Friday, March 23, 2007

Skiing in Zermatt

We just came home from a fantastic week of skiing in Zermatt (see pictures). Here is what happened:

Day 0: Our trip to Zermatt went by plane to Geneva, and further on by train to our destination via a transfer in Visp. We started from Stockholm at 1000 and arrived in Zermatt at 1800. Our apartment hotel was max five minutes walking from the train station. It took us so much time to check out the 2.5 room apartment, that we arrived to the supermarket (Coop) five minutes past seven. They close at seven sharp and refused to let us in. In the evening we had no other choice than having a nice dinner at a restaurant ;-) We chose an Italian restaurant and had pasta and risotto.

Day 1: The next morning – still suffering from the absence of grocery from the supermarket – we had to get our breakfast from a bakery ;-). After breakfast, we walked to the Sunnega cabin line, bought ski pass, and went up the cabin, then one more cabin, and then a third cabin. Finally, we reached Rothorn at 3103 meters. It was very sunny and warm, also at the top, and we enjoyed lots of nice skiing. We had gulash and beer at Blauherd (2571m) and spent over an hour in two sun chairs. We then went over to Gant (2223m) and further on to Stockhorn (3405m). The skiing here was also nice, but some of the pists were very steep and had very hard snow, which was challenging to master - witnessed by the fact that Paul had to eat snow in one pist. Around 1600 we took a train(!) from Riffelalp (2211m) all the way down to Zermatt (1620m). In the evening we went to the supermarket and had a nice cheese fondue home at the apartment. Here, Elena said that Paul looked gorgeous with lobster-red face and winter-white skin around his eyes.

Day 2: This morning was very sunny but a bit colder than the day before. We took a shuttle bus to Klein Matterhorn cabin line, and a cabin to the Scwartzsee area (2583m). We enjoyed very nice powder snow in the Trockener Steg (2939m), and then moved further to the Matterhorn glacier area by a cabin to Klein Matterhorn (3883m). We had cappuccino on the Italian border at Plateau Rosa Testa Grigia (3480m) and then took a nice long pist all the way down to Furi (1864m). From there we moved over to Riffelberg (2582m) and further up to Gornegrat (3089m). We then took a train from Riffelberg all the way down to Zermatt. On the way down we saw several animals (which we do not know the names of) and a very sweet deer family.

Day 3: We started out with the intension to ski on the Italian side of Matterhorn. However, when we reached Trockener, we realized that the lifts that could take us to Cervinia in Italy, via the Matterhorn glacier area were all closed due to bad weather condition. It was windy, snowing, and the sun was well hidden in clouds. Because of the weather, we tried to avoid the higher parts of the mountains. We skied down to Schwartzsee and moved over to Riffelberg and Gornergrat (which Elena translates to Mountain city). We continued to Gant, further to Blauherd (2517m), and then all the way down to Zermatt (1620m). The last part was an interesting pist that varied from wide red parts to extremely narrow (max 2m) transportation pist. In the evening we did some window shopping (ski clothes and of course Swiss wrist watches) and ended up in an Italian restaurant. After the dinner, we spent some time in hotel Alex lounge which is extremely cosy.

Day 4: Yet another cloudy, cold day with some wind. We tried to reach the Italian side again. We first went to Klein Matterhorn, but managed to miss the pist to the Italian side. However, we decided to make another attempt to reach Italy. On our second visit to Klein Matterhorn, we stopped at the Glacier palace which was like a long cave inside the glacier with many amazing ice sculptures. We then finally found our way to Italy via Plateau Rosa (3480m). It was really worth the effort. The weather was sunny, warm and way much nicer than at the Swiss side. The pists are typical laid-back Italian style – wide and red, which we enjoyed a lot! We went a couple of times all the way down to Cervinia village (2050m) and then managed to take the very last cabin back to Plateau Rosa (phu!). On the Swiss side it was still cold and windy. We went down to Schwartzsee and took a cabin back to Zermat. In the evening we relaxed in the Hotel Alex lounge.

Day 5: We went to the Italian side via Schwartzsee, Trockener, and Plateau Rosa. The weather was again much better on the Italian side – sunny, no wind, but a bit cold. The coffee was also much better on the Italian side ;-) We stopped at a restaurant at Motta (2430m) and had coffee, appfelstrudel, panna cotta, then more coffee, and a ham and cheese panini (in that order). We then tried to go all the way down to Valtournenche (1524m) but were stopped by a closed pist. Instead we went down to Cervinia. Around 1500 we went back over Plateau Rosa to the Swiss side, and skied all the way down to Zermatt. On the way we had a nice afterski stop just after Blatten. In the evening we did some shopping, packing, and had a very nice fondue dinner at restaurant Swiss chalet.

Day 6: Travelled back to Uppsala according to plan. Started from Zermatt 0730 and arrived to Arlanda 1530.

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