Zermatt

It’s a sleepy Sunday and I’m shattered after yesterday so I decide to have an easy day. I find myself a pub to watch the Lionesses take on Spain in the World Cup Final and am amazed by how many people are supporting the match. From families to older men on their own, everyone’s invested- I never thought I’d see the day that women’s football had so much support!
A middle aged Swiss guy sits at the bar making excited noises every time something happens. England has the ball? ‘Uufffff’. Spain’s charging up the pitch? ‘Oooooohhheee’. The ref makes a call he doesn’t agree with? A giant guttural ‘Yohhhh’. Eventually Spain score and he lets out a roaring ecstatic yell before politely apologising to everyone in the bar around him… how very Swiss 😂

Following the match I head to the Zermatt Museum. The museum acts as a time capsule to the town but also to some of the previous Matterhorn summits and attempts. Much time is spent on the first summit, in which 4 men lost their lives. No one really knows what happened on the descent but much mystery surrounds it with the 3 survivors muddying each others names as to their role in the tragedy. The museum houses artefacts from the expedition from the broken rope that claimed the lives of the 4 men, to the boots controversial English survivor, Edward Whymper wore.

After the museum I take a wander through the town and stumble across the mountaineer’s cemetery. Lying in the shadow of the Matterhorn, and housing the remains of many who have died in chase of the summit and many like it, it’s a somber reminder of just how dangerous these pursuits can be. One grave, with a red ice axe on the headstone reads ‘I chose to climb’. A striking statement which highlights that many of these mountaineers knew the risk they were taking and chose to take it any way.

Having soaked in the sights of Zermatt, I can’t quite decide what to do with the rest of the afternoon but I’m in the mood for a short hike. I find myself a geocache lying just out of town. For the uninitiated, geocaching is like a rather geeky global treasure hunt. People hide ‘caches’ and others seek out to find them, often using coordinates, or sometimes clues. They range from simple Tupperware tubs to fake snails, rocks or screws disguised in plain sight. You’ll almost definitely have walked past some without knowing. Some are easy to find, some require a little more creativity or skill to find. There’s even one on the peak of the Matterhorn… but it’ll need to wait for next time 😉 Today’s route takes me out and above Zermatt. I walk along roads and scramble up paths and eventually find myself above the helipad of Air Zermatt just as a helicopter comes in. I spot where I think the cache is and make my way off path and up the side of a slope. The ground is alive with crickets and bugs and I curse myself for not wearing insect repellent but here we are. I sit for a while, cache in hand and take in the view feeling incredibly lucky to be here. Cache obtained, its time to head back down and I scramble rather inelegantly to the bottom. (Miraculously, I make it out with just one insect sting… hazards of the job).

Back down on solid ground I walk along the river Vispa which flows through Zermatt. It’s a powdery blue colour and brings with it cold a whoosh of cold air that’s significantly colder than the temperature of Zermatt today. It’s made up of glacial run off which explains its cold constitution and it’s incredibly full as it runs through Zermatt with some real power. My mind wanders to the impact of climate change on the glaciers around here and I wonder if that’s contributing to the force of the river. But before I can dwell too long on it, I’m faced with another incredibly view of the Matterhorn. I take some photos and sit for ages to watch the moon set behind the mountains. I have the sneaking suspicion that I’m going to have a hard job tearing myself away from these mountains tomorrow…

(P.S a little behind with updates at the moment but I’m catching up so bear with me!)Read more