Four reasons to go to Zermatt

Zermatt is a car-free village resort located in Valais, Switzerland. This village is inhabited year-round, with more than 5000 inhabitants, and it offers mountain sports activities all year round, summer and winter thanks to an excellent network of ski lifts and marked trails.

In Zermatt you can experience the high mountains: it is often here, on the Breithorn, that budding mountaineers reach a 4000 for the first time.

You can also enjoy the village and its many bars and restaurants to spend a pleasant time with family, as a couple or with friends.

But there are certainly four reasons to go to Zermatt, summer and winter.

Discover Walser architecture in Zermatt

We arrive in Zermatt by train. Here, in fact, the choice was made not to pollute the valley and therefore the view of the Matterhorn with exhaust fumes. So, apart from the administrative services, deliveries and emergency services, everyone leaves their cars a few kilometres outside the village and takes the train into town.

You can feel it as soon as you arrive, in the purity of the air and the silence that reigns in the village.

The word Zermatt comes from the German Zur Matten, on the Alps. Before the village, there were only alpine barns here, and the oldest that can still be seen date back more than 500 years.

In the oldest part of the village, the Hinterdorf, you can admire these barns raised to prevent rodents from climbing into the hay.

They can also be found higher up in the mountains in the small hamlets which will enhance your walks around Zmutt.

These raised wooden barns, the raccards, whose slightly spaced boards allow good ventilation of the stored products, were installed by the inhabitants of the valley. Walser.

People of breeders and farmers, who came from the Grisons mountains to settle in the valleys of Valais, they are therefore called Valaisans, in German Walliser, contracted to Walser. The Walser culture is found in Brig, in the valleys of Saas Fee, in Zermatt but also in Italy around Monte Rosa, from Ayas to Macugnaga.

The structure of the scattered settlement in small hamlets and the use of wood is typical of Walser culture, and the old quarter of Zermatt is an excellent example of this. To learn more about Walser culture in Zermatt, you can visit the Zermatlantis, Zermatt's underground museum. You will also discover the history of the ascent of the Matterhorn.

Photographing the Matterhorn from Zermatt and its surroundings

Let's not hide it, we come to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. One of the most photogenic mountains in the Alps.

You will have recognized this silhouette which adorns the boxes of a famous brand of chocolate…

Le Matterhorn, in German, or Matterhorn in French, has the shape of a large horn, the summit of which rises to 4478 meters. The north face visible from Zermatt is smoother and more vertical than the south face visible from Breuil-Cervinia, the famous ski resort ofa Aosta ValleySkiers can see both sides in the same day since the ski areas of the two resorts are linked.

From the village, you should position yourself rather on the eastern side, on the left going up the valley. It is from this side of the village that you can best admire the Matterhorn. From the town centre, you often only see the tip or part of the silhouette, but it is very present.

The best times to photograph the Matterhorn are in the morning when the sunlight illuminates it without dazzling the photographer, and at sunset when the mountain takes on purplish hues before darkness.

When you gain height, the Matterhorn reveals all its splendor and its entire silhouette, from base to summit.

Whether we are at Rothorn, at the Hohtälli, at the Rote Nase or at the Gornergrat, the view of the Matterhorn is simply majestic, with Zermatt at the bottom of the valley and all the layers of alpine pastures in between. The hikes that descend from these sites also offer great options for photographing the Matterhorn from different angles.

Of course, you can get a more vertical perspective when you walk along the lower edges of the Theodule Glacier to the Hirli mountain pastures.

It can also be admired on its eastern face and on its Italian side by crossing the glaciers that cover the border between Italy and Switzerland from the Klein Matterhorn to the Gobba di Rollin, up to the Testa Grigia.

In summer, summer skiing is practiced in this region, and although the interest for visitors who are not competitive athletes is limited, it is an experience that one can try once in a lifetime.

Take the train to Gornergrat, over 3000 meters above sea level, from Zermatt

Le Gornergrat offers a remarkable view of the surrounding glacial cirques. At an altitude of over 3000 metres, this building, which houses a hotel and is reached by a beautiful rack railway journey, the view sweeps across the space between the Matterhorn and Mount RoseAt the foot of the peak on which the station is located flow the Gornergletscher and the Grenzgletscher, which originate from the eternal snows of the summit of Monte Rosa.

A cirque of peaks over 4000 metres high is drawn in front of the visitor. How can one not be fascinated by this spectacle of peaks, eternal snow and glaciers? Despite the large number of tourists present on the outskirts of the Gornergrat station, it is a meditative silence that envelops us as we contemplate these peaks.

In high season it is better to buy his train ticket in advance…the line to get on can be long.

Skiing in Zermatt in Europe's highest ski area

The Zermatt-Cervinia ski area is the highest in Europe.

La Rollin's hump on the border between Italy and Switzerland is located at 3899 meters above sea level. So your head will be at 3900 meters! You cannot ski higher than this altitude in Europe, on a marked ski area.

It is also the third highest resort in the world! Only the resorts of Gulmarg in India (3980 meters) and Breckenridge in the United States (3962 meters) exceed Zermatt at 3899 meters.

What is interesting in Zermatt is that this altitude reached at the Gobba di Rollin is not just the extreme summit of a slope, but the entire glacial plateau at the foot of the Matterhorn is included in the ski area with altitudes above 3300 meters above sea level, well above most of the peaks of the ski resorts in the rest of the Alps.

Skiing at high altitude has its challenges: be careful of the strength of the sun; you have to protect yourself well. And of course you get out of breath more quickly than at low altitude, so be careful not to pull too hard on the rope.

These precautions should not, however, take away from the pleasure of skiing at the foot of the Matterhorn!

Go to Zermatt is a real mountain experience. A real village with a well-preserved old town center, ski lifts that allow access to the highest peaks in order to contemplate the landscapes of the high mountains and dozens of kilometers of trails to hike in a generous and almost mystical Nature by its immensity and timelessness.