During my summer month in Switzerland in 2021, I spent a long weekend in the mountains around the town of Zermatt. It was my introduction to hiking in Switzerland and I had a very active weekend. Though the highlight for me was Switzerland's ethereal beauty. The town of Zermatt is quite touristy, and picturesque by itself. With a river flowing through it, the lush green hills all around dotted with alpine houses, the clear blue skies making it all sparkle and the iconic Matterhorn mountain standing guard over it.
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| The Matterhorn |
We spent the weekend doing two long treks - the 5 lakes walk and the glacier trail, and then explored the area around the mountain hamlet of Furi. The trekking was very strenuous but extremely rewarding. And the views throughout the weekend were spectacular. It was this weekend that I finally discovered for myself why Switzerland was the popular background choice in all the old Bollywood movies 😊.
Getting to Zermatt
The train network in Switzerland is very efficient - you can take trains from anywhere to anywhere and the connections work like clockwork. I also learnt how much of a stickler the Swiss are for their rules. I was using the SBB app for the train ride, switching the app on and off when getting on and off trains. The app calculates the fare automatically based on the GPS location. And the ticket checker fined me for starting the app 2 mins late, on a 4 hour journey! I laugh at it now, but at that time it was quite shocking.
We took an early morning train from Lausanne, changing to a mountain train at Visp, reaching Zermatt before noon. This train journey as every other train ride in the country was stunning. The train chugged though vibrant green valleys, lined with huge mountains on both sides, dotted with alpine houses. Near the city of Sion, we even saw a chateau on the hills. The whole ride was so enchanting, it was like already being in a fairy tale.
In between though, we would see some modern buildings which felt out of place and even looked ugly when superimposed against such gorgeous backgrounds (even though that’s how most cities in the plains look like). At those times, I felt that such modern rectangular buildings made of glass and cement should be banned in Switzerland, for spoiling the beauty of this land. And only wooden alpine houses should be allowed here 😊.
At Visp, we changed to a mountain train which went through a valley to get to Zermatt. All along this valley were a few picturesque villages, very small and oh so cute. St Niklaus among those was really inviting. All along the train line was the road with cars driving to Zermatt, though in Zermatt no cars are allowed. We could see people walking along the rivers and into the mountains from the train itself. There were some ponies also wandering in the valley. By this time, I was already itching to be up in the mountains in all the bright green scenery.
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| Zermatt |
When we reached Zermatt, it almost felt like a huge town, not at all like the small villages we had ridden through. All around were flowers in all colours hanging from the alpine huts. Its main street was full of shops and tourists. Some were getting ready to go summer skiing, some hiking, lots were going mountain biking, and some were just shopping. It looked like Zermatt is a hive of activity, both in summer and winter. It was buzzing with activity all around. And we surely would have been able to enjoy a lot more if the pandemic was not still around.
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| River Vispa |
After we crossed the main street, we walked along the Matter Vispa which flows through the town. It had gushing cold gray water, splashing furiously down the valley. It added quite a character to the town. After the river, we started walking up to our hotel, the Sonnmatten Boutique hotel, in the neighbouring village of Sonnmatten. As Zermatt is a no car zone, we decided to walk up the 20 mins to the hotel (we didn’t know then that the buses in the city are all free). It was quite a steep climb and felt quite tough to walk up with all out luggage - quite a sign of things to come soon😊 as this is howthe next 3 days turned out to be.
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| Hammock at hotel |
Our hotel was a small place, very comfortable and with a gorgeous view of the mountains around. It also had a hammock overlooking the town which felt amazing every morning and evening😊. After quickly exploring the place and checking in, we left very quickly on our first hike of the weekend. My friend had planned the best walks for our weekend, and she was the guide directing us during the hikes. Its also a good idea to get the local app – Switzerland Mobility for the hikes as that has all the relevant information needed.
5 lakes walk
The first hike we did was the
5 lakes walk. The actual walk is shorter, as you can take a gondola to the starting point and then visit the 5 lakes. Though we decided to not take the gondola and walked up the mountain to get to the first lake. And what a day it turned out to be – we walked for a total of 22 kms over 10 hours, with all the breaks and everything. Ascending more than 1100 meters over the day.
The first half of the trek was through the forests, going up the mountain. It was sunny and extremely warm, so we had a ball during the day. The Matterhorn was visible from most of the trek, and I think we kept photographing it too all through the day. It is quite an imposing mountain and its tough to avoid it. Also we noticed that there are clouds stuck next to the Matterhorn most of the day, its tough to catch it without clouds next to it.
