The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
ALPINE HEAVEN
Escaping from Scotland, Jack McKeown goes ski-ing in Zermatt, in the shadow of the mighty Matterhorn
Europe has many fine ski resorts but only Zermatt has that iconic view of the Matterhorn. You don’t have to look hard to see it, either. The craggy, beautiful twisted chimney of a mountain rears over the town. It’s visible from most streets and many hotels, cafes and restaurants. It looks particularly glorious at sunrise and sunset. Watching the rays of the emerging or departing sun slide along the mountain’s face is something everyone should experience at least once.
Zermatt could not be easier to get to. Just a single change of trains takes you from Geneva airport right into the heart of Zermatt.
Indeed, train or taxi are the only two ways to get to Zermatt (unless you’re one of the not inconsiderable number of people in Zermatt who can afford a private helicopter).
The town is car-free and anyone who drives there has to leave their car in nearby Täsch.
Transport around the town is by free electric buses or in tiny electric taxis. That makes it a fantastic pedestrian ski town, with little traffic and no diesel fumes to pollute the pristine mountain air.
The train is the easiest way to get there. Departures are every 30 minutes and it’s one of the most scenic rail journeys in Europe.
From the town of Visp the track becomes a narrow gauge cog railway and the train climbs almost 1,000 metres over the final few kilometres. There are cliff faces to one side, deep gorges to the other, with rivers and waterfalls adding to an already majestic scene.
I stayed in the three-star Hotel Alpenroyal, while my slightly more spendthrift American companions stayed next door at its sister hotel the Schönegg.
Both are on the hillside just above the town centre and a handy subterranean lift takes all the hard work out of getting there.
As you might expect from perhaps Europe’s most famous resort, the quality and quantity of the ski-ing is pretty special. Zermatt has 360 kilometres of pistes – more than you could explore in a week. What makes it even more special is the elevation gain. Zermatt
IT LOOKS PARTICULARLY GLORIOUS AT SUNRISE AND SUNSET
is (by ski resort standards) relatively low at 5,300ft. Yet the highest lift takes you to 12,800ft – a gain of 7,500ft.
What that means is you can get just one gondola then cruise for an hour or two before you’re back in Zermatt.
The Zermatt ski area also connects with Italy. High winds meant the cable car connection was closed for much of my visit but on my final day I made it over the border and spent the morning ski-ing down to Cervinia, having lunch in Italy before returning to Switzerland for the afternoon.
One word of warning: Zermatt is not the best resort for beginners. Only 74km of the resort’s 360km of runs are blue runs, suited to beginners.
A whopping 220km, or 60%, are intermediate red slopes, while there are 64km of the most difficult black slopes, suitable only for advanced skiers.
Thankfully, I’ve skied since I was 12 and was able to take full advantage of all the resort’s runs. The group of American friends I was with live in Colorado and are all expert skiers: we had great fun tearing up the slopes.
Of course, ski-ing is not all about going downhill. The food and drink scene is just as important. If you’re a foodie, Zermatt has you covered. Our favourite meals were at Chez Vrony. This charming restaurant lies partway
up the mountain and needs to be skied to and from – meaning you do need to keep sober enough to get safely down the mountain afterwards.
Its owner, Veronica – Vrony for short – took over the restaurant in 1999 and turned it from a straightforward mountain cafe into perhaps Zermatt’s top gastronomic hotspot.
All dishes are made with Alpine ingredients, and there’s everything from local dry cured meat to Mediterranean-style dishes. Three wonderful courses and a few bottles of wine later we got the last chairlift up and gingerly skied our way down the mountain.
Ski-ing is the chief reason to visit Zermatt in the winter but there are plenty of other activities on offer, from cross-country skiing to hiking, skating, husky rides and more. Fantastic hiking and mountain biking make it an attractive summer resort as well.
Non-skiers should take Europe’s highest open-air cog railway to the summit of the Gornergrat, from where there are some incredible views of the mountain. The pleasant 9.4km journey leads over dramatic bridges, through forests of larch and Swiss pine, and past rocky ravines and mountain lakes.
Of course, the one thing Zermatt is not is cheap. I’ll be paying for my holiday for some time to come. It was well worth it, though.