by Armand Gutierrez, President
Our journey to Zermatt began with a late Friday night flight from SFO and arriving Saturday afternoon in Zürich. After a little confusion with our charter bus arriving at Terminal 1 and our group at Terminal 2 we finally boarded and made our way to Täsch and then transferred to a train for a short 12-minute ride to Zermatt. Why take a train for a 12-minute ride? Well, Zermatt does not allow cars in the city (except for local buses and taxis) and the train is the only way to get to Zermatt.
As an assistant to our tour leader somehow I became the de facto ski tour guide for those people that have never skied Zermatt or those that wanted to ski with somebody that knew the mountain. Granted, this is my third time to Zermatt and despite the new lifts and ski runs it all became familiar to me once I was on the mountain.
Our first day of skiing on Sunday was not so good; in fact it was what I call survival skiing. Although it was snowing moderately and slightly windy we decided to take the Gronergrat funicular to the top and begin our first day of skiing. Although it was a pleasant 20-minute ride we soon discovered that the weather was not so pleasant. It was windy, snowing, and visibility was like a thick fog. But determined as we were we forged on to ski several runs on Gronergrat. Visibility was poor and it was necessary to use the force to guide us down the runs. Somebody in our group said that visibility would be better over at the Glacier Paradise so we made connections to various lifts and a cable car to get to Kleine Matterhorn and the Glacier Paradise ski area. Well, that was a mistake. Not only did we encounter more wind but also visibility was about three feet. We carefully made our way down the run and ensuring that we didn’t take a wrong turn that would have put us in Cervinia (Italy). Slowly continuing down the run we found solace at the Trockener Steg gondola/cable car station and had lunch. Afterwards we made our way down to the Glacier Express chair that returned us to the local bus stop and then back to our hotel. Yes, it was quite a day.
The next day, and the rest of the week, was a complete 180° turnaround from Sunday: beautiful blue skies, some high cirrus clouds, and best of all clear visibility. Now this is what I call a good skiing day. Once again we made our way up to Gronergrat and skied just about all the runs and lifts. The group skiing with me was mostly intermediate skiers and they thoroughly enjoyed the runs on Gronergrat. On occasion I would jump off-piste and most followed me while others stayed on the groomed runs. After dining al fresco at lunch we made our way back to the Glacier Paradise and explored that area for the rest of the afternoon. Yes, it was a good day of skiing.
Tuesday was designated Ski Cervinia day, and that’s what we did. Our trek to Cervinia did not start out by taking the funicular to Gronergrat and then heading towards the Glacier Paradise. Instead, we took a bus to the base of the Glacier Express gondola that took us to Trockener Steg where we transferred to a cable car to the top of the Glacier Express ski area. From there we skied down the backside and towards Cervinia. Lunch was at a small, rustic cabin that served perhaps at most 40 people. Afterwards we made our way to the town of Cervinia and rode several lifts to get to Plateau Rosa and back to the Glacier Paradise ski area.
On Wednesday we decided to venture over to Sunnegga and Rothorn Mountain and see what the skiing was like over there. My first impression was met with skepticism because as we rode up the Blauherd lift the mountainside was devoid of snow and just rocks and scrub brush showing, but once we got to the top of Sunnegga there were snow-covered runs and people were skiing downhill towards Zermatt. I was a little uncomfortable with the snow conditions and decided that perhaps it would be better to return to Gronergrat where the snow conditions were much better. Normally you could ski down from Sunnegga to Zermatt but I was told that the run was not fully covered, so we passed on that. After taking several lifts to the top of Rothorn we took a long cat track back to Gronergrat and ended the day skiing there.
Since the weather was blessing us with clear skies and a few wispy clouds we decided to make a return trip to Cervinia on Thursday and cruise on the various runs, have lunch al fresco, and just enjoy the day. This day was much better than our first trip on Tuesday and we could actually see the runs and a great view of the Matterhorn from the backside.
After five days of skiing I decided to take a day off and take care of a few chores. I joined a few other folks that were also taking the day off and we cruised around Zermatt looking for places to help the local economy and have a casual lunch. Later I did some work for our trip leader and then started packing for our return trip to Zürich the next day. Our flight home was an exceptionally smooth flight for the most part, with the exception of a little turbulence that last about 60 seconds, definitely not long enough to cause for concern. After passing through passport control at SFO and retrieving our luggage it was time to say good-bye to my fellow travelers and hoping to see them again on next year’s trip to Madonna di Campiglio in Italy.
