Sunday, March 23
I awoke to loud *BOOM*s. After a few of them, I finally stirred and took a look at my phone. I could tell by my skylight that it had snowed last night and my guess is that the sounds were from snow falling off of roofs and echoing throughout the valley. Of course, it's possible that the booms were from avalanches on non-groomed slopes. I don't know for sure but the Zermatt app listed an avalanche risk level of 3 in the morning for all slopes. But I think the snow overnight accomplished a clear sky, the Matterhorn was on full display in the morning!
Clearer skies and fresh snow, it's a ski village miracle!
I was pleasantly surprised yesterday at checkin that my rate had included a free breakfast 😋 so I helped myself to a couple cappuccinos, cheese (my oversaturation from last night had worn off), and some muesli. I was looking over my options in the app and saw that the Glacier Paradise viewpoint was clear, so my morning activity was decided! I packed up the room and stuffed some extra clothes in my day sack before checking out and leaving my luggage in the lobby again.
It's a fair distance to hoof it from the main church of Zermatt to where the lifts of the foot of the Matterhorn are. Luckily, there were electric buses passing very frequently. I managed to fit as the last sardine in the full bus and made use of my demi-tarif card to get half-off for my trip to/from the summit viewing station. Turns out that a ski pass will entitle you to that as well but I didn't think I'd have the skills for negotiating the long red trails back down. It seems the slopes around here can be very long, with significant rides up too. It took me 30 minutes to get to Glacier Paradise via 3 other lift stations, but it was an impressive trip the entire way.
Even if I didn't know exactly what I'm looking at (apparently there's a dam in this picture), I was simply impressed with the beauty of the valley in the morning light.
If you squint, you can just barely make out the observatory atop Gornergrat from yesterday! From this angle, the slope of that mountain is pretty consistent and incredibly broad.
The pyramid shape is even more pronounced when viewing the eastern face head on!
Spooky! A few brits that hopped in the cabin were talking about a few people taking that lift up when it opened but apparently the lift was closed shortly after due to wind/clouds and it was probably moving at a snail's pace just to get the people already on it off. That being said, I'd seen a lot of people skiing on and off piste up to this point; the snowsport fans didn't waste anytime this morning carving up as much fresh snow as possible.
Getting a nice bird's eye view on some glaciar crevasses. The blue color of the ice is entrancing; I also like that it's untainted by dirt on the surface in this state.
Once atop, I made my way to the viewing platform. Like with the bus, I made like a sardine amongst the other skiers and the few spectators like myself to squeeze into the elevator to the viewing platform. It was so quiet and peaceful up above the clouds, aside from the madness of the crowd on the platform but it really was an interesting experience.
The queue actually wasn't as bad as it looks. Many people were taking their time on the stairs with the limited ankle mobility offered by ski boots.
So, here's the 365 day skiing slopes? Tucked away on a ridge at 3000 - 4000 meters.
It was an impressive view from the NE of le Cervin
The panoramic sign said that on a perfectly clear day, one can view as many as ~20 Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters (des quatre milles). With a sea of clouds underneath but rising, I could make out quite a few jagged summits in the distance but gave up on trying to know then by name.
To the other side of the Klein Matterhorn, there was no shortage of impressive peaks either
I guess it gets just a little windy up here at times.
From here, Zermatt barely even registers, tucked away in it's valley.
A wider view of the Matterhorn without a bodily obstruction
An even wider view but with many obstructions
As I was headed back to the elevator to exit the platform, I spotted two people crossing the glacial surface to climb the mountain. Can you find them?
After some gawking, I decided to free up some extra space on the platform and started my descent. Glacier Paradise is supposed to also feature a glacial palace carved some 15 m under the glacier but it was closed today; my guess is that with concerns over the melting of the Alps' glaciers, they don't need more sources of heat acting inside them. I grabbed a télécabine to Trockener Steg, where I found a small exhibit on how the lift stations were constructed and the history of ski tourism for Zermatt.
The staging area of the brave souls working their way down all the way from the top. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that there were even a few children under 10 going with their families. Still, it's a very long route down to the next lift, I guess it's a question of quality of runs rather than number of them.
Despite the slopes of Glacier Paradise being usable for skiing 365 days of the year, these particular runs were closed today due to wind and cloud conditions.
Then it was a relatively quick descent back into Zermatt; interestingly, a couple of guys hopped in my car between two stations. I asked how the slopes were and they were raving about how excellent everything was with the freshly fallen snow. They noticed my snow pants and inquired if I'd be skiing, to which I replied I'd decided to ski on the other side of Zermatt where there were more blue (easy) pistes. In their opinion, many of the red pistes on the slopes I was leaving were fairly easy with lots of flat sections and well-groomed, super wide pistes. It was nice of them to suggest it, but I'll take the opinion on slope difficulty of guys handling black diamonds with a pinch of salt.
