Due to the clouds around the Matterhorn yesterday we had a full day planned today as it was forecasted to be clear. We woke up early and looked out to see the full peak of the Matterhorn from our balcony.

Our day started off going up the cogwheel train to the Gornergrat station for some excellent mountain views. We arrived and looked around in all directions from the observation post then headed back down to the Rotenboden station to start our first hike of the day down to the Riffelberg station. The first attraction came up quickly at the Riffelsee lake which gave a nice reflection view of the Matterhorn so we paused to take a few pictures before heading into the main part of the hike. The nice thing about gaining altitude then hiking to a lower station is that it’s downhill. That’s also its biggest drawback after a while. We made our way slowly down the hill through beautiful scenery and eventually made it to the Riffleburg station where we caught a cable car over to the Klein Matterhorn mountain.

The station at the top of this mountain is called Glacier Paradise. It is the highest altitude cable car station in the world and also the highest observation deck. They also just recently opened a new cable car from this station over to the Testa Grigio station which is a ski mountain just over the border in Italy. We decided (possibly unwisely) that we had time to make a quick trip over and back so we did that and this was our first real taste of the cold weather above 10,000 feet. Even I (Chuck) had to put on an extra layer and gloves to be comfortable. We walked around for a bit and had a drink at the station restaurant and then headed back to Glacier Paradise. Once there we went up to the top observation deck which was super crowded but offered 360 degree views of the Alps in at least 3 countries (Switzerland, Italy and France). After we finished there we went to the other main attraction at this station which was the Glacier Palace display. This is a cave cut into the glacier itself with information about the glacier and also ice carvings, etc. to enjoy. We really felt the altitude walking up the long ramp to get back to the station. We took the opportunity for a bathroom stop and a drink in the restaurant and then headed back down the mountain to the start of our final hike of the day.

We started down from the Schwarzee station planning to go on a long round about hike all the way back to Zermatt. It was listed as about 2.5-3 hours but I (Chuck) was already a little sore and held us back even early on in the hike and by about halfway I had mostly run out of gas. This led us unfortunately to trudging down the non-stop descent and taking over 5 hours. The hike was beautiful though and worth the effort even if I was a little hangry and grumpy by the end. We changed landscape so many times on the long descent and the views directly below the Matterhorn were epic and really gave a good perspective on the massive scale of these mountains. Once we arrived in town Becky patiently coaxed me to the pizza place near our apartment to eat and that helped immensely. After eating we headed back to the apartment and started the process of packing to move on to Laussane tomorrow. We will finish up in the morning as both of us are exhausted from the day’s events, but it was an epic day we won’t forget!

Today’s Highlights

• Crystal clear skies and being able to see the Matterhorn from our apartment balcony when we woke up this morning
• Cogwheel train, gondolas, and cable cars
• Capturing the classic Matterhorn-reflected-on-the-lake-surface picture on our first hike
• Watching skiers in Italy in the middle of summer
• Seeing a couple of marmots on our second hike
• Cows with gigantic cowbells
• A relaxing meal after a pretty strenuous day of hiking in altitude and sun

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventures

• Catching a train to Montreux to see Chateau de Chillon
• Moving on to Lausanne