On the second Sunday of March, fourteen thousand cross-country skiers race forty-two kilometres from Maloja to S-chanf across the frozen lakes.
The Engadin Skimarathon has run since 1969. The start in Maloja is a single wide line of skiers across the frozen lake, and the first kilometres are pure crowd. By Silvaplana it stretches into a ribbon you can see from the hotel.
Our reception manager's advice
Gian has finished it eleven times. Start further back than you think you belong, he says, because the first climb out of St. Moritz into the Stazerwald forest is where everyone who started too fast stops.
If you would rather watch, the best place is the edge of Lake St. Moritz below the hotel around nine o'clock, when the leaders come through at the speed of a bicycle.