We saw a few people doing paragliding next to the Matterhorn, and I really felt like doing that too, though I didn’t find time to do that. Also there were children on the hikes, lot of mountain bikes and also some people running up the mountain, which would not have been easy, as even walking up was tiring!
The views all through the trek were spectacular – valleys, mountains, greenery, rocky landscapes and so on. Everywhere you looked, it was gorgeous. It is very tough to explain all we saw and experienced. As it is in all treks. Some of the photos can capture the beauty of the looks around, but none can capture the feeling of being on top of a mountain, looking all around you and seeing nature in its full glory. You just have to be there to feel and understand it.
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| Leisee lake |
Anyways, we kept walking on the trek, going up and down mountains visiting each of the lakes one by one. All were similar but still different in their look and feel. The first lake was Leisee, which had reflections of the Matterhorn. It was full of crowds and people were swimming in the water. We had no idea that could be done, else we would have gone swimming too. We had lunch on the sides of the lake, then walked the loop to the other 4 lakes. In between we also stopped at one of the restaurants for a quick snack. And I must say, these stops were always so welcome after walking so much!
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| Moosjisee |
Moosjisee had a very different blue green colour to it and less people around it. It was a small lake and looked quite exquisite because of its colour. The third, Grunsee had some steep climbs before it and was not that spectacular. The fourth lake, Grindjisee was a small lake hidden in the bushes and quite empty. But as we walked around it, we took some impressive shots from there.
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| Grindjisee |
The trek to the last lake had some very steep parts and by that time I was also extremely exhausted. We also realised that the last gondola down from there would had already left, so we had a long long walk back down the mountain to get back to Zermatt. We were thinking if we should give the lake a miss or not, but decided to push ourselves more anyways.
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| Stellisee |
This last lake was the Stellisee, the largest of these 5 lakes, with reflections of the Matterhorn as well as a guest house in a mountain next to it. We could also see some of the fishes in the lake here. There were a few tents around the lake as people were camping there. I wondered how tough it would have been to carry all the camping equipment all the way up, but would totally be worth it to be able to spend a night in such a location. It was quite a scenic view and we would have stayed there longer if we weren’t in a hurry to get back home.
Going back down from here to Zermatt was quite a long trek, it took us 3 hours. And we realised it is sunnier up in the mountains longer than in the villages down in the valley. So even though it felt like it would be sunny for longer, it changed very quickly. The first part had some light but the second part was completely in the night, thankfully though the full moon was out. The first part was a clearly marked trail. We saw lots of marmots on this trail, as well as some black nosed sheep and wild goat or deer (not really sure).
After the marked trail ended, we were a bit confused, sometimes following the app and sometimes the markings on the turns. Sometimes we walked through the forests, sometimes through narrow steep paths, and sometimes some barely visible trails. I was a bit scared, but people were still cycling down and trekking up, at that time of the day. Clearly the mountains are not as scary as I think of them to be.
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| Matterhorn viewpoint |
When we were almost down, we could see the lights of Zermatt come into view. We did feel a lot more comfortable after that. I started noticing how beautiful the stars looked in the night sky. And we came to a viewpoint from where you can catch a view of the Matterhorn behind all the twinkling lights of Zermatt. It was quite a good view to end our trail at, given how worrying the last few hours had been.
We finally reached Zermatt about 10pm and we were completely exhausted. We had dinner in town at Le Chalet, as one of the few restaurants open after 10. It was a cosy place with great tasting food. And then we walked up to our hotel again at night. (Climbing never ends in the mountains, right?)
I loved this trail and would definitely recommend it. It was quite strenuous though and the coming back late at night is avoidable. Still it was totally worth it for enjoying the untouched and delightful beauty of the Swiss Alps. The lakes were gorgeous and so were all the stunning views everywhere, especially with the Matterhorn being so omnipresent.
Glacier trail
The second day we did a
glacier trail which was very different from the first day (
another link to the trail). The 5 lakes was a green and fresh trail through forests and valleys, while today was through bare and rocky landscape left behind by the glaciers. This trek covers the area where glaciers had come to in the 1850s but then have retreated and left behind plants and rocks very different from elsewhere.
