Our long-time friends Kevin and Reisa were coming to Lichtenstein in January for a meeting of the Turtle Foundation, a cause that they have been part of since 2000. They apologized for not having enough time to come see us in Italy. We said "no problem, we'll meet you in the Alps!" After a bit of debate among the four of us and Steve, a friend from Geneva who would join us, we decided to meet in Zermatt, Switzerland, for four days.
Jim and I spent 2 months in 1993 in the town of Zermatt with the goal of climbing as many of the peaks in the valley as we could. It was undoubtedly one of our best summers. Because of the eighteen 4,000-meter peaks that ring the valley, Zermatt is a superb training ground for climbers, with the added bonus that after you "bag" your peak, you get to hang out in a beautiful alpine village, eat fondue, and drink good beer. We were excited to return to the Zermatt valley, experience it in winter, and hook up with our friends.
Zermatt is car-free, or I should say, combustion-engine-free. There are plenty of electric buses and transporters that could just as easily run you down as their fuel-guzzling counterpart. In fact, because they have quiet electric engines, I think you are more likely to get hit. Although you can't drive to Zermatt, you can drive to the town of Tasch and then take the train to Zermatt, but that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun as the trip that Jim planned: Drive to the Italian ski resort of Cervinia on the south side of the Matterhorn and go over the mountains to Zermatt. Here's a video of how that works.
European ski areas tend to be more spread out than their U.S. counterparts. U.S. ski areas typically have a well-defined base that the lifts and runs are built around. Perhaps because American ski resorts are newer, they look and feel like they are laid out with a plan. European ski areas, which vastly outnumber U.S. ski areas, feel like they grew organically, with lots of older small ski areas conglomerating into mega ski areas over time. Zermatt, for example, is three distinct areas that are loosely hooked together. This can be frustrating if you want to efficiently ski the resort, but frankly skiing in Europe is more about enjoying the views, taking long lunches, and enjoying all the different forms of transportation. In all of my years of skiing in the U.S., I've never taken a train to the top of the run!
On our first day of skiing, the four of us met Kevin for lunch at the Gornergrat station. Kevin had injured himself skiing in Lichtenstein. We thought he was off the roster for his stay in Zermatt, but through a combination of beer, pain killers, and sheer will, Kevin skied down the mountain with us that afternoon and all day the next day.
The trip over from Italy and back was fun and uneventful. We didn't get stuck on one side or the other as I feared. We got to spend some quality time with our friends from Bellingham. We shared great skiing, fondue, and laughs! Here are some photos compliments of Reisa and Jim:
