Zermatt_2026

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St. Niklaus, Switzerland near Zermatt 2026

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Rain! Mixed with a tiny sleet.

I finished packing and secured the accomodation. I donned my yellow anorak jacket and waterproof pants for the 25 minute walk to the ferry. I didn't come prepared for rain. Fortunately the pants are rain proof. Sadly the anorak is not. Walking down the hill I could feel my arms getting wet which meant the jacket was soaked along with my shirt. As I read the ferry schedule, the next boat to Varenna was at 9:25, but it was 9:16 and there was a boat there. The clerk quickly sold me a ticket and I dashed. An attendent at the boat ramp encouraged me to slow down; wise advice as I could see the metal ramp looked very slippery. They let me on! Whoa! Another amazing perfectly timed connection. The boat left a couple minutes late with me on it! I have no idea what I missed on the boat schedule. There was another passenger looking cold and wet like me who said something to me, but all I could do was nod my head. Fifteen minutes later I stepped off the boat in Varenna.

I thought, 'ok, just gotta hike up this hill to the train station and that's the last for dealing with the rain.' I dodged a couple splashes created by passing cars and went into the station cafe. I expected an hour wait. When I waved off the menu, the lady in the cafe waved me out the door to wait on the chilly platform. Fighting a cold, I didn't relish the next hour with a soaking jacket and a wet shirt outside but fortunately under cover.

I started to check when to expect the train when to my shagrin a train was entering the station. The electronic sign reported, 'Milano Centrale'. What!?! The early boat than I'd expected coupled with the train running about 10 minutes late meant I arrived at the station in time for an earlier train! I quickly blurted out 'Milano' to a passing station employee who said 'si' to confirm the sign, grabbed my wet gear, opened the train door, and boarded. Whoa! Two impeccable lucky timings today!

My shirt almost dried on the 50 minute train ride to Milano. My jacket ... it's going to take much longer.

I had to hang out in the Milan train station for 4 hours waiting for the train to VISP, Switzerland.

Yesterday there was an avalanche near Goppenstein, Switzerland that derailed a Swiss train. Goppenstein lies in a valley just north of the Zermatt valley.

The train to VISP left on time but at the Swiss border it became delayed by about 15 minutes. There were annoucements to have your passports ready, but in the end nobody checked. There were many French speaking folks around me so I did my best to listen in and try to understand a few words. The train route took it from the plains north of Milan back into the Alps. Almost immediately there were dramatic snow covered peaks and castle ruins over looking the valley the train passed through. In Domodossola, Italy, the train crew switched out; I presume from Italian to Swiss folks. Between Iselle, Italy and Brig, Switzerland, the train passes under a mountain range for about 12 miles. In Brig, they added some cars. Most people got off in VISP.

Because the train was delayed, I watched the train to St. Niklaus pull away as I topped the stairs onto the platform. Some young woman behind me on the stairs made a sound of exasperation. I told her another would be leaving in 30 minutes and her spirit popped back. Darkness fell as I rode the train up the valley toward Zermatt and St. Niklaus which meant I was missing wonderful views. In St. Niklaus way more people got off than I expected. They made a beeline for a bus headed to Grächen a small village up on the mountainside. Me, I walked about 150 meters getting lost twice before I found Hotel Heimatlodge where I'll be sleeping till Sunday. Nobody greeted me, it was entirely an electronic check-in. (I suppose that's what's coming when AI takes over.) It's clean, modern, and a great shower.

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A simple wholesome breakfast buffet started my day (not the sugar bomb Motel 6 kind). Carrying skis and boots I made the short walk to the train station and boarded a train for Zermatt. The tracks since VISP have sections with cogs or a climbing system to enable the train to ascend at gradients too steep for a standard train. There were several cog intervals and the train had to slow down to engage them each time. In Tasch on the route to Zermatt, there is a huge parking structure and the train station size is big with many tracks. My understanding is that Zermatt is a 'no public' cars town so everyone has to ditch their cars and ride the train. The train took 45 minutes to ride from St. Niklaus to Zermatt.

The Zermatt train station and immediate surrounding area was full of people and activity. I located a storage locker place with the help of several people. Pretty cool. At 14CHF per day not so cheap, but my IKON pass opens the door to the room with the lockers and my locker. I'll left my skis there for the night.

Across the street is the station for the Gornergrat cog train. It took 40 minutes before I was able to cram myself onto a train with a very large crowd of other people - barely standing room only. The travel from Zermatt to Gornergrat took around 30 minutes with several stops where even more people managed to cram onboard. Whew was I glad when we arrived at the top!

