HAUTE ROUTE_2013

DAY 15: EUROPA HUT (7283 FT) TO ZERMATT (5269 FT)

(EUROPAWEG DAY 2)

 

We woke up around 6:30am. Fan slept OK but not great; Jie didn’t sleep well but her back was feeling a little better. The weather was sunny and mild, and the Bisgletcher looked magnificiant in the morning light. For breakfast at the Europa Hut we had bread, butter, jam, ham, ovalmaltine, coffee, and tea. Headed out at 8am.

 

Due to route closures, we hiked into the valley town of Randa (4721 ft), which was the site of a series of massive rock slides in 1991 that shut down the roads and rail systems and damned the Mattervispa river. We bought some groceries for lunch, saw some baby goats in Randa, and continued along the valley, past forests and a campground. We left the valley floor at the slightly larger town of Tasch (4717 ft), took a short break to eat some trail mix and chocolate, and started gaining elevation again. The long switchback trails east of Tasch were unrelenting and steep, but also wide and well maintained. (There was even a guy cutting the grass on the trail with a large riding lawn mower!) We stopped under an overhanging boulder for lunch: bread, sausage, orange juice, nectarines, chocolate, and the last of the ginger bread that was purchased all the way back in Le Chable (Day 3).

 

Uninterrupted views of the Matterhorn sustained our attention throughout the rest of the afternoon, although increasing cloud cover obstructed our view of the peak itself as we approached Zermatt. The long switchbacking trail eventually reconnected with the Europaweg and we continued south. We had nice views of the Mattertal valley, the Southeast ridge of the Weisshorn, the Bisgletscher, and on the final approach to Zermatt, large avalanche defense systems and solar panels on the west side of the valley. The trail became increasingly well-trodden as we got closer to Zermatt.

 

We followed Kev Reynold’s guidebook and circled around Zermatt by first hiking past Tufteren, Sunnegga (with a cable car station), Findeln, and then switchback trails in a pine forest on the descent to Winkelmatten and finally Zermatt (5269 ft). We saw a couple of mountain bikers taking turns jumping off a ramp built over the trail between Sunnegga and Findeln. In Winkelmatten we bought a Solero mango passion fruit ice cream bar and a banana flavored yogurt drink and enjoyed them on our triumphant hike into Zermatt.

 

Zermatt was swarming with tourists on every block. We dodged tourists left and right as we walked across to the far side of town and checked into Hotel Bahnhoff around 5pm. As its name suggests, the hotel is conveniently located across the street from the train station. We got a room with a sink, balcony, and shared bathroom and shower. We bought train tickets for tomorrow from Zermatt to Geneva, bought some breakfast at a large (Coop) supermarket in the Viktoria shopping center by the train station.

 

To celebrate the end of our Haute Route, we had dinner at Stadel, a restaurant recommended by our hotel. We shared two 0.5 L’s of beer, a glass of Dole, mixed salad, a mushroom risotto (Jie), macaroni and cheese with ham and apple sauce and potatoes. The food was pretty good but far from the best we had on the trek. However, we took immense satisfaction in having completed the Haute Route, planning every aspect of the trip, carrying all of our gear, and walking every step of the way.

 

We walked around downtown Zermatt some more after dinner and window shopped before heading back to the hotel and going to sleep around 10:30pm. Tomorrow we would catch the train to Geneva, and from there travel to Stockholm, Sweden for a three day stay to recover from the Haute Route.

 

11 miles, 8.5 hours.