Switzerland Special

A Trip to the Mountain

by Frank Leistner

Last weekend we took a two-day trip to the most famous mountain, not only in Switzerland, but very likely in the world - after all, Mount Everest never made it to Disneyland.

We started out with a train ride from Zürich to Zermatt, the small car-free village at the end of the valley below the towering Matterhorn. For a part of the ride we took the famous "Glacier Express", a small glass roof train. As we have a "Halbtax" (half-price card for public transportation) the price was actually very reasonable.

When we got started in Zürich the weather was real nice and the journey was an assortment of snowy mountain overpasses, white water rivers and small villages. No time to read, you had to use those glass windows ongoing.

Shortly before Zermatt the sun left us and finally it even started raining. So, no first glimpse at the Matterhorn. We switched to a small cog railway that was supposed to take us in about 45 minutes up to 3100m (9300ft), where we had booked a room at the Gornergrat lodge. But the trip became rather adventurous, as about halfway the rain turned into snow and ice and suddenly started to loose grip; something I didn't think was possible with a cog railway. The train driver tried one steep hill three times, then gave up, went back down to the previous station and tried the parallel one. This was the last train, up or down, and if he would have failed this time, we (about 10 people on the train) would have probably never reached the hotel that night. The guy did not seem too confident either, but he tried real hard and once the train reached Gornergrat he got some applause for it. It was foggy, snowy and a few degrees below freezing, not your end of May weather, at least not in Zürich.

The lodge was very nice and not more expensive than an average hotel in Zürich for that matter. No ordinary room numbering here, though. Ours was called "Dent blanche" and a room number of 4357, which happens to be the height in meter of the corresponding Mountain - first on the right from the Matterhorn. To close the evening we enjoyed a nice dinner (included) and even got a free tour of the small observatory. The weather actually started clearing up some and we finally got a close look at the moon.

In the morning the alarm clock went off at 5.30 so we could get up in time to see the sunrise over the mountains. The locals actually call the Matterhorn "Hörnli", which stands for "little Horn". When I first saw it that morning, it seemed impressively tall, even though it is not the highest and definitely not the only mountain around. The Gornergrat lodge gives you a view of 29 mountains taller than 4000m (12000ft).  Spectacular would be an understatement. Especially as we had not seen anything on our train ride up it was even more surprising and impressive in the morning.

But with all the competition there is only one king of them all, the Matterhorn. The distinctive form is just something you can't get your eyes off, and I guess Walt Disney himself had probably seen it.

The real show started at about 5.45am. The sun came up and as it climbed over mountains behind us, it slowly lid up the Matterhorn from the top. It almost looked like a candle.  Some things you can capture in a picture and I tried hard, but as impressive the pictures might look, seeing it is something else. Just like you can't grasp the Grand Canyon on photo, this is really an extraordinary spot in the world.

We went down to Zermatt, walked around in the village and did a little shopping. As we returned in the late afternoon the clouds actually moved back in, and by nighttime the visibility was again reduced to only a few meter. Luckily it cleared up during the night and we had a re-run of the show the next morning. Somewhat different as overnight it had snowed about 4 inches, and this time the sky changed constantly with clouds moving quickly.

It was not easy to leave this place. If you ever get to Zermatt, try to stay at the lodge for a night (and wish hard for good weather).

The Matterhorn is impressive to watch with a large group of tourists around you during the daytime, but it is out of this world, when the sun slowly lights it up at 5.45 a.m. 

If you are interested in more pictures check out the "Tribute to the Matterhorn" slide show below.