IAESTE Zermatt Weekend

Saturday I got the train to Visp to begin the IAESTE Zermatt Weekend, which very unusally for a swiss train arrived about 5 mins late. From Visp we went on a cog train up to Zermatt, which was a lovely town at the foot of the Matterhorn.

We got a cable car up to the top of the Klein Matterhorn which must be an epic ski resort in winter because they had runs open in the middle of Summer and there was a fair few people up there skiing. The side of the Matterhorn visible from up the top was covered in cloud, so we couldn’t see it, which sucked. The snow up the top was somewhat fresh, so we were able to make snowballs and people started putting snow down everyone’s back. One really cool thing is that from the top you can ski across to Italy (but you need an international ski pass).

From the top we got an elevator back down into the mountain to the ice palace. It was pretty nice but not too impressive. One thing that was just crazy was they had a display about glacial fleas, and a microscope to see these fleas that can live in the ice. There was a part that looked like a slide exit, but we couldn’t find the start of the slide so we climbed up the ice slide and found like a service room where the power boards and such were. So obviously it wasn’t a slide, and it wasn’t as easy to slide down it as it looked.

From here we got the cable down below the snow line and went into the gorge. It wasn’t particularly exciting although the wooden walkway along the gorge was quite cool, if a bit unsafe looking.

On the Saturday afternoon there was like a choir singing in the street at Zermatt, and the next morning there was a band of 5 alpine horns players which was amazing to listen to. Also on the Saturday night there was fireworks. I’m not sure if there was a festival on or something or if they always have things like that for the tourists but there was some sort of fun run or marathon on the Sunday morning as well, so perhaps it had something to do with that. After the fireworks on the Saturday night, we went down into the city and went to a bar which was also quite busy and fun.

Sunday we got a train to Brig, then a cable car up the mountain to what was clearly another ski resort (in the winter). From here we split into three groups. Option 1 was a way too easy walk, Option 2 was a medium hike around the mountain/glacier. Option 3 was to hike up the top of one mountain peak then hike to the next mountain peak, which is what I chose because I wanted to go to the top.

Map of hiking trails: http://www.eggishorn.ch/jwa/VFS-DFA-217653-Aletsch_Arena_DF.pdf

The first peak we climbed was awesome and the hike up was really fun. It was such a strange mountain in that it was essentially just a pile of lots of small rocks, but made hiking up it a very cool experience. From here we hiked down the mountain on the other side then across and up to the peak of the next mountain Eggishorn (2926m). From here there was a magnificent view of the glacier and of the Jungfrau.

By this stage we had taken about an hour longer than they (IAESTE organisers) had expected it to take, and we were supposed to have met group 2 at a lake down the bottom by 3:00, when it was now 4.00 and we were still at the top. We could try and catch them up, or walk back a little bit to a chair lift and beat them back, but miss the walk past the glacier. Thinking of the stories, we went down from this peak to the bottom at the lake, or at least were supposed to but it wasn’t actually a path so we spent ages descending down this mountain and didn’t get to the path at the bottom until about 5:20.

The last gondalla down the mountain back to Fiesch was at 6:00 and we still had to walk what we were told was 4km past the lake, through a tunnel and then to the gondalla. With only 40mins until the last trip we needed to run to make it, so I ran most of the way, so didn’t get a great look at the glacier but the path was beatuifal so I did stop a few times to look.

Running at such a high altitude was really hard and tiring. I got to the end of the tunnel at about 5:55 so thought I had made it in time, but the cable car was nowhere to be seen once I emerged from the tunnel, and after running around the bend in the track I realised I’d missed it so then gave up. The view from that side of the tunnel was nowhere near as good which was a bit of a bummer, because I could have taken my time more on the other side. So I waited for a few more people to catch up and we were resigned to the fact we would have to walk down the mountain and probably would be sleeping at a train station. We talked to a local lady who walked past, who had also not realised the last car was at 6:00 until it was too late (they changed the timetable that day).

Our choices were to hike down the mountain, which would take about 1.5 hours according to the local lady, or she was going to walk along the path for another 1.5 hours to the next cable car station which was open until 10. So we waited for about 20mins for the rest of group to catch up, then continued to the gondolla station because there was 3 guys ahead of me that were probably waiting there.

One guy actually made it there by 6.05 or something after running non-stop for the whole 40mins which is amazing. So he made the last gondolla. But the other 2 in front of me where waiting still, as didn’t make it to the cable car until 6:20. Luckily for us, the guy working there had agreed to take everyone down with him when he finished, because as well as our group there was about 10 other people (including the lady we talked to) had not made it or not known that 6.00 was the last trip. So we were really lucky and happy that we didn’t have to hike down, and that we didn’t try before checking at the cable car station.

We made it in time to catch trains home, and I arrived in Turgi at about 11:50, which wasn’t too bad considering we thought we wouldn’t make it back. Most the trains we got were late, and we had to run to make the next connection at each station. I don’t know why there were all so late yersterday, normally trains arrive on the dot in Switzerland.

Despite putting sunscreen on twice during the hike, I am massively burnt all over today, as it was a really hot day yesterday and the sun was really bright. I didn’t think it was possible to get burnt here, after spending a few days walking round cities in the sun with no suncreen and hat and not getting burnt at all, but now I know it definitely is. It was only something like 20SPF suncreen that I could find here, so that could have had something to do with it.

All in all, a great weekend, but I would have liked some more sleep.