Where are the animals?

One thing in Switzerland that struck me as odd was the complete lack of wildlife. The largest wild animal I saw was a slug. I saw no squirrels, marmots, mountain goats and not even any birds. It was a little weird. There were plenty of cattle, sheep and humans though.

Zermatt (more the mountains around Zermatt, not so much the town) was one of my favorite places so far on the trip. Tomorrow I am leaving the mountains behind and heading for Austria. This photo is of a tree/fountain in Zermatt that looked like the profile of an old man.

Glacier Skiing

This was the area where you could ski on the glacier. It was actually pretty crappy. The snow was all icy and there wasn't too much terrain open. What you see here was maybe half of the total terrain. It was also really crowded. There were lots of kids training for racing hence all of the gates set up on the right. It is not a lot of fun skiing when people are warming up for racing skiing by you extremely fast and on the edge of control.
I discovered that European skiers are not very polite and don't have much of a concept of a line. The first time I got in line I went to the back and patiently waited. After a few minutes I was surprised to see that I was still the last person in line. I discovered that it is pretty much a free for all to push your way to the front. Once I figure that out it was alright. I had rental skis, so I didn't really care about using them to box other people out. I had actually been told this by several Europeans who I talked to at Breckenridge last winter. They told me that they really enjoyed skiing in the U.S. because people were much more polite and things were more orderly.
Another thing that I found funny was when you were getting on the T-bar lifts (there were only 4 T-bars open and no chairlifts) you had to grab your own T-bar. In the U.S. there is generally a lift operator who stands there and grabs the bar and puts it on your butt for you. No such help in Europe. Quite a few people, especially snowboards were getting wrecked trying to accomplish this maneuver. I myself almost lost my balance once.
Since the resort is in both Switzerland and Italy, you see signs like the one below. It is a bit more significant than the California/Nevada signs at Heavenly. The first time that I ever crossed the border into Italy, it was on skis. There was a lodge open on the Italian side where I stopped a few times to warm up. I suppose I could have taken a cable car down into Italy if I had wanted to as well.
It was a novel experience summer skiing in Zermatt. I don't think I would do it again in the summer, but I would like to come back in the winter at some point.

Glacier Paradise

This is the view looking to the East I think from where the cable car lets you off. There is a reason this part of the resort is called Glacier Paradise. Remember this is August 27th. One thing that didn't really occur to me and kind of surprised me was how cold it was. I know I probably should have realized this knowing that glaciers exist here year round. The temperatures were probably in the 20s all day. I was expecting it to be warm and the snow to be soft. I had rented skis, boots, poles and a pair of gloves, but I didn't have any other ski gear. I was wearing a thin pair of lightweight hiking pants and needless to say my legs were very cold all day. I did have a fleece and a windproof shell with a hood, so my upper body was alright.

Cable Car

The last cable car ride was amazing. The cable car travels from the white building on the plateau in the picture below to the top where this picture was taken in an almost uninterrupted span (there is one tower near the bottom). It is not for people who are afraid of heights. It travels about 3000ft up over some huge glaciers. The crevasses and ice falls were really cool. The cable car terminal is anchored into solid rock and there is a tunnel when you get off that goes about 200 yards through a mountain.

Day 120

Wow, I almost went all of August without skiing a day. That would have ended my consecutive month streak at eight. Today was Day 120 in my ski season this year. I made it to a nice round number. For details on the other 119 days click here. 120 is also nearly 1/3 of a year (121.7 to be exact). I rented skis in Zermatt and took a gondola and two cable cars from the town at 1600m (5250ft) up to 3880m (12,700ft) in about 20 minutes. In the Winter it is possible to ski all the way back to the town which is an amazing vertical drop. Here is me in front of the Matterhorn, or Cervino as is it called in Italian. The ski resort straddles the border between Italy and Switzerland. (I promise this is the last picture of the Matterhorn.)

Hostel Experience

When you are sharing space with a bunch of other people in hostels funny things are bound to happen. Last night this one English guy who was sleeping in our room shouted "Oh Shit! Oh Shit! Oh Shit!" and then he jumped/fell out of the bed onto the floor. I think it woke everyone up in the room. Another guest asked if he was alright and he said yeah. I guess he was having a bad dream. I was trying hard not to laugh out loud.

Languages

In Zermatt I had the same problem I had in Bruges where I wasn't really sure what language to try to communicate in. I don't speak German at all and Swiss German is supposed to be very different than regular German. I had this German phrase book that was terrible. It was maybe 1/2" thick but it was poorly organized and had useless phrases. The restaurant section was maybe 50 pages. It had phrases telling you how to complain about the food, how to say it was too cold and stuff like that, but it didn't have anything about asking for the bill. I looked through it several times and I'm pretty sure that this key phrase was omitted. Zermatt is a tourist destination, so everyone spoke English. I think many Swiss tend to be quadrilingual (German, French, Italian and English).
I was also surprised to see a lot of Japanese tourists in Zermatt. Many restaurants had menus in Japanese and on the trains there were announcements in German, French, Italian, English and Japanese. I didn't see a Japanese presence anywhere else on my trip except for in Zermatt. I couldn't figure out why it was there and nowhere else.

