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Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland

Switzerland: Zermatt & The Matterhorn
Most recent: September 2020

Zermatt The Matterhorn Five Lakes Hike
Matterhorn, Switzerland

The awe-inspiring Matterhorn towers above the alpine village of Zermatt. In winter the spectacular landscape is a stunning contrast of brilliant white snow and deep blue skies, a skier's paradise. In warmer weather a fabulous area to hike.
Related pages:
Stockhorn, Gornergrat, Riffelsee, Rothorn
Zum See, Blatten, Schwarzsee, Gorner Gorge, Klein Matterhorn

Zermatt

Matterhorn
2008

Zermatt was once just a tiny mountain hamlet, difficult to reach and completely cut off in winter. Now it is one of the most visited of Swiss towns, for its peace and recreational activities and, of course, its stunning location high in the mountains with the Matterhorn dominating the skyline.

Matterhorn
1991

postcard
From the scrapbook.

Zermatt
postcards
Great reproductions of old postcards.
Matterhorn
Whymper Stube 2015
Zermatt
Zermatt
Matterhorn
1991
Zermatt

Zermatt cannot be reached by car.  We have variously taken the train from Basel, parked at Täsch and taken the train from there and, on one memorable occasion when we forgot to check whether the mountain passes had reopened, took the Glacier Express from Andermatt! We got our languages mixed up on that occasion and took Di on the parking ticket as Dimanche, whereas we were in German-speaking Switzerland and it was actually Dienstag! The receptionist at our hotel (the Garni Adonis) was extremely helpful and phoned the station at Andermatt to ensure our car was OK - this after pouring glasses of Freixenet for us - excellent service!

postcard
From the scrapbook - a 1908 postcard.

The town expanded immensely in the nineteenth century after the English discovered what a great place it was for mountaineering. Today it has many hotels and restaurants but the old wooden houses can still be seen in some parts. The mushroom stone supports on some of the small wooden buildings are a protection against rodents.

Above the village are many peaks over 4000m: Hohberghorn (4226m), Dom (4554), Täschhorn (4494m), Alphubel (4207m), Allalinhorn (4030m), Rimpfischhorn (4202m), Strahlhorn (4191m), Monte Rosa (4638m), Liskamm (4527m), Felikjoch (4068m), Castor (4230m), Pollux (4094m), Breithorn (4171m), Breithornzwillinge (4148m), Roccia Nera (4089m), Matterhorn (4482m), Weisshorn (4512m), Dent Blanche (4364m), Zinal-Rothorn (4223m), Gabelhorn (4073m), making this something of a paradise for climbers, skiers and hikers.

Matterhorn
Sunday morning brass band outside St Mauritius.
Zermatt
Excellent classic fondue on the Whymper Stube, 2020.

There are many places to eat in Zermatt. We usually go to the Whymper Stube at least once during a visit: excellent fondue and raclette and friendly service. In 2020 the restaurant was being careful with the Covid-19 situation and there were far fewer tables with new screens separating them, but the fondue was just as good.

Zermatt

Tables isolated for Covid-19 in the Whymper Stube, 2020.
Zermatt
Excellent pizza at Da Nico.

In 2015 we ate one evening at La Ferme - excellent lamb followed by parfait flamed in Grand Marnier! And in 2020 we had a really excellent pizza at Da Nico - the base and tomato sauce in particular were superb.

Zermatt
In July 2015 we returned for the 150th anniversary of the climbing of the Matterhorn.
alpine mueum
Zermatt
In the Alpine Museum.

 

 

There is a good Alpine Museum in the town with displays of the old wooden houses and furniture as well as mountaineering memorabilia including a piece of the snapped rope of the Whymper expedition - see below.

The monochrome photographs are all from April or August 1991.

Zermatt
In the Alpine Museum.
Omnia, Zermatt
St Mauritius Church from the Omnia. The mountaineers' cemetery is just behind.
Zermatt
In the Alpine Museum.
Omnia, Zermatt
A welcome glass of champagne on arrival at the Omnia. We ordered a Walliser Teller as we were a bit hungry, before going up to our room. The mountain cheese was particularly good.