Who's got two thumbs, ski pants, and isn't afraid to admit he wouldn't be able to make it down the mountain on skis: this guy 😆 and so I bravely ran away.
It's no surprise slopes get closed when there's clouds: at any downhill speed you have no idea of what's coming up next. Descending into the cloud via télécabine was cool but I at least new I was on a single track with no surrounding obstacles 😅
Emerging from the cloud yielded this view of Zermatt and Trockener Steg station. There's a total of 5 stations for the trip to/from Glacier Paradise.
La pente me paraît un peu raide ici... But it's plenty wide, for sure.
Back in Zermatt, I elected to skip waiting for the bus and simply walked over to the funicular for Sunnegga/Rothorn. Sadly, I asked too early in the afternoon for obtaining a reduced ski fare but c'est la vie (I don't know how it's said I'm German). I grabbed rental equipment from the store just next to the lift and I was slope bound by 1pm!
Back in town, the mountain is still photogenic as ever
Seeing that the Matterhorn was uncovered by clouds, I opted to hop the extra lifts to head to the top of the Rothorn instead of warming up on some of the lower pistes. Fortunately, there was a blue piste from the summit that descended into a cached valley and I figured I could warm up with that and take the long, winding red back down if I really felt good. In retrospect, that blue really was a good warmup trail but I took the lift back down to where I could better see the Cervin and abandoned my foolish ambition to ski the red down.
Oh yeah, I'd say the view from the Rothorn isn't too shabby. It was quiet up here with just a bit of wind. I had unzipped all my layers cause I was sweating so much from roasting on the télécabine rides up 😂
And let's not neglect the jaw dropping view of the neighboring valley and Gornergrat...
Pics or it didn't happen! Of course, I'm realizing my pose is very much of a "and I was there too, dressed like I was participating" attitude 😆
The blue trail lower down was going great and pushing my limits until it took a turn for the steep. Fortunately, they had added an "easy out" elbow for the steepest section that me and a few children took 😆. I realize that at some point I'll have to get used to traveling at speed if I want to improve and tackle medium difficulty trails, but that day is not today. I followed the trail further down towards where an easy run was labeled however, I found the snow on this easy run, near the beginner park, to be very wet and hard to work with. So despite the slope being relatively mild, it was tricky to turn on the narrower trail with it's grainy texture.
My blue slope on the Rothorn brought me down the north face into a shady little valley. There weren't many people here so I could take my time and reacquaint myself with the skiing process.
Of course, the downside to this slope was that you miss out on the view until just before the lift back to the top of the Rothorn.
I took a break on the 2nd piste just before la pente became steep (by my standards). Looking back on it, the other piste in the "hidden valley" was much more beginner friendly but this one pushed me to challenge myself and it was in full view of the Cervin.
I did a total of 5 runs over my two hours skiing. At that point, I decided to call it a day: I had avoided wiping out, could say I'd skiied at Zermatt, recognized that I was getting tired, and I had a 4 hour return trip ahead of me. All things considered, the rental was the most expensive part of the ski experience: my ski pass was valid for all pistes on the Swiss side of the mountains. I'm pretty sure that if I'd bought my ski pass early in the morning, I could've seen Glacier Paradise and skied at the Rothorn for the same 75 CHF. Oh well, that's just the price of not knowing.
My rental equipment returned, I walked back to the hotel via the "old town" of Zermatt, which features a few buildings made of wood on raised stone foundations. I was less surprised today to find my luggage where I'd left it but I was just as pleased. I changed out of my ski pants in the hotel bathroom, threw my day sack into the suitcase, and made my way to the train station. I made a quick stop to the Gornergrat train platform (located just across from the SBB station) to return my ski pass: there's a 5CHF deposit for the cards.
The old style involved wooden structures raised off the ground on wide feet to minimize access by rodents; I couldn't tell if this was true for all structures or just grain storage buildings.
I've yet to see an ibex here but a display about wildlife in the area said that their horns function a bit like tree rings in terms of measuring age.
It could be pretty neat to have a chalet or air BNB in these charmant little bâtiments but this area of the town is really just a small 5 minute long walk. Reflecting further on this measure, I think the 5 minute traversal of my university campus at Stevens could've been improved with some Alpine village charm 😆
On the train ride home, I realized that my French listening had taken a hit over a weekend of speaking only English. But I'll rack it up as me being tired too. Oh, and I might've made a faux pas on the train: I snagged a salad from a store in Zermatt to eat dinner on the train and didn't think anything of choosing a niçoise. Well, my mistake became apparent when I first opened the thing and the scent of tuna began to diffuse throughout the car. Note to self, don't be that guy again; just go for the Caesar next time.
I had a blast in Zermatt this weekend, s'il fait beau (I don't know the equivalent in Deutsch) then the valley is a wonderland for outdoor activity and the Matterhorn features prominently practically everywhere you go!
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