The sun is trying...

Zermatt at 1620m (5,310ft) lies at the foot of the highest peaks in the Alps and several ski areas can be reached by the network of gondolas and lifts that begins in the village. On Monday we skied in Gornergrat, the summit of which is 3089m (10,134ft). On Tuesday we skied a little higher in the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and went all the way up to the summit of Klein Matterhorn at 3883m (12,740ft) where the views in all directions were spectacular. We also tried one run in Schwarzee where Kevin crash tested his helmet. On Wednesday, we went back to Gornergrat and then to Sunnegga, where we skied past little hamlets and restaurants on the mountainside. Today, we had one more area that we wanted to try – Breuil-Cervenia in Italy – and the runs were open when we started out in the morning. Unfortunately, by the time the Matterhorn Glacier Express gondola its end at the Trockener Steg midstation, the cable car to Italy was closed due to poor visibility. So instead, we skied in the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and Schwarzsee areas again today. This time Kevin showed the difficult runs of Schwarzsee who was boss!

Similar to Tuesday, our favourite pistes of the day were off the Furggsattel chair, which is one of the few ski lifts in the world that cross an international border – Italy at the top and Switzerland at the bottom. Unlike Tuesday, when the sun was shining brightly and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, today we were skiing in snowy cloud. Although the visibility was poor, the upside was that the snow was amazing and we had the slopes to ourselves much of the time. We had such a great time that we skied in the area all day.

We had a very nice lunch at the Trockener Steg midstation and even so high in the mountains there was a gift shop. I purchased a Swiss-made backpack that will be very useful as an airplane carryon. Having nowhere else to put it, I skied with it for the afternoon. Kevin said that skiing with a backpack made me look 20 years younger, so it was definitely an excellent purchase!

There was a large lookout deck outside the restaurant and the views were spectacular. The monochromatic view of white mountains against white sky was stunning and powerful as well as very different than Tuesday’s beautiful vista of the same mountains that were sparkling against the clear blue sky.

After lunch, we headed straight back to our favourite Furggsattel lift (a six-seater with padded chairs and a weather bubble to keep out the wind). Here is a picture on our way up the lift, when the sun tried unsuccessfully to peek out from behind the clouds.

We had such a great day!