In September 2020 we returned to Zermatt to spend a few days at the Omnia, a wonderful hotel. We treated ourselves to the Tower Suite which was stunning - huge amounts of space, two bathrooms and a Swarovski telescope for looking, principally, at the Matterhorn which could be seen from the sitting room, bedroom, and long balcony of the suite.

Omnia, Zermatt
Omnia, Zermatt
Our sitting room at the Omnia.
Omnia, Zermatt
Omnia, Zermatt
Dawn on the Matterhorn from our room at the Omnia.
Omnia, Zermatt

Covid-19 was still prevalent and we were pleased to see the hotel - and all the restaurants - were taking every precaution. Lots of masks available in the hotel as well as disinfecting hand gel, tables well-spaced and screens between settings on the bigger tables.

Omnia, Zermatt
Omnia, Zermatt
A drink before dinner at the Omnia.
Matterhorn, Omnia, Zermatt
View from our room at the Omnia.
Matterhorn, Omnia, Zermatt

We absolutely loved staying at the Omnia. It was so comfortable and perfect for watching the Matterhorn in all its different moods. Early one glorious morning we watched four climbers reach the peak.

We had a very lazy Sunday morning breakfast in our room, and we'd brought "The Night Manager" on DVD to watch after dinner - a couple of evenings when we'd had large lunches we ordered a Walliser Teller or just had snacks with a glass of wine while watching - very relaxing.

Matterhorn, Omnia, Zermatt

 

The Matterhorn

Matterhorn

Because of its distinctive shape and romantic history the Matterhorn is probably one of the most easily recognised mountains in the world. It really is a beautiful mountain and never ceases to work its charm - millions of photographs have been taken of it, quite a few of them ours!

In 2008 we stayed at the Hotel Couronne in a room with a view of the Matterhorn. I was transfixed by the Matterhorn as night fell and the light left first the town and then, slowly, the mountain. By moonlight it looks even more magical.

matterhorn
Matterhorn
Gravestone of the father and son Taugwalders, mountain guides, who survived the first successful attempt to climb the Matterhorn. Mountaineers' cemetery.

Matterhorn
1991

The young Englishman Edward Whymper was the first to conquer the mountain in 1865. He was an illustrator whose publisher had asked him to produce drawings of the Alpine peaks. He became a skilled mountaineer, the first to conquer the Barre des Ecrin, the Aiguille Verte and the Grandes Jorasses, but it was the Matterhorn which fascinated him most. In 1865 he had already attempted to scale the peak 8 times and failed. This time he approached along its northeast ridge. The climbing party included three more British climbers: Lord Francis Douglas, the Reverend Charles Hudson and Robert Hadow with their Chamonix guide Michel Croz, Edward Whymper and the veteran Zermatt father and son guides the Taugwalders, both named Peter. They set off on the thirteenth of July in good weather and set foot on the peak in the early afternoon of the fourteenth. Tragedy struck on the way down when the young Hadow slipped dragging Croz, Hudson and Douglas with him - if the guide rope between Douglas and the elder Taugwalder had not snapped probably the whole party would have gone to their deaths.

Zermatt
The rope which snapped between Douglas and the elder Taugwalder.
Now in the Alpine Museum, Zermatt.
Matterhorn
Cover and interior of card celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the conquering of the Matterhorn

 

There were accusations that either Whymper or the elder Taugwalder cut the rope to save their lives but it is hard to see how they could have done so in an accident which must have happened very quickly - if the rope had not snapped they would all have gone over.

The body of Francis Douglas was never found. Croz is buried in the Mountaineers' Cemetery in Zermatt, Hadow and Hudson at the English Church in Zermatt.

