This day started with the best ride up the mountains for the entire trip (at least for me). The Zermatt-Sunnegga Funicular was working this time, so we were able to, after walking through a long tunnel, board the funicular (subway basically) and rise 698 m / 2,290 ft in just 3 minutes. This cog-type subway has a track length of 1,545 m / 5,069 ft with an average gradient of 48.7 %. This is steep. To board it, you go up steps to find an empty car. While still standing, it literally pulls you up the inside of the mountain to arrive at Sunnega.

From the Sunnega station, we took the chairlift up to Blaueherd. After that, we started our hike up to Fluhalp, another mountain hut/restaurant where we all were able to enjoy an apricot tart (we had learned to order together to make sure they didn’t run out on us). It was another sunny day sitting on their balcony overlooking Rifflesee Lake.

After our treat, we hiked further up the valley paralleling a glacier’s lateral moraine (a moraine that runs parallel to a glacier’s path - surprise; I was sometimes paying attention on this trip). Of course, a real hiker never backtracks the same way one goes up. With confidence (for some of us), we decided to walk down the ridge of the moraine that we had paralleled hiking up. Our valley lay on one side of the ridge, while the other side was a steep drop-off into the glacier’s drainage area. Think heights again - I made it part way along the ridge, but after having to shimmy around a few boulders in the way (a single slip would have been a long slide/roll to the bottom - not a good thing!), I took one of the side trails back down to the valley we had come up while the other three continued along the ridge. We rejoined just before Fluhalp.

We continued down a different route below Fluhalp than we had arrived on, which, as usual, was wonderful. We approached a small Swiss hamlet called Findeln, where we ate our late lunch, once again sitting on a balcony watching the world do nothing. I can’t remember exactly what I had for lunch, but this was my favorite lunch of the entire trip. The people were great, the view was spectacular, and the food was wonderful. Thank goodness for all the hiking to compensate for all the delicious food we were consuming.

After lunch, we had just a short way to go uphill to arrive back at Sunnegga station. Just before the station, there was a small and very steep hill to climb. But with the Swiss tendency to build transport everywhere, there was a very small gondola (maximum 4 people per car) that just popped you up the hill so that you could walk directly to the funicular entrance at Sunnegga.

Back to my desire to hike as much as possible, Pierre once again was kind enough to hike the rest of the way down to Zermatt with me while the other two guys took the funicular down (beginning to think that they were the smart ones in our group). This last hike segment was also fast-paced but fun, as usual.