Once a small, quiet, rural community, Zermatt today is a very busy, pretty, tourist village with an alluring atmosphere created by its Swiss chalets and views of the Matterhorn!! It is the major mountain resort in the Canton Valais, Switzerland, and is busy all year round with skiers, hikers and tourists. World famous, due to its juxtaposition with the spectacular Matterhorn, the village of 5,500 residents lies snuggled in a wind protected valley surrounded by huge mountains, with 38 of them being over 4000 metres!! Zermatt is situated within 10 kilometres of the Italian border in the central southern area of the Canton Valais, although road access between the two is impossible!! Due to the desire to maintain pure fresh clean air, Zermatt is a car free zone, with the only wheeled transport being either pushed by electricity or pulled by horse flesh!! Zermatt lies within the German speaking area of Valais.
Zermatt is known for its good skiing and excellent hiking. The village lies at 1620 metres and attracts visitors all year round due to the outdoor opportunities created by its closeness to so many mountains, glaciers, ski fields and hiking paths, all of which are easily accessible via its train, cable car or chair lift systems. Skiing in Zermatt is on a vast scale and to cater for the volumes of people the transport systems have been designed to move thousands of people per hour. In total transport consists of 1 underground funicular to Sunnegga Paradise, a cog railway to Gornergrat Paradise and 17 aeriel cable-cars, 6 gondola lifts, 14 chair lifts and 34 drag lifts to the other areas!!
The famous Gornergrat Railway, is the world’s highest open-air cog railway and runs from Zermatt to the Gornergrat summit at 3089 metres. It is the starting point for several hikes as it is close to many peaks over 4000 metres and glaciers, it also has a spectacular vantage point overlooking the Mount Rosa Massif, with it’s summit the Dufourspitze (4638 metres) being the second highest point in western Europe, next to Mont Blanc (4808 metres).
Zermatt has the longest ski season in the Alps, excellent snow conditions and long runs, being able to ski up to 13 kilometres to the village. In addition to its great slopes are long days, as the lifts commence operating around 8 am and close 4.30 pm in the winter!! The whole skiing area consists of three locations being the Rothorn Paradise area at 3103 metres, the Gornergrat and Matterhorn Paradise areas at 3089 and 3883 metres respectively, and the Schwarzsee Paradise area at 2583 metres. The Klien Matterhorn area is serviced by the world’s highest cable-car and has the longest run down to Zermatt at 13 kilometres with a vertical drop of 2200 metres!! Also from here are spectacular views over much of Switzerland, Italy and some of France!! Cable-cars cross the border into Italy which connect to the Breuil-Cervinia, Valtournenche and Val d’Aoste areas. In total there are 313 kilometres of safety-marked ski runs which cover all experiences of skier, from the beginner to the more advanced.
During the summer months great opportunities exist for hiking amongst some of the best scenery on the planet with a combined total of 400 kilometres of well marked paths to follow!! These paths will lead you through glorious valleys with pine forests, past Alpine lakes and ice blue glaciers. Zermatt is the starting point of the famous Haute Route or Mountaineer’s Route, a 180 kilometres hiking or skiing trail from the Matterhorn at Zermatt to Mont Blanc at Chamonix. There are guides and services available for those wishing to push the envelope a little further and rock climb, ice climb or glacier walk, heli-ski or even para-glide – it’s all up to you!! Remember too, summer skiing is possible as there is permanent glacial-snow above 3000 metres!!
If you are not skiing, why not try out some of the 38 mountain restaurants, in addition to the 100 or so in town, the indoor swimming pools, the ice rink and not forgetting if you haven’t skied enough, the gym!!
Just one thing though, have a look at the Matterhorn Museum, telling not just the story of the mountain but also the village it overlooks!!
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