The mountain has claimed many lives since this first great tragedy but this doesn't deter the many who wish to climb, including Gertrude Bell who, in a letter dated August 31st 1904 to her beloved stepmother Florence, wrote:

matterhorn
1991

"We got our climb yesterday. It is a much better climb than I expected. I left Breuil early on Monday morning. It was very delightful walking up to the hut over the Matterhorn meadows and up easy rocks below the Dent du Lion. The mountain is full of story--here the great Carrel died of exhaustion, there so and so fell off from the rocks above, and when we got on to the little Col du Lion, which separates the Dent from the main mass of the mountain, we were on historic ground, for here Tyndall and Whymper bivouacked year after year when they were trying to find their way up. There is a difficult chimney just below the hut, but there is a fixed rope in it so that one has not much trouble in tackling it. We got up to the hut about 11:15, a tiny little place on a minute platform of rock, precipices on either side and the steep wall of the Matterhorn above. It is very imposing, the Matterhorn, and not least from the Italian hut; the great faces of rock are so enormous, so perpendicular. Unfortunately the hut is dirty, and smelly, as I had occasion to find out, for I spent the whole afternoon lying in the sun in front of it, sleeping and reading. The guides went away for an hour or two to cut and find steps on the snow above and I had the whole Matterhorn to myself--no, I shared it with some choughs who came circling round looking for food about the hut. At 7 we went to bed and I slept extremely soundly till about 1:30, when the guides got up and reported unfavourably of the morning. There was a thin spider's web of cloud over the whole sky, a most discouraging sign, but the moon was shining and we made our tea and observed the weather. By 3 it had distinctly cleared and we started off, without even a lantern, the moon was so bright. I knew the mountain so well by hearsay that every step was familiar, and it gave me quite a thrill of recognition to climb up the Grande Tour, to pass over the little glacier of the Linceul, the snow band of the Cravate, and to find oneself at the foot of the Grande Corde which leads back on to the Tyndall Grat. It was beautiful climbing, never seriously difficult, but never easy, and most of the time on a great steep face which was splendid to go upon. The Tyndall Grat leads up to a shoulder called the Pic Tyndall; it was dawn by this time and a very disquieting dawn too, So we hurried on for it's no joke to be caught by bad weather on this side of the Matterhorn. However, the sky gradually cleared and we had our whole climb in comfort. The most difficult place on the mountain is an overhanging bit above the Tyndall Grat and quite near the summit. There is usually a rope ladder there, but this year it is broken and in consequence scarcely any one has gone up the Italian side. There is a fixed rope, which is good and makes descent on this side quite easy, but it is a different matter getting up. We took over 2 hours over this 30 or 40 ft.--the actual bad place! & not more than 15 or 20 ft.-and I look back to it with great respect. At the overhanging bit you had to throw yourself out on the rope and so hanging catch with your right knee a shelving scrap of rock from which you can just reach the top rung which is all that is left of the ladder. That is how it is done. I speak from experience, and I also remember wondering how it was possible to do it. And I had a rope round my waist which Ulrich, who went first, had not. Heinrich found it uncommonly difficult. I had a moment of thinking we should not get him up. We got to the top at 10 and came down at a very good pace. The Swiss side is all hung with ropes. It's more like sliding down the banisters than climbing. We got to the Swiss hut in 3 hours and were down here by 4 o'clock. We have heard that two parties who tried to do the Matterhorn from the Italian side this year have turned back because they do not tackle the ladderless rock, so we feel quite pleased with ourselves."
The Letters of Gertrude Bell. Vol. 1. Project Gutenberg

Matterhorn
Zermatt
July 2015.
Zermatt

 

In July 2015 we came back - it was the 150th anniversary of the first successful ascent and the town was celebrating.

Zermatt

The most wonderful manifestation of the celebrations was the lighting of the route (three times a night) that the first climbers took along the Hörnligrat. Mountain guides had placed 50 lamps which were successively switched on from bottom to top. 49 were white lights, one was red to mark the spot of the fatal accident.

matterhorn
matterhorn
matterhorn

 

Five Lakes Hike

five lakes hike zermatt
From Blauherd.


five lakes hike zermatt
Stellisee
The peaks are Rimpfischhorn (4202m), Strahlhorn (4191m) and the distinctive Adlerhorn (3988m).

