Thursday, September 2, 2004
Another early start with a great breakfast buffet.
We walked down to the south end of Zermatt a bit before 8 a.m., and bought Matterhorn passes, which gave us access to all the lifts in the Schwarzee area for the day.
We took the first gondola up to Furi, and then transferred to another gondola that took us all the way to Schwarzee where the climb up to Hornli Hut begins.
The climb passes the black lake with trails of dirt and rock that switchback over a small hill. The trail then wraps around the east side of the Matterhorn, and in a couple of places there are metal staircases and gangways where the trail runs out.
Climbing up from there, the trail then levels out for about 20 minutes of hiking along a flat section.
The last part of the trail is very steep, with lots of switchbacks, loose rock and narrow spots. There are fixed ropes along this part of the trail which come in handy, as most of this was in the shade as we climbed, and still frosty and slick.
For most of the way we could see Hornli Hut growing larger as we approached, and finally we were there!
We spent about 40 minutes on the patio at the hut.
The weather was gorgeous, and completely cloud-free.
Chad walked up to the start of the fixed ropes on the Matterhorn itself, while I stayed behind on the patio, eavesdropping on a group that had flown in by helicopter.
Eventually we headed down, which I feared would be even scarier than the trip up, but it was not too bad. We got back to Schwarzee after about 3.5 hours. We took the gondolas back down to Zermatt, and went to the grocery store for lunch: cheese sandwiches, chips, a salad, milk, and more Toblerones.
After a nap, we left our room again, and headed up the first gondola and then the cable car to Klein Matterhorn.
The cable cars are super scary as they are extremely far up and cover great spans between supports.
Klein Matterhorn is at about 3900m. We enjoyed the view from here, but the ice grotto was closed.
We took the last car back down at 4:30 p.m. Back in Zermatt, I bought a stuffed St. Bernard for our baby to be, and we went to the train station for a schedule of tomorrow’s departures for Chamonix. Then we went back to the grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner: a salad, yogurt, chips, and iced tea. We are back in our room early, quite tired but ready to pack up, and hoping to squeeze in one more short hike in the morning – although it is thundering outside now, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Cook Family Travels 