From here on a picture is worth a thousand words. I posted a bunch for you to get an idea of the place and surrounding mountains.

The ski area is sort of in a horseshoe canyon only there are some valleys that cut the horseshoe and up most of these is a glacier. So it takes a bit of planning and knowledge to move around the horseshoe if you want to ski different areas. I ended up just skiing one area with what looks to be about three others. A guide wouldn't be a poor idea. Like other ski areas in the Alps, the maps are boarderline useless. Fortunately the skies were clear so one could kinda see where one is heading. I made it to the Hohtälli gondola and waited for two cycles before boarding. (I miss the Dolomites where Ron and I skied onto the lifts.)

The Matterhorn had been hidden in high clouds all morning, but getting off the Hohtälli gondola the clouds finally started to breakup and the mountain came into view.

The pistes here are very long. I realized that I only took two forms of conveyance up the mountain yet managed to ski for 3 hours!

On the ride up the Hohtälli gondola a helicopter was creating a cloud of snow right above a recent avalanche. Avalanches are everywhere, but some skiers/snowboarders looked to have triggered this one when they skied off piste. A ski patrol was standing at the point where the skiers went off piste as I skied down. It wasn't clear if someone had been trapped.

Of course shortly after that some powder called to me. I thought I was just dipping my toe slightly off the piste because I could see skiers below me. I soon realized we were all way off piste. The avalanche risk to this point was basically non-existent. However, the slope rolled away into the unknown and I didn't like the looks. I stopped next to someone and we had a conversation. Yes, this person had done this many times before and knew the route. I said I wanted to head back toward the piste. This person pointed out the direction, said that's basically where they were headed, and invited me to join them. We then exchanged a fist bump. The person was young, a good skier, spoke great english as a second language, but that's about all I could gleen. Informally I skied with them. The whole thing was actually the perfect powder run: low angle, 6 inches of good powder, maybe a half mile of skiing. I definitely enjoyed it!

So that one run in total taking me back to Zermatt ended up being about 4000ft of vertical. It went from cold on top to spring conditions in Zermatt.

I visited the Matterhorn Museum once back in town. It provides a glimpse of the region stretching back 10000 years. The Zermatt valley was a trade route in the Neolithic and Roman periods. The successul summitting of the Matterhorn in 1865 with it's tragic descent - 4 of the seven died in a fall when a rope broke - put Zermatt on the map. It went from being a very poor farming community to a wealthy climbing and ski destination.

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Good morning. This stormy day is my second and last one to ski Zermatt. After learning about the mountain and transportation yesterday I had a clearer plan. I boarded an earlier train, grabbed my gear from the overnight locker, rode the free electric bus to the Zermat Furi gondola lift. I found myself sharing the gondola with a father and his five year old son. This gondola goes through several 'transfer' points as it attaches to new cables allowing people to get off or on. It was lightly snowing so visibility of the mountain and the lift was limited. I kept watching the gondolas ahead to see what the people were doing to decide what I wanted to do. Finally I struck up a conversation with the dad. Of course, he spoke excellent English. He is from Zurich with a consulting firm specializing in Swiss insurance law; he was very enthusiastic to share his expertise. He also helped by telling me where to get off the gondola. His son at five demostrated big exhuberence in skiing even in the gondola. Very kindly the father gave me his paper ski map. I used many many times before the day was finished.

The next lift took me to the Swiss - Italian border. Here the wind was wipping with light snow. I could just make out a chair lift down the Italian side. Italy was not on my agenda for the day. In conversations with others, there is a risk with the weather that the lifts would be closed and then I'd have to find other means to return to Switzerland. Skiing down from the border, the extreme flat light was no fun. I was contemplating calling it a day.

The light improved slightly and I decided to head to the opposite side of the valley. It's amazing what one day on a mountain can do for learning how to get around. Still the chair I was going to ride had all it's chairs ... missing! So I jumped on the cog train to Gronergrat again at a midway station. It was still crowded, but I think the foul weather scared off many people. I eventually made it over to the Sunnegga-Blauhard area where I spent the remainder of the day.

I took dinner at a restaurant immediately across the road from the hotel in St. Niklaus. I ordered a Witte (White/wheat) bear and valaisanne, a local dish of cheese and dried meats. A family came in after me just ordering drinks. The head of the family asked me if I was enjoying my meal. I think he would have invited me to join them until I indicated I only spoke English. I was touched by his thoughtfulness. I believe the restaurant is primarily a local place. It was a pleasure to see the family and friends being so friendly and clearly caring for each other.