38 lifts

Entry 014 · Site diary · 12 Oct 2026 · 9 min · By Anna Pult, site lead · Project P-029

Eleven weeks, one helicopter and a deadline set by the first snowfall on the Albula Pass.

Week 1 · 16 Jun — Road open, pass still white

The snowplough cleared the road on the 14th. We arrived two days later with a tent, a theodolite and a list of 38 lifts that had to happen before the weather turned. Six lifts this week.

Week 2 · 23 Jun — Stone, by hand

The gneiss came from a scree slope four kilometres down the valley. Six of us sorted it by size on the meadow, the way the masons in Müstair taught us, before a single stone was laid. Five lifts.

Week 4 · 7 Jul — Fog for five days

No visibility, no lifts. We used the time to pre-cut the larch joints on the ground, so that each frame could be set the moment the helicopter could fly. Three lifts.

Week 7 · 28 Jul — Frame up

All twelve frames standing by noon. The pilot stayed for coffee and told us he had never seen a roof go on this fast above 2,000 metres. Three lifts.

The weather never asks if you're ready. It just arrives.
— Pilot, lift 31, 19 August

Week 11 · 1 Sep — Last lift

Glazing and the stove. The forecast gave us two clear days. We used one and a half. Two lifts.

1 September, 17:40

The stove came up on the last lift. We lit it that evening and slept inside for the first time. At four the next morning it began to snow, and it did not stop for three days.

We were eleven hours inside the window.