Lovely mountain villages near Zermatt, with excellent restaurants. In spring and summer the meadows are full of alpine flowers.
Klein Matterhorn at almost 4000m is reached by the highest cable car in Europe.
Related pages:
Zermatt & The Matterhorn
Stockhorn, Gornergrat, Riffelsee, Rothorn
In September 2020 we returned to Zermatt and one of the walks we took was into the mountain villages of Zum See and Blatten. It's a leisurely two hour hike, not very strenuous.
The two villages have very traditional buildings, especially in Blatten there are some very good examples of the mushroom supports. And both villages are reputed to have exceedingly good restaurants.
Both Zum See and Blatten are really small, little more than hamlets. And, as far as we could tell, there is no lake near Zum See! But according to zermatt.ch there was never a lake here and "zem See" means "a hamlet with shelter for people and animals" in the local dialect. The track we had climbed to reach Zum See is an ancient mule track, connecting Zermatt with Zum See and, eventually, Italy via the Theodul Pass.
It's downhill to Blatten and a collection of authentic meadow buildings supported on mushrooms to deter rodents and avoid damp penetrating through the floor.
Just above the village is a Ricola Herb Garden. There are several of these in Switzerland - they supply herbs for the Ricola herb sweets.
Schwarzsee lies below Trockenersteg and is a great place for photography. The reflections in the lake are beautiful.
This is a terrific walk. It takes a good couple of hours if starting from Zermatt and follows the gorge of the River Gorner on a path which, for quite a stretch, is on wooden walkways bolted to the sheer gorge wall - not for the faint-hearted!
In June 2008 the meadows on the way back into Zermatt were filled with flowers.
Klein Matterhorn, 3886mm, has the highest cable car in Europe and also the highest skiing. The lookout is reached by cable car, then a lift and finally steps.
The views are incredible, especially on a clear day which we were very lucky to have in April 1991, but it was bitterly cold and I didn't last long outside before retreating into the relative warmth of the station.
In 2020 we could see Klein Matterhorn from our room at the Omnia.
Since 2018/2019 a new cable car system takes more visitors than ever before up to Klein Matterhorn, to what is now called "Matterhorn Glacier Paradise" where there is a restaurant and even a cinema, an ice palace underground with ice sculptures and an ice slide. No thanks.
The skiing in Zermatt is wonderful. There are a huge number of runs to choose from with the incomparable mountain scenery as a backdrop. In 1991 I skied from Trockenersteg on the way down from Klein Matterhorn. With the Matterhorn looking fabulous this was a fantastic experience.
