Friday, January 20 - Sunday, January 22 2012
One of our very first
outdoor adventures in Switzerland was our hike to the Hörnli Hut at the base of the Matterhorn in early September 2010
(wow, it’s hard to believe that was nearly a year and a half ago). Zermatt, however, is more known as a ski village
so we vowed to return someday for winter sports. And after finding out that it is possible to
ski down the glacier on the backside of the Matterhorn—that sealed the deal—we
knew we had to take the opportunity to do it.
That weekend had finally come when our friends Mike, Michelle, Travers
and Megan were all planning a trip to celebrate their friend’s birthday and we were invited to join in on the festivities.
Zermatt is about four hours
by train so we left Friday after work and arrived late, around 10:30 pm. Dave had the pleasure of lugging our wheeled
snowboard/ski bag around Geneva that day on our way to work, and then to the
train station (no small feat), but when we arrived and saw the streets of
Zermatt were covered in a ton of snow we knew that was out of the question (it was an
uphill hike to our hotel and in good weather it would take 20 minutes). What to do?
We hadn’t stood more than a minute considering our options, when a fleet
of electronic-mobile taxis came to the rescue!
Zermatt is known as a
car-free village (to protect the views of the Matterhorn from car emission
buildup) and these little electronic taxis are more than sufficient. To the right is a picture of one we saw
the next day. Believe it or not, we were
two of 9 people (driver included) crammed into that thing, plus gear (our ski
bag sat unstrapped on the roof and we just hoped it would still be there when
we arrived at our hotel). These things
shockingly handle the steep, snow-covered hills extremely well! We are sooooo glad we took the taxi that night
as we were to our hotel in less than 15 minutes. (And after experiencing a couple
walks up to our hotel on the fairly steep hill throughout the weekend, we’re pretty sure it
would have taken an hour on foot with all of our ski stuff.)
Our hotel (more of an
apartment actually) was perfect! It was
our first time staying in a studio apartment and we got a kick out of the Murphy beds and how creatively they are used to conserve space. On Sunday morning we were pleasantly
surprised when we realized our balcony had a perfect view of the Matterhorn (it
was cloudy on Saturday so we didn’t notice it before then). The apartment even had a fondue pot
available, the perfect Swiss touch, so we had a fondue breakfast on Sunday.
Back to Saturday though –
this was our big ski day! Unfortunately
the mountain didn’t want to cooperate that day as most of the lifts were shut down due
to high winds. Waiting for the
conditions to clear a bit, we spent the morning walking down to, and through,
town. The snow made the already-quaint
village pop with charm. We captured a few
pictures below; hopefully you’ll get the idea.
We also have to mention the
entertaining street cleaning crew we watched at work most of the morning,
clearing out the snow from the night before.
Ang says she has found her new calling in life. :)
Extremely disappointed that
the Matterhorn Glacier Express remained closed that day, we tried to make the
most of it and bought a half-day ticket for the few runs that were open. It actually turned out to be a great day of
skiing/snowboarding because there was a bunch of fresh powder from the night
before. By the time we got up there,
much of the powder on the main runs was packed down, but it was still good
snow. We did do one run that was barely
touched and had powder up to our knees. At
that moment, Ang wished she had brought her snowboard, as it was pretty
strenuous to get through on skis—but at least Dave was able to thoroughly enjoy
it on his snowboard, especially being his first time experiencing deep
powder.
The visual setting for the
skiing was almost perfect – while it was clear and there were mountainous views
surrounding us the entire time, we only got a brief peak at the Matterhorn,
which was kind of disappointing. We did
see our first (man-made) avalanche though.
As we were riding the chair lift up we started to hear explosions on the
hill opposite of us, across the valley.
Then we saw the helicopter and realized they were dropping explosives for
avalanche control (coolest job ever?).
It sparked a pretty big one that we all watched in awe as the snow rushed down the mountain. Unfortunately it was too far away to get it
on film, so you’ll just have to trust us. :)
That night we joined the
birthday party crew at an Italian restaurant for a relaxing post-ski
dinner. The food and company were great. We’ll introduce you to our friends - in the
pictures below, from left to right: Travers, (Dave), Mike, Michelle, (Ang), and
Megan. And at the other end of the
table, a whole group of new friends that we met that evening.
After our fondue breakfast
on Sunday morning we decided it was a good time to head back and enjoy a quiet
evening at home in Geneva. Our last
treat of the weekend was to enjoy the scenic train ride through the valley from
Zermatt to the town of Visp, before transferring trains to Geneva. Of course now that we’ve seen Zermatt in both
lights (summer and winter) it’s impossible to say which is our favorite - and
we’re happy to leave it as a tie…
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