We awoke this morning in Zermatt with a light dusting of snow outside and the temperature at -4c. Our programme today is to catch a rack railway train up a nearby mountain. This train runs up to a settlement called Gornergrat which, apart from the station and the cable car base, consists of a single building containing a restaurant and a shop on its lower levels and a hotel on its upper floors.
The big plus about Gornergrat was that this building had a lovely outside deck where you could admire the neighbouring Matterhorn. After admiring the Matterhorn from this vantage point we would hop the cable car to the very top of this neighbouring mountain and get even more spectacular views of said Matterhorn.
That was the plan anyway. The reality was a bit different . You can see the Matterhorn from Zermatt where we were staying provided it was not covered in cloud, which it was. Here is a shot of where it should be. But who knows, up a mountain a bit, the cloud may clear. The forecast for Gornergrat for today was from -17c to a balmy maximum of – 11c . Oh and yes they were also forecasting snow.
But we had come all this way and if there was a chance to see the legendary Matterhorn we were going to take it. So we put on every bit of warm clothing we possessed and headed to the Zermatt station. Here a few tough leathery looking guys festooned with ropes, spikes, straps, backpacks and skis were waiting for the train. I was unsure if they were planning on skiing to a climbing spot or climbing to a skiing spot. The station also contained the obligatory bunch of Chinese tourists which you will find everywhere in Switzerland.
We all got on the train and up we went higher and higher. There were some amazing views
We went higher still till the train was travelling in a deep trench with walls of snow on either side, then we came to Gornergrat station and disembarked into the freezing cold and snow. It was so cold it hurt if you breathed deeply. Snow was falling heavily.
I got this shot of Jeanette standing in front of what I am told would be a fabulous view of the Matterhorn if it weren’t for the cloud. The cold was seeping into my bones and eating me alive.
We trudged up to Gornergrat’s only building and, grateful to be out of the freezing cold and snow, poured inside. We waited for an hour or so but the cloud did not abate. We were also very grateful when our guide decided that perhaps our next leg higher in the cable car was not a good idea given the weather.
So we headed back out into the ice and snow, made our way back down to the station.
Since we had a bit of time up our sleeves, we left the train a couple of stations above Zermatt and walked down through the forest to the town and our hotel. Our guide Peter, a lovely local who I guess was in his seventies and very fit, stopped us on our walk down and produced a collection of metal shot glasses and a flask of their local schnapps. It was so good.
Peter was telling us that this season there had been 12 climbers killed on the Matterhorn. Since the Matterhorn had been first climbed, over 600 climbers have lost their lives attempting the climb. Many are buried behind the little Catholic Church in Zermatt.
The process for climbing the Matterhorn takes two days – on the first day the climbers hike into the base of the mountain and overnight in the hostel there. Next morning very early they start their climb. It takes 4 hours to reach the summit and 4 hours to get back down. Peter says the majority of casualties are caused by climbers attempting the climb without a guide.
Hardys’ Travels 