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Yesterday, I woke up with that familiar “I overdone it yesterday on Oberrothorn” feeling. It isn’t sufficient for me to hike up high. I want to do it fast, but without running! So I tend to wake up the next day aching a bit. Regardless, for some reason, I decided to hike up to Gornergrat which at 3089m makes it a 1500m ascent from Zermatt. From Gornergrat you get a lot of views into the valley running alongside Zermatt including it’s glaciers.

On the way up to Gornergrat there’s lots of views of the Matterhorn. Like yesterday, this was a perfect day to be in the Alps:

There is a restaurant on the way up called Riffelberg which has this daft cow outside. And where I had some Apfelstrudel:

On the way up to Gornergrat you pass Riffelsee from where you can look into the valley that runs parallel to Zermatt. It’s full of glaciers, ice and other white nastiness:

Looking back from near Gornergrat you can see the hiking trails running off in all directions. You can also take an expensive train up to and down from Gornergrat if you’re a Hefty. I would rather spend my daily budget on Apfelstrudel:

From the top of Gornergrat you can look right down into the valley and across the the mountains on the other side. On the other side of those mountains is Italy where, I assume, the waymarking becomes “fascinating” again:

The descent from here back down into Zermatt took 3 hours or so via the Grunsee restaurant (Apfelstrudel available). On the way down, I noticed a cable car going up to Hohtalli which is 200m higher than Gornergrat but which I thought was closed:

Look carefully near the bottom left for the cable car… holy sh*t!

This morning I set off to hike up to Schwarzsee which is more or less right infront of the Matterhorn. But after an hour walking along the valley I realized I was too tired for another uber-hike, so I turned back and had a coffee at a restaurant… as I did, I realized there were Marmots running about all over the place! Out came the camera with zoom attached (for the first time on this trip). The sun was strong but here’s a few images anyway:

They live right under the ski lift in the field next to the restaurant so they aren’t afraid of the noise. But regardless of how quiet, and how slowly I approached them, I couldn’t get within 30 feet. When one of them gets scared they let out an ear-piercing shrill and any of the others nearby scarper too.

Although they look like hefty little buggers they are nimble and fast over the alpine terrain. You normally find them much higher up as they scarper away from you on the hiking paths.

Tomorrow is my last day in Zermatt, then I need to decide where to go next… l8r!