairs in the sun. The Funpark is for skiers.

Trail map

Here is an interactive trail map for Grüsch Danusa winter hike. The trail starts at the top of the resort at Schwänzelegg 1800m. From the gondola station, follow the pink signs that lead down the hill to the winter walking and cross country ski trails. Just follow the groomed path and light pink signs as you make your way around the loop.

See trail map on Komoot • Schweiz Mobil • OutdoorActive

It took us about 1hr15 to do this hike, walking slowly. The path is groomed snow, so you only need hiking shoes, not snowshoes.

Shorter hike: As you can see on the maps above, the trail has two loops that are connected in the middle. You can do the smaller loop, aka “Kleine Tour,” which is 2 km and about 30 mins. 

Longer snowshoe tour: If you have snowshoes (or rent them here), you can follow the dark pink signs for route 570, which is 6km long, 300m up/down, about 2hr45 mins. See map for the snowshoe tour.

Getting there

By car: Exit the freeway at Landquart and drive direction Davos/Klosters. In Grüsch, exit the main road, following signs to the Grüsch-Danusa Bergbahn (Valzeinastrasse 6, 7214 Grüsch – . Park in the large parking lot next to the gondola station. In the 2021/22 season, it cost CHF 5/day. You can pay for your parking at the ticket office. 

By public transport: It’s a little complicated to get here by public transportation. During winter, there is a “Skibus” that will drop you directly at the Grüsch-Danusa gondola station (avoiding a 15 min walk from the nearest train station). But it has a very limited schedule and doesn’t seem to show up on SBB.ch or Google maps. I outline the 2021/22 schedule below, but please check the connections carefully and do not solely rely on the information here. See the current Skibus schedule here.

On weekends and daily during school holidays, there is one Skibus in the morning that picks up from Landquart, Bahnhof at 9:24 and drops at Grüsch-Danusa, Talstation at 9:38. If you are coming from Zürich HB, take the 8:07 train that arrives in Landquart at 9:13. In the afternoon, it picks up at Grüsch-Danusa, Talstation at 16:48 and arrives Landquart, Bahnhof at 17:00. If you are going back to Zürich, the train leaves Landquart at 17:16. 

There seems to another Skibus that picks up at Grüsch, Bahnhof at 9:59 and arrives at Grüsch-Danusa, Talstation at 10:02. In the afternoon, it leaves the gondola station at 16:00 and arrives Grüsch, Bahnhof at 16:21.

In any case, the Skibus costs CHF 5/person or free if you have a ski ticket (you can buy your ticket online). 

If you find yourself at Grüsch, Bahnhof without a bus, it’s a 15 min walk to the gondola – see walking map. 

Ticket prices

For this winter hike, you’ll need a return ticket on the Grüsch-Danusa gondola to the top (aka “2 Sektionen retour”). In the 2022/23 season, this cost CHF 26/adult, CHF 13/child, CHF 8/dog. 

Sledding ticket: If you want to sled, you’ll instead need a sledding day pass, aka “Schlittelkarte.” In the 2021/22 season, this cost CHF 44/adult, CHF 22/child. If you go after 13:00, it costs CHF 36/adult. 

Family discount: In all cases, families get a discount. There is also a discount for children, students (age 18-24) and seniors. See current ticket prices.

Opening times

Grüsch-Danusa is usually open for winter season from mid December to end of March, depending on snow conditions. On weekends, the gondolas that access this trail are open 8:00 – 17:00. Lifts and trails may close due to poor weather or snow conditions. Check the current opening times.

What to wear & bring

For footwear, you should wear waterproof hiking shoes with good traction. You don’t need snowshoes. If you have traction cleats, bring them just in case parts of the trail are icy. I would suggest  bringing hiking sticks for balance. You should wear warm layers appropriate to the weather forecast and waterproof outer layers to stay dry in the snow. See also What to pack & wear on a winter hike.

It’s a short hike with restaurants at both ends. So you don’t need to bring a lot of supplies. But I would bring 1L of water/person and snacks.

Photo story of the trail

View of the Grüsch parking lot.

The gondola cars are strange, with a two-sided bench in the middle and a door sliding open on each side. I found it a bit awkward to get in with my backpack and bag of extra equipment. 

Tip for loading sleds: Small compact sleds may fit in your gondola car. But if you brought a large sled or stroller, the gondola operator will take it and load it on a different open-air cargo gondola car. So you may need to wait at the top until your stuff arrives on the special car. So I suggest dropping sleds and strollers at the gondola before you go buy your tickets. That way they will already be at the top before you ride up.

It’s about a 15 mins ride from the parking lot to the top of the mountain. Do not get off at the middle stations.

Starting the trail

At the top, you’ll find a few buildings. Walk straight towards the sunny side where there is a restaurant with a panorama terrace. You can see the trail leading down the hill.

Before you get the restaurant, you’ll see this pink sign pointing you to the winter trails. The lighter pink route 329 is the groomed winter hiking trail. The darker pink route 570 is the snowshoe trail. 

