Matterhorn, Zermatt

During the Christmas holidays, we had a chance to visit Matterhorn, Zermatt with my friend Naresh and his family. Matterhorn is always the symbolic icon of Switzerland, around 4,478m above the sea level. Matterhorn is not the highest peak of Switzerland, Monte Rosa is the highest peak in Switzerland (4,634 m). Zermatt is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, quite famous for mountaineering and ski resorts. To prevent air pollution that could obscure the town’s view of the Matterhorn, the entire town is a combustion-engine car free zone.

We travelled by car till Taesch, parked our cars there and then took a Train from Taesch to Zermatt. One has to take Electric car to take the cable car. From Zermatt, there are two options: One mountain train to Gornegrat and other one cable car to Mini Matterhorn. In 2007, I experienced already the mountain train to Gornegrat with my American friend Andreas. This time we took the cable car from Zermatt to Mini Matterhorn with three intermediate stations (Furi, Schwarzsee, Trockener Steg). The stretch from Trockener Steg to Mini Matterhorn was simply breathtaking and certainly one of the life time experience, the cable car spanning the two huge mountains across the deep gorge was indeed a Mechanical Engineering marvel. 

Anish was literally freezing in the top of Mini Matterhorn and luckily there was a restaurant at the top which gave us a good relief. Schwarzee station gives a good panaromic view of the mighty Matterhorn and a good place for the non skiers to take some nice photographs. From Basel, there are two different routes to Zermatt. One via Bern, Montreux which is lengthy but with the highways and no breaks. Other via Thun with Ferry, Car in the train with longer breaks. In the end, both the routes consume the same amount of time and in Summer it will be great to take the Thun route. The weather stayed fantastic and it’s always a pleasant sight when the sun shines in the midst of the snow. It was certainly a life time trip with my family and Naresh family and it will remember in our memory forever.

Cheers,

Sathish Kumar S