As usual we started our morning with a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The dining room at the Grand Zermatterhof is pretty nice and admittedly it feels a little funny walking in here with shorts and hiking boots. Fortunately we were not alone.

As usual this was followed up with a Backroads route plan review. Since this was the last day we decided to go for the long hike. (right side of the diagram below) We first took the train to the Riffelalp station. (Sounds Swiss!) Then our morning hike was planned for 3.1 miles and 1,940ft of elevation. (Taking us to about the 9000ft level) After lunch we had the option (and we took it!) of ascending 2.4 more miles with a somewhat dizzying 1440 ft gain in elevation. I’m not doing the math but the plan below says we ended up at 10,137 feet. (close enough) Hiking above 8000ft will make you take a lot of deep breaths, trust me!

But before we get started, here’s a picture of the Matterhorn in the early morning light from Zermatt. Not to shabby and I had to elbow out a few Asians to get space for this shot.

So instead of providing all 73 of the pictures I took of the Matterhorn, I’ll show the version that most folks take. The reflecting pool! We took that after our morning hike. Many tourists take this picture as the train also comes up to this level in our hike. (We earned it by hiking!) As you can see the Matterhorn was starting to get cloud covered as seems to be the pattern after noon.

So shortly after the reflecting pool stop we hiked another 1/2 mile to quiet spot to have lunch. As usual our Backroads leaders carried up a couple special items. In this case we toasted with Prosecco. …not bad for a sack lunch and I’m pretty happy I didn’t have to carry those bottles. Here’s Kseniia with the bottle.

So one of our trip leaders is an Italian, Massimilano and Kseniia above is a naturalized Italian. So of course we also got raspberry Gelato. Not bad at 9000 feet up!

Once we finished the “Matterhorn” portion of the hike we moved on to Monte Rosa and the glaciers. Monte Rosa is the tallest mountain in Switzerland and can be seen on the left below. In the center of the picture is a huge glacier that I also took about 75 pictures of. I’ll not provide all those pictures here. …you’re welcome again!.

Below are just a few more pictures of the glaciers. The middle picture actually shows several different glaciers in between the mountain peaks.

The picture below is significant in that if you look really closely you can see Kelly hiking in the lower left corner.

And here’s proof, I took the same picture and zoomed way in and you can just see Kelly’s floppy blue hiking hat. She’s the one in the middle.

The trail shown above is actually the trail we took up the side of one of the mountains to get to the very highest train station that took us back to Zermatt. It was treacherous and a bit scary at times but well worth it in terms of the views. We must have hiked next to that glacier for an hour. This hike was easily in our top 3 ever. It was challenging but also incredibly gorgeous.

So that’s the end of our Swiss adventure. As usual Backroads saved the best hike for last and it was stunning. We just finished up our final dinner and it included fondue, both cheese and chocolate. …a very nice way to end it. We are off to Geneva in the morning and we fly back to the U.S on Sunday. …That’s all folks!