 

On a beautiful morning we took the funicular and cable car from Zermatt to Blauherd for this very scenic walk. It's said to be around two and a half hours for the hike via the five lakes to Sunegga, but it took us much longer with all the stops for photographs and a break for a beer just after Grünsee at the Mountain Lodge Ze Seewjinu. Plus we walked around a couple of the lakes.

five lakes hike zermatt
On the trail to Stellisee.

The five lakes - Stellisee, Grindjisee, Grünsee, Moosjisee, Leisee - are quite different in character, some with reflections of the Matterhorn, different colours, and Leisee seems to be primarily a recreation area for families.

five lakes hike zermatt
Stellisee and the Matterhorn.

 

 

We reached Blauherd and set off on the trail, not as well-marked to begin with as we have come to expect of Swiss trails, but with no real problems in following it. It's mostly downhill, but the end is quite steep!

 

five lakes hike zermatt

There were a few people doing the walk but we were right at the end of the season, and not on a weekend. I believe it can get extremely crowded otherwise.

five lakes hike zermatt
The mountain track between Stellisee and Grindjisee.
five lakes hike zermatt

Stellisee is the most beautiful of the lakes and, on a clear day, has a fabulous reflection of the Matterhorn.

five lakes hike zermatt
The red and white mark on the rock is a trail marker.
five lakes hike zermatt
Grindjisee on the edge of the forest.
mountain goats five lakes hike zermattMountain goats enjoying a rest on the shore of Grindjisee.
five lakes hike zermatt
Grindjisee and the Matterhorn.

 

It's quite a long walk to the next lake, Grindjisee - you see it from above long before you get there.

five lakes hike zermatt
Grindjisee

The track winds down the mountainside before emerging at the shore of the lake. On the way we spotted marmots (it's also called the "Marmot Trail") and mountain goats.

marmot five lakes hike zermatt
Marmots are extremely well-camouflaged and very difficult to spot unless they move.
five lakes hike zermatt

 

After a short break for a snack and water we set off for Grünsee, very aptly named for its emerald green colour.

 

five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
Rimpfischhorn, Strahlhorn and Adlerhorn.
five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
Grünsee
five lakes hike zermatt
Grünsee
five lakes hike zermatt
Grünsee
five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt

 

We were ready for a break and luckily the Mountain Lodge Ze Seewjinu is not too far further on the trail. As in all the places we ate this time social distancing was rigorously enforced with well-spaced table and eating, and disinfectant hand gel at the entrance.

It didn't take long to polish off a cold beer on the shaded terrace and we set off for the fourth lake, Moosjisee. It's a downhill hike through forest for a while at this point, with some fantastically gnarled trees.

five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
Moosjisee seen earlier on the hike from the track between Stellisee and Grindjisee.

Moosjisee is, in fact, an man-made reservoir for creating electricity and artificial snow. It owes its milky turquoise colour to sediments suspended in the glacial melt water from the Findel Glacier. We had already spotted it from much higher up on the track between Stellisee and Grindjisee. By the time we got there the afternoon cloud had begun to rise on the Matterhorn.

five lakes hike zermatt
Moosjisee

 

five lakes hike zermatt
The track to the village of Findeln where, I believe, there is a very good restaurant.

 

The final part of the trail climbs quite steeply in places. At the end of a hike, and with little shade, this is not ideal.

five lakes hike zermatt
five lakes hike zermatt
We passed through a hamlet of traditional wood, stone and slate houses on the way up to Leisee.
five lakes hike zermatt
Leisee

 

At Leisee families were sunning themselves or playing in the water and a large cloud obscured the peak of the Matterhorn.

There is no doubt that Stellisee is the most beautiful and dramatic of the lakes, but Grindjisee and Grünsee are also very attractive. Rösti with sausages or fried egg and a cold beer at Sunegga also appealed mightily!