From the restaurant, walk down the hill on the path shown here. You can see the start of the hiking path in the middle of the photo near the shady section.

Here is the start of the trail. As indicated on the sign, the walking path is on the left and the cross-country ski path is on the right. Occasionally, these paths join together and in this case, do not walk in the ski tracks and keep an eye out for oncoming skiers. As also noted on the sign, you can do a 2 or 5 km loop.

On the winter hiking trail

A brief start in the shade but don’t worry, most of the trail is wide open and sunny.

Now we get the sun and big views. 

We are walking out to the panorama viewpoint on the hill straight ahead.

The path was mostly quiet but walkers were lingering at the viewpoint.

A bench at the viewpoint if you want to linger and/or picnic. This family had a few sleds for the kids.

We brought shovel style sleds so we could sled down all the downhill sections.

Continuing the longer loop

After the long straight section, curve to your right to continue the 5km loop, as shown below. If you want to do the shorter loop, keep walking straight ahead back to the restaurant.

Back in the sun and looping around the mountain.

Up ahead you can see where the snowshoe trail forks to the right. Without snowshoes, stay to the left. Remember to not walk in the cross-country ski tracks.

Looking back on a particularly pretty part of the trail.

Big smiles from Tanya on this trail.

One of the many benches along the trail. We were warm from walking and not wearing our jackets. But after sitting a few minutes, we got too chilly to stay.

I walked up the hill a bit to get an overview pic of the trail. My family is sitting on the bench straight ahead.

More downhill sections where we could sled.

Some lounge chairs at the “Weisse Oasis”

More downhill for sledding. This part was a little steep for walking and I was glad to have traction cleats and hiking sticks. 

Really beautiful all along this trail.

A flat section near the end and a little chilly in the shade.

You’ll eventually join back up with the first loop of the trail and turn right back to the restaurant.

Restaurant

The trail ends back to your starting point near the restaurant. We had lunch here. There is both indoor and outdoor seating.

It’s a self-service café with the usual Swiss food, nothing special.

Sledding

After the hike, we moved on to sledding, which is a 1.5 km course serviced by the chair lift. The sled run starts just behind the restaurant, next to the top of the chair lift. You can rent sleds from the chair lift operator, as shown below. It costs CHF 8/half day or CHF 12/full day, cash only, no deposit.

FYI, the sled situation is unorganized, to say the least. We brought one sled and rented one sled. Then the lift operator just handed us more sleds that we didn’t pay for, I don’t know why. You don’t have to check in with anyone when you return the sled.

In the pic below, you can see our wooden sled and rented plastic sleds, which were faster and easier to control.

Even more disorganization at the bottom of the sled run. You scan your ticket and get in the chair lift line with other sledders and skiers. The chair lift does not have a hook on the side for sleds. Instead, the sleds are set on the chair next to people. I’d suggest forcing an empty space in your row, so there is room for your sled. Or you can set your sled in the “sled line” on the side, waiting for the lift operator to load your sled onto empty chair spaces.

Therefore, you may end up waiting a long time at the top to get your sled. So in practice, the sledders at the top just grab whatever sled is available, not waiting for the specific one they rented. Every time we came up the lift, we ended up with a different sled. I only waited for our personal wooden sled so I wouldn’t lose that.

On the sled run

Here’s the start of the sled run, which is a little steep. The first time down, both my son and I walked part of it until we could see what was coming ahead. I saw two groups accidentally sled off the left side of the trail here, not necessarily dangerous, but definitely annoying because you have to crawl up the hill to get back on the sledding path.

This pic shows how steep the sled run is at the top. I was a little scared. 

Another perspective of the sled run.

Here’s looking down the hill from my sled. As you can see, the snow was somewhat soft, so I could slow down by dragging my feet on the sides.

We were sledding in the late afternoon in early January, so the shadows were long and it was cold in the shade.

Last curve before the end. I saw a couple groups miss the curve and zoom straight off the sled run. Again, not super dangerous but I did see one mother and small child hit one of the poles and the child was crying a lot.

Final thoughts on sledding: I thought the sledding was a little expensive for what we wanted from our outing. You can’t pay for just one sled run, which would have been my preference. We had to buy the sledding day pass, which is almost double the price of the up & back gondola ticket. Although the sled run was fun, my husband and I only did it twice and my boys only did it 4 times. So I feel the more expensive sledding pass was not really worth it for our family. 

Ski pistes

The easy ski pistes at the top, serviced by the same chair lift as the sled run, are part of the less expensive “BeginnerCard” (same as the sledding pass). This lift pass includes up & back on the gondola from the valley and this chair lift, but not the other lifts at the resort. 

Another view of the ski piste. Below that, you can also see the final curve of the sled run.

This is the ski garden for learners near the top of the gondola station.

If you’ve been to Grüsch before, what do you think? If not, do you think you’ll go?