Credit for bypass

At the beginning of this year, the S-chanf municipal assembly approved a loan of CHF 510,000 for the new route. The ascent to the Chaschauna Pass, which is up to 30 percent steep in places, almost 1.3 kilometers long and at risk of erosion, will be replaced by a four-kilometer-long path with a significantly lower gradient of around ten percent, which is gentle on nature and the landscape and has no artificial structures
.
On 9 July 2019, the ground-breaking ceremony took place on the 2694-metre-high Chaschauna Pass - the starting signal for the optimization of the hiking and mountain bike trail from the top of the pass down to S-chanf in the Upper Engadine. Anyone who has ridden the route during or outside the race will know how braking-intensive and often washed out this descent is.

One last time on the old descent

The new section of trail, which is also used for the National Park Bike Marathon, will be signposted as bike route 444 and will be accessible in both directions in future. The completion of the new trail, by the company "Trailworks Biketrails & Wanderwege GmbH", should be completed in fall 2019, weather permitting. The old, direct route will be dismantled in 2020.

Those who would like to experience the National Park Bike Marathon one last time with the legendary original descent from the Chaschauna Pass will have the opportunity to do so again on August 31. Registration can be made online until August 28. The early bird discount also applies until July 31, 2019.