Sunset

That night there was an incredible sunset. The sky and mountains were lit up like fire.

Zermatt from above

The town of Zermatt. I found the alps so amazing because the valleys are so low while the surrounding mountains are so high. Compare Zermatt at 5250' and the Matterhorn at 14,693' with Breckenridge, CO at 9600' and nearby Quandary peak at 14,265'. The elevation change is so much more dramatic in CH. The Matterhorn isn't even the highest mountain around either.

The best view of the Matterhorn is from right here in the middle of town.

Huts

There are these huts/chalets dotted all around the mountains above Zermatt. Many people do trips where they hike from hut to hut staying a night at each one.

Hiking downhill is easy

Me with the valley where Zermatt is located behind me. I hiked down from the Gornergrat back into Zermatt. It was not a very strenous hike because it was all downhill, but it was still about 5000' of vert down. The views were amazing. Treeline in Switzerland is only in the 6500-7000' range compared with about 11,500' in Colorado and somewhere in between in California. Once I dropped into the trees, the hike became a lot less interesting.

Cool Cairn

Someone made an attempt to build a cairn in the shape of the Matterhorn. Not too bad of an effort.

An attempt at a self portrait

missed completely



closer



closer



real close



success

Matterhorn

More info about the Matterhorn here. It is 14,693' tall, so only slightly taller than mountains in California and Colorado.

Big Mountains

To put things in perspective. The bump on the right side of the big bare rock in the middle of this picture is a cable car terminal (right below a little wispy cloud, not the bigger cloud). More on that tomorrow.

St. Bernard

There were St. Bernards at the top and you could get your picture taken with them and the Matterhorn in the background. Because of the easy train access, the Gornergrat was just swarming with tourists. A little walk away it was peaceful again.

Gornergrat

When I stepped off the train at the Gornergrat (3100m), I walked out to the vista and my jaw just dropped. This was the view.
It was without a doubt, the most amazing alpine scenery I have ever seen in person (and that means a lot). I had never seen glaciers and high mountains like this before. It was just stunning. To give you a feel for elevations there is one peak towards the left of the panorama that is 4634m (15,200ft) tall. The photo doesn't even do it justice This view was in the top 5 of my favorite experiences on my trip. Maybe even number 1.
Smaller photo here in case you don't have a huge monitor.

Slate

Another example of local building materials being used in Europe. Along the glacier express track heading up to Zermatt there was a slate quarry on the side of the valley. Not surprisingly, most of the roofs in Zermatt were made of slate.

I was still a little worried about what the views would be like at the top of the Gornergrat. A few minutes into the train ride, before we even left town, we rounded a corner and my fears were alleviated when the Matterhorn emerged from the clouds. It was a pretty spectacular sight. Little did I know what awaited me at the top of the train ride.

Gornergrat

I caught the Gornergrat cog train up the mountain. It goes from 1600m (5250ft) to 3100m (10,200ft) in the span of about 45 minutes. I told you they can go up steep hills. In the winter, the Gornergrat train serves the same purpose as a ski lift.
Needless to say it was much faster than hiking. I'm not sure I could even hike 5,000 feet of vert even if I wasn't sick.

Parasailer

A parasailer high above the town of Zermatt

Swiss Musicians

I came across these swiss musicians playing in the square outside the train station. Very traditional. I was thinking Riiiiiicoooooolaaaaaaaa.

What to do?

I woke up Friday morning and was feeling pretty sick. I got up kind of early and went out for a walk to see how the weather was. I walked up the street and the matterhorn was still covered in clouds. I wasn't too optimistic about the day and went back to sleep at the hostel for a few more hours. When I got up again the weather had improved slightly, but it was still cloudy. I packed up a bag, bought some food from the grocery store for lunch and went to go figure out what to do. The town of Zermatt is pretty much what you would imagine a swiss resort town to be. There are no cars in town, just a bunch of electric golf carts and little buses. They are really quiet and tend to sneak up on you when you're walking around town. I decided I would take a cog train up the hill and hike around a bit. I didn't really feel good enough to do any serious uphill hiking.
Zermatt is a pretty hardcore mountaineering town. Even in August it is the norm to be walking around in Gore-tex, fleeces and hiking boots with technical climbing backpacks. People look out of place if they aren't carrying a pack with an ice axe strapped to it. This is my sort of town. It was probably the only place on my whole trip where I fit in when I was wearing a north face shirt.

Matterhorn Hostel Zermatt

After staying at the best hostel of my trip in Gryon, I stayed at the worst hostel of my trip in Zermatt. In a place like Zermatt where there is basically nothing to do at night, it is essential that there be a comfortable place to hang out in the hostel. This one had nothing of the sort.
-cramped quarters
-poor bathroom facilities
-poor common area
-no linens provided
-generally a pretty dirty place

Zermatt

I arrived in town, checked into the hostel and wandered around town a bit. The weather was pretty poor with low clouds and drizzle. Somewhere behind that cloud is the Matterhorn. The forecast for the next few days was not great and I was a little worried that I wouldn't get to see it at all. I crossed my fingers and hoped for better weather tomorrow. To make things worse, I had started feeling sick when I woke up this morning (maybe caused by that guy on the train to Amsterdam). I could tell that it was going to be getting worse in the coming days.