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| Towards Hornlihutte |
We took a gondola up to Schwarzee and then did the 10 km trail to the Trockener Steg gondola which we then took to come back down. We ascended a total of 650 kms during the hikes, walking for about 6 hours in total. During the first half of the trail, we took a detour to go up towards the Hörnlihütte hut on the Matterhorn. People looking to climb the Matterhorn go to this hut and then walk up, while some just do a 2 day trek up to the hut and back. But we just did a part of it to see the Matterhorn more up and close😊. It was an extremely steep hike up the mountain, and at one point we had to walk on a narrow metal platform to cross the mountain. It was fun to get closer to it but then we had to turn around if we wanted to make the gondola down on time this time.
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| Stony valley |
Then we continued through the glacier trail, which first went down to the river into the stony valley, and then up again all along the retreating glacier to the next gondola. The landscape here was bare - huge grey rocks everywhere, some lakes, lot of gravel and the mountains covered with snow even in summer. We could see some people skiing here even now, in the summer. This trail is open very rarely, only when the ice melts just enough to walk.
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| Rocky landscape |
The area was bare of any plants, and its beauty was in all the interesting rock features in different shapes, sizes and colours. These are all rocks left behind by the retreating glaciers. And there were many lakes along the trek, each more exquisite than the last one. These mountain lakes are all glacier remnants and have a light blue colour, lot of them reflecting the Matterhorn. It was quite spectacular all along. And as usual, this trek too is something to be experienced. It is very difficult to explain how it actually was to walk along it.
And I was exhausted, really. Surprisingly, lot of kids and even dogs were doing the hike. We also ran into a few people in their 60s and 70s doing the Matterhorn hike! And there were people biking along the route too – it was quite a crowded hike. So what is a great achievement for me is kind of like a daily walk for the Swiss😊.
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| View from gondola |
We just made it to the gondola before the last one left (why do the last ones leave so early at 430?). We finally made it down to Zermatt on time today. So we explored the town a bit. We shopped for some hiking gear, and then had a lovely and tasty dinner at Golden India.
Revived by the food, we came back to the viewpoint to take a photo of the Matterhorn along with the city lights below it. The moon was right next to the mountain and the stars shone brightly - the photos were mesmerising. We walked through the old town in Matterhorn which has wooden houses still kept in their original form. They all looked so sturdy. Not a lot of people stay there anymore but it was nice to see how the village would have looked like a few hundred years ago. And then we walked up the mountain to our hotel, which was always the toughest part of the day, everytime.
Furi
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| Walk up the mountains |
I decided to take the last day easy and just walked up the village of Furi that day. I had seen the village from the gondola the previous day. So I just started walking from my hotel, up the mountain towards the village. Some parts of the trail were in the forest, and some on the road up. And there were lot of people there, having a relaxed day out. Once near the village, I just walked around a bit, enjoying the bright greenery around me. There were beautiful chalets and holiday homes everywhere. For a while, I just sat with my feet in the river for a bit, enjoying the warm sun.
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| Suspension bridge |
Then I walked up one of the mountains towards the Furi suspension bridge. It is a long and high metal suspension bridge connecting two mountains, and runs over a river flowing deep in the gorge. I never though I would find it scary but it took me a few tries before I could walk across it, stop in between and look around, and cross it without holding the sides. Sometimes it can surprise even you with what scares you, isn’t it? After I got over my fear, I crossed the bridge 3 times to make sure it sticks 😁. I also walked to the Gletschergarten Dossen which is an informative walk to understand what all the glaciers leave behind – barely balancing rocks, glacier holes and so on. It was quite an interesting walk through ancient history.
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| Zermatt from the top |
While going back to Zermatt we followed the markings and came to an area in Furi with 3 restaurants. We walked into one of them, called Aroleid. And what a find it was! It has to be one of the best restaurants I have been to. In the mountains with spectacular open views around. And one of the best foods we have had. We spent 2 hours there, just sitting and enjoying the food and its view. I just didn’t want to leave the place at all. But of course, we had to.
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| On the walk |
After this idyllic end to our trip, it was time to say goodbye. We again took connecting trains and were back in Lausanne by the end of the day, with the ride back home being the most boring part of the trip. The weekend was amazing and I was fully inspired to do more of these weekend hiking trips. Of course I was exhausted, and every muscle in my body hurt. But we had a few days of rest before going for our next hiking weekend. To Grindelwald.
Other Switzerland posts from this stay
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