Piz Vatgira, Mountain summit in Graubünden, Switzerland
Piz Vatgira is a mountain summit in the Lepontine Alps standing at 2,982 meters above the Gotthard Base Tunnel. A small glacier on its eastern slope feeds meltwater into Lai Verd lake, and the surrounding landscape shows the high-altitude terrain typical of the region.
The mountain stands above the Gotthard Base Tunnel, completed in 2016 to connect northern and southern Europe through the Saint-Gotthard Massif. This engineering project fundamentally changed the region's transport routes.
The name Vatgira comes from Romansh, the fourth national language of Switzerland, reflecting local linguistic traditions in the Graubünden canton. Visitors can notice this cultural connection in the local place names and the surrounding region's geography.
The mountain is accessible from Sedrun with summer months offering the best hiking conditions when snow cover decreases on the trails. Visitors should be prepared for changeable weather and steep sections of the route.
The summit marks the highest point above the world's deepest railway tunnel, where trains pass 2.450 meters beneath the mountain surface. This remarkable relationship between the peak and the tunnel below it makes this location particularly noteworthy.
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