The Glacier Express

The Glacier Express train winds its way up to Zermatt. The train ride is very scenic. For a long time, the train was the only way to get to Zermatt. Recently a road was built for emergency and commercial vehicles, but it is not open to the public. The closer we got to Zermatt, the more dramatic the scenery got. Looking up the side of the valley wall you could see the toe of this glacier from the train.

Gryon-Zermatt

Today was my last day in Gryon. I headed out early to make it to Zermatt. I took the cog train back down the hill to Bex. I only had about 5 minutes to make the train connection in Bex, otherwise I would have had to wait around another hour. To complicate things, I needed to buy a train ticket in Bex as well. I got off the cog train which was 2-3 minutes late (so much for the Swiss running exactly on time) and went into the ticket office. There was one guy ahead of me who I think was getting a refund or something like that and it was taking a while. As I was waiting my train arrived. The guy in front of me finished, I quickly purchased my ticket and ran out to the train. Luckily the train waited at the station for 3-4 minutes, otherwise I would have missed it. The train headed up the Rhone Valley towards Sion. At Sion I caught another train to Visp. Somewhere along the way we went from French speaking Switzerland to the German speaking part. The language of the train announcement suddenly changed, but there was no real geographical boundary like a mountain range or river. I arrived in Visp and had to catch the glacier express (another cog train) to Zermatt. It sounds like a lot of trains, but all of the rides were short.

Fondue

I wanted to eat fondue while I was in Switzerland at some point. The hostel in Gryon actually had a fondue set and the ingredients to make fondue available for guests. Tonight I made fondue with a few other people who were staying there. It is easy to make, just melt some cheese, add spices and white wine and eat. We sat around dipping bread and drinking swiss wine and it was a lot of fun.

Gryon Hikes

Here is a google earth perspective of the two hikes I took from Gryon. At least this is my best guess, but it is probably pretty accurate.

Me at the top.

Croix

When we got to the summit with the cross, the valley we had just been hiking in had filled with mist/fog. It was being held back from spilling into the next valley by the ridge we were on. It looked really cool. Unfortunately because of the fog there was once again no view from up top. I really was hoping to see Mt. Blanc and some of the higher alps on these hikes. Oh well.

Argentine

This rock formation is called the Argentine and is apparently popular with climbers. There are a bunch of places and things in Colorado named Argentine presumably after this rock (Argentine Pass, Argentine Peak, Argentine lift at Keystone, etc.)

Today I went on another hike starting from the hostel in Gryon. It went up a valley to a little town, then climbed steeply up a hill to another area in the ski resort where there was a big cross at the peak (I forgot to take a picture of the cross). It was a fun hike. The valleys in Switzerland are very dramatic. The valley floors tend to be very lush and green while the peaks above are bare rock and snowcapped even in the summer.

American Pop Culture

Until this trip I really didn't realize how influential American popular culture is elsewhere in the world. It really became obvious when we were at the hostel hanging out at night and one of the Welshmen who was there picked up a guitar and started playing songs. He was playing all sorts of classic songs like Brown Eyed Girl, American Pie and stuff like that. All of the Canadians, Englishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen, Irishmen and Aussies knew the words even better than I do. I was amazed. It was a really cool experience sitting around the bonfire outside the hostel, singing songs and drinking swiss beer (1.20CHF/liter ($1.14/40oz)!).

Chalet Martin

When I was staying with Robin in Newcastle early in my trip, she recommended that I stay at this hostel in Gryon, CH. At that point, I knew I probably would be going to Switzerland, but I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to go. She said it is the best hostel ever, so I decided to give it a try. She was right. It was far and away the best hostel I visited on my whole trip. It was a really cool place and a nice change of pace from the other places I had visited.
+ Location. It is located in the town of Gryon which is a small Swiss town in the French speaking part of Switzerland. It is a very stereotypical Swiss town with all the wooden chalet style buildings and it seemed very authentic too. There was one little grocery store in town. The nearest ATM was a 45 minute walk or a train ride up the hill to the next town. I liked it a lot.
+ People. I walked into the hostel on Monday night expecting to have to speak French to check in. To my surprise I was greeted by the Australians who ran the hostel. They were all really nice and friendly as were all of the other travelers at the hostel. I really didn't expect to find a group composed almost entirely of Americans, English, Welsh, Scotsmen, Irish, Canadians and Australians at a Swiss hostel. I think there was one German dude too. Everyone was really nice. In a little Swiss town, there isn't all that much to do at night, so everyone just hung out in the hostel and cooked food, drank beer and wine, played games, sang songs, swapped stories. It was really cool and a nice break from the hectic traveling and sightseeing that I had been doing.
+ The hostel itself was really cool. It was very big and had lots of space and different places to hang out. It had a good kitchen (no nonstick pans though which made some cooking tough). The bathroom and showers were good too. Outside there was a deck and a big firepit which was fun to hang out around. Overall, just a very nice place to spend a few days.
+ The View. Check out the pictures below of the hostel and the view from just outside the hostel.