Zermatt and Matterhorn

Zermatt, March 24, 25

We traveled by car to Zermatt, which is only about 80 miles by air, but is a 4-hour drive by car.  The car ride goes west through Montreux to the south side of the Swiss Alps.

Zermatt is accessible only by train from a nearby town of Tasch, which you can see from above, in the far end of this valley:

There are very fancy chalets in Zermatt, and some very simple authentic ones, like this one:


We stayed at the lower end of the cost spectrum, but the place was cute and homey, and had this great view of the Matterhorn:

I took this shot of Zermatt from the gondola :

This is a the river flowing through Zermatt:

We took a gondola up from Zermatt, to the base of the Matterhorn, Matterhorn Glacier, elevation 12,800ft.  The air was noticeably thin.  The view was fantastic.  
The Matterhorn:
This is looking west (Italy)





This is looking southwest, over Italy into France.  That dark, tallest peak on the right is Mont Blanc, in France, tallest peak in west Europe:


 When we looked North, we could see Jungfrau, on the other side of the Swiss Alps:


Our Glacier Climbing Adventure:

 This is Breithorn peak, seen from the gondola platform:

Now, take a closer look, do you see people climbing it? Those people diagonally towards the bottom, that's where we hiked!
At the start, you could see there was a bit of a trail and it was pretty flat, but bigger distance than you think:


The trail starting to get steeper, not much oxygen:

Skiers put seal-skin on bottom of thier skies, and tie themsleves together and slowly step up the mountain, to ski back down.

REALLY blue ski up there, you can see people ahead of us:

a skier on the way up.

This is as high as we got:
Susan had just enough oxygen to celebrate the climb.


CogWheel Train to Gornergrat:

The Train from Zermatt to Gornrtgrat: 


 chapel at 10,000ft elevation


We hiked down from Gornergrat to Riffelberg, great views
 of the glaciers and Matterhorn along the way:




There was an Ice Palace under Matterhorn glacier, tunnel carved in the ice, with lots of ice sculptures:

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