Fil de Cassons

Fil de Cassons ; Cassonsgrat
	Eastern part of Fil de Cassons with Bargistal seen from Piz Dolf
height	2694 m above sea level M.
location	Switzerland , ; ( Graubünden )
Mountains	Glarus Alps
Dominance	2.19 km → Piz Dolf
Notch height	140 m ↓ Fuorcla Raschaglius
Coordinates	739 335 / 193 628 coordinates: 46 ° 52 '45 " N , 9 ° 16' 0" O ; CH1903: 739 335 / 193,628
Type	Ridges
rock	thin Verrucano build-up on limestone
Age of the rock	Verrucano
	The west end of the ridge tapering off from the left with Fuorcla (rom. = Branching) Raschaglius in the foreground and the upper Segnesboden on the right

The Fil de Cassons ( German Cassonsgrat ) is a summit in the Glarus Alps in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland without a distinctive summit structure. Fil stands for a ridge in the Romance language .

The ridge forms the northern end of the Flimserstein . It stretches over a total of about 2.4 kilometers from Fuorcla Raschaglius at 2600 meters over the highest point Il Fil at 2694 m to almost another kilometer east of Mutta Bella at 2644 m . To the south of it lies the Mutta Bella at an altitude of 2473 m above a prominent notch .

In the western part you stand above the south-facing plan of the slide of the Flims rockslide , in the eastern part above the plateau and the Alp of the Flimserstein.

Towards the south there is a free and comprehensive panorama from the Ortler over the Engadine mountains to the cathedral in Valais and the Finsteraarhorn . Towards the north, the ridge breaks off suddenly into the Bargistal. Behind it, towards the northeast, the highest mountain in the canton of St. Gallen , the Ringelspitz , as well as the Piz Dolf and, further to the northwest, the Piz Segnas and the Tschingelhörner with the striking line of the Glarus thrust . This thrust is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is literally at your feet on the Fil de Cassons.

Access

The ridge is located north of Flims in the Vorderrhein Valley , from where it was accessible via footpaths and a small gondola lift. The eastern direct route is the alpine path carved into the rock from Bargis to the alp on the Flimserstein and further up the ridge. Another route also starts east in the Bargis valley and comes along this under the southern flank of Piz Dolf and finally from the north up the ridge. From Flims, a direct ascent through the southern slope onto the ridge is possible.

From the west you come from the Camona da Segnas (Segneshütte) 2102 m above sea level. M. over the Lower and Upper Segnesboden on the Fil de Cassons. Further west you get to the Martinsloch and the Segnespass (Segnespass).

The Cassonsbahn was opened in 1956 by the Flims mountain railways and operated by the Weisse Arena Group until summer 2015. An association with a large number of members and the tourism industry were hoping for a new facility to be built close to the western flank of the ridge. In January 2017, the mountain railway company presented an unusual project that combined a development with a new development of the Nagens area. In December 2017, the new development project was phased out and the cross line from Nagens to Ils Cugns (several hundred meters west of the old Cassons station) was announced for the winter of 2019/2020. In June 2018 the masts of the old railway were dismantled. The mountain station of the old cable car could have remained standing - even after the ropes had been removed, one of the cabins was still in the mountain station. On June 11th, the old mountain station burned down after dismantling work in the railway technology section.

nature

In the 1980s, the municipality of Flims set up a high-alpine educational trail , of which many boards still exist. Ibex and chamois can be found on the steep north flank. The Casson ridge is known for the Mornell ringed plovers , who rest on the ridge in late summer.

geology

The uppermost part of the ridge consists of Verrucano rock, in this case greenish and very slate and brittle. At Fil de Cassons, the thrust surface of the Glarus thrust is barely visible from the south, but it can be easily followed from the surrounding mountains. At Fil de Cassons, it is visible from afar only from the northern, less accessible perspective or at the very eastern end. An attentive hiker, however, notices from the change under his feet that he was standing a few meters north of the old cable car station exactly on the thrust (see observation gallery). There are other interesting geological phenomena to discover in the area.

Segnesboden

The upper Segnasboden is a postglacial alluvial plain , including the following typical small glacier canyon: The creek, which was previously lost on the way over the Segnas-Boden to a width of a good 700 meters, disappears through a gap of almost 60 centimeters. In it it falls down the height to the lower Segnasboden, only the lowest part can be seen from below (on the way to the Segnespass ) as an open waterfall.

In this next chamber there is the Martinsloch, a rock window . The picture from the upper Segnesboden (in the gallery) shows the Tschingelhörner with the Martinsloch in the shadow on the left (in a north-westerly direction). To the right, still in the shade, the gap in the Segnespass. To the right of it rises the Atlas, a pre-summit of Piz Segnas . The distinctive dividing line of the Verrucano Overthrust, the Glarus Thrust World Heritage Site, can be recognized both by the Tschingelhörner and the Atlas .

Observation gallery

Geology: The thrust is evident at the eastern end of the ridge
Geomorphology: On the broad ridge you can see a tundra landscape with frost pattern soils
Weather: Again and again the ridge functions as a small weather shed (be careful!)
Geology again: you could even walk over the thrust line very close to the old mountain railway station in low shoes.
Geomorphology west of the Cassonsgrat: Panorama on Segnasboden with Tschingelhörner and Martinsloch on the left in the shadow and the clearly visible thrust line on the Atlas in the foreground in the sun.