|
The shark's-tooth
Matterhorn
(4478m) is the most famous of Switzerland's peaks, and no other natural or human structure in the whole country is so immediately recognizable: in most people's minds, the Matterhorn stands for Switzerland like the Eiffel Tower stands for France. One reason it's so famous is that it stands alone, its impossibly pointy shape sticking up from an otherwise uncrowded horizon above
ZERMATT
village; another is that the quintessential Swiss chocolate, Toblerone, is modelled on it. The only way to reach Zermatt is on the spectacular narrow-gauge BVZ train line (ER no discount, IR half-price for under-26s only, SP free), accessed from mainline junctions at
Brig
and
Visp
. BVZ trains depart on tracks laid in the road outside both stations. The most celebrated way to arrive is on the long east-west St Moritz-to-Zermatt
Glacier Express
which takes in some of Switzerland's finest scenery in a day-long journey by panoramic train (reserve at any train station; ER & SP free; IR half-price; small supplement payable on the Disentis-Brig section;
www.glacierexpress.ch
). Coming from ZErich, head for GA¶schenen, where you switch onto the narrow-gauge FO Furka-Oberalp line through Andermatt to Brig (ER & SP free; IR half-price).
Zermatt's main street throngs year-round with an odd mixture of professional climbers, tour-groups, backpackers and fur-clad socialites. Electric minibuses ferry people between the train station at the northern end of the village and the cable-car terminus 1km south. In the village, the
Alpine Museum
(May-Oct daily 10am-noon & 4-6pm; Nov-April Mon-Fri & Sun 4.30-6.30pm; Sfr5), commemorates the tragic first ascent of the Matterhorn, led by Edward Whymper in 1865: one of his party slipped on the way down, sending four people to their deaths. They, and many more Matterhorn hopefuls, are commemorated in the town's burgeoning cemetery. Opposite the station, GGB Gornergrat-Bahn trains (ER no discount, SP 25 percent discount, IR half-price) climb above the village, giving spectacular Matterhorn views (sit on the right) all the way up to the
Gornergrat
, a vantage point with a magnificent Alpine panorama including Switzerland's highest peak, the Dufourspitze (4634m). In summer, GGB trains leave Zermatt once-weekly at dawn to arrive in time for a breathtaking Alpine sunrise. At the south end of Zermatt village a cable car heads up via Furi to the
Schwarzsee
(2583m), the most popular point from which to view the peak and, in summer, the trailhead for a zigzag walk (2hr) to the Berghaus Matterhorn inn (3260m), right below the mountain. All Zermatt's cable cars and trains bring you to trailheads and spectacular views, and lifts to
Trockener Steg
give access to 21km of ski runs and a snowboard half-pipe that are open all
summer
long (day-pass Sfr60).
|
