{"id":354,"date":"2012-10-13T08:46:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T06:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joncu.roguenet.org\/swissblog\/?p=354"},"modified":"2021-09-21T22:48:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T22:48:35","slug":"peak-season-zermatt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/2012\/10\/13\/peak-season-zermatt\/","title":{"rendered":"Peak Season – Zermatt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall is here in full force.\u00a0 It starts in the mountains and seeps down into the valleys.\u00a0 Saturday we walked to the Gumligen train station under twinkling stars.\u00a0 The trip to Zermatt takes 2.5 hours and we wanted to spend as much time there as possible.\u00a0 On arriving, however, we were so cold we ducked into a caf\u00e9 and had a 2nd<\/sup> breakfast instead of getting onto the trail.<\/p>\n

\"Zermatt\"<\/a>

Bahnhofstrasse in Zermatt<\/p><\/div>\n

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Stoked on eggs and croissants, we found our way to the Sunnegga Express.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know exactly what to expect: gondola, funicular, train?\u00a0 True to Swiss custom, they have hollowed out a tunnel through rock from Zermatt to a spot on the Unterrothorn (every hill has a name), 600 meters higher up.\u00a0 The entire ride is through rock! http:\/\/www.funimag.com\/suisse\/sunnegga01.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

From Sunnegga we followed a trail, climbing another 300 meters to the Stellinsee, then gradually down to the Grinjisee and the Gruensee. (See means lake.) \u00a0Almost always the Matterhorn was in view.<\/p>\n

\"Sunegga\"<\/a>

The hike from Sunegga begins with this view of the Matterhorn<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Jon<\/a>

Jon and the Matterhorn<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Stellinsee\"<\/a>

The Matterhorn reflected in the Stellinsee<\/p><\/div>\n

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Our timing was perfect:\u00a0 the masses of larch are golden right now at that altitude.\u00a0 At times when a breeze came up, we were even \u2018snowed\u2019 on by tiny larch needles.<\/p>\n

\"Grinjisee\"<\/a>

We lunched in the sun on rocks by the Grinjisee.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Gruensee\"<\/a>

This lake looked "Gruen" (green) as jade from above though not so close up.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Golden<\/a>

As the path descends, you enter a forest dominated by the now golden larch.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I usually prefer biking to hiking because the view changes faster.\u00a0 This day I was continuously entertained.\u00a0 Every few steps, the perspective changed.\u00a0 The variety of landscape within the 17 km we hiked was amazing.\u00a0 Fall colors, lake reflections, soft-seeming snow-covered glaciers and the ground gray rubble where they\u2019ve retreated, the sheer magnitude of solid rock jutting skyward:\u00a0 it\u2019s all jaw-dropping!<\/p>\n

\"Glacier<\/a>

Glaciers look soft in the distance<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Glacier<\/a>

Retreating glaciers leave a huge crushed rubble trail. The lines are for a winter cable car for skiers.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fall is here in full force.\u00a0 It starts in the mountains and seeps down into the valleys.\u00a0 Saturday we walked to the Gumligen train station under twinkling stars.\u00a0 The trip to Zermatt takes 2.5 hours and we wanted to spend … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1506,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jmcw.blog\/swissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}