One of the things I find fascinating about the Zermatt area is that you don’t have to hike to get up to the higher altitudes. Instead, you hop onto a train, lift, gondola, or funicular, which will take you up to your preferred hiking starting point. After that, you can hike at altitude, go higher, and/or hike back down (or alternately ride back down). With my engineering background, I marvel at the massive efforts they have put into their transport systems. They are primarily built for the skiers during ski season (some lifts are shut down during the off-season), but the options sure make it nice for hikers and regular tourists both!

Today, we jumped onto the Gornergrat cog railway to take us up to the Gornergrat station, taking only just over 30 minutes to get there (1,469 m / 4,820 ft elevation change). At the station, we were surrounded by 29 peaks above 4,000 meters / 13,123 ft, including the Matterhorn and Dufourspitze, along with the third-longest glacier in the Alps.

From the Gornergrat station, we took a short hike out along a ridge capped with snow, overlooking the glaciers. Walking back to the station, just below the trail, we found three Alpine Ibex enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Their horns were massive - I didn’t mind the distance between them and us.

Inside the station, they had a huge cafeteria. While not bad food, it felt very much like my old work cafeteria. Nothing to write home about, but it was definitely filling, which was important before we started down the mountain on foot.

Just before we arrived at Riffelalp Station, we ran into a flock of beautiful white woolly sheep with very cool black faces. They were munching away on the grass or lying about taking naps, many of which were parked right on the trail. As you can see in a couple of photos, they were very friendly, especially with our guide, Pierre. Perhaps with his white beard and dark-tanned face, they thought he might be a close relative?

We chatted with the shepherdess (Deborah) for this flock. This particular breed (Valais Blacknose sheep) is very different from the typical skittish sheep in the area (with off-white single-color coats). These characters just didn’t seem to have a care in the world! If you are in the area, you can find out where the sheep are as they have GPS units in their collars. The website ‘Meet The Sheep’ (link provided) will give you their location for that day.

I tend to love to hike, so any chance I can get some extra footage in, especially in areas like this, I take it. When we arrived at the Riffelalp Station, Pierre agreed to hike the rest of the way down to Zermatt with me while our other two companions took the train back to town. No problems at all - everyone was happy. Except we did have dinner reservations at a specific time and, as usual, it took longer to get back to our hotel than we expected.

In Zermatt, the restaurants seem to have just a few times in the evening that they like to take reservations for. If you are late, you might have to wander around to find someone with an open table. Luckily in this case, despite our fast pace going down, we were late, but a call by Pierre was able to get an exception and move our reservation back just enough for us to get cleaned up and get there. Not sure if the food was really as good as I remember or if I was just starved after that much time on the trail; regardless - it was awesome.