Walk outside your apartment or hotel room in Zermatt and get on the trail in 10 minutes or so.  Or walk to a tram or train station and catch a ride up to a higher elevation and start from there.  Zermatt’s hiking is great and a fine way to get acclimatized, to train, or just “recreate” beneath the grandeur of the surrounding alpine peaks. The iconic shape of the Matterhorn, for example, is almost always in view — an awe-inspiring sight from the moment you walk out of the train station.

2013 Trip

This time around the hikes included the Stockhorn from Gornergrat, the hike down to Zermatt from Gandegghutte, up to Gornergrat from Zermatt, and a round-trip from Trockener Steg to Hornli Hut (which was undergoing major renovations) at the base of the Matterhorn.

On several occasions during the trip we saw a very old fellow, must have been in his eighties or so, banging out his constitutional with his son – keeping a very slow shuffle, but moving forward: an inspiring sight!