Hitting the slopes in Switzerland

Friday in Zermatt meant that it was time to ski! Luckily for us, we had three really different days of weather. Thursday when we arrived it was snowing really hard; Friday it was still snowing a little bit, but made for nice powdery slopes to ski on; and Saturday it stopped snowing and the sun came out. Crazy!

Headed to the ski lift

Like I mentioned before, I didn't ski, but I did get suited up and go up to the top of the mountain with everyone to take pics, explore around a little bit, and be there for when everyone was ready to break for lunch or a snack. I did get quite a few looks of concern as we were headed up, and as I asked for a lift ticket (so that I could go up and down the mountain). Rightly so…no one wants to see me on skis.

How happy does he look to be on the slopes?!?!

Zermatt seems to have a large number of ski runs to choose from, with various lifts to take you up. We took the Gornergrat train up to Gornergrat (there are other stops along the way) for everyone to start skiing. During the winter the train is full of skiers, but I hear it is just as packed in the summer when people are going up for views of the Matterhorn. In theory we should have had nice view, but it was way too cloudy and snowy to see anything.

Skiers off the train and ready to go

AH and CH hired a guide/instructor to help them with skiing, as it is a little different from US skiing. If you don't really know what you're looking for, you're likely to ski right off the run you're on, and possibly right off the side of the mountain. They also don't do a lot of easy slopes in Switzerland. In fact, they don't use the color green as an identifier; it starts with blue, then red, then black, then yellow. Yellow is essentially a double black diamond, and you're on your own...not for me! My understanding is that BK stayed with the group for a few runs, then headed off on his own.

While they were all out enjoying skiing, I went up to the Gornergrat Observatory to see if there were any views from the very top (there weren't), have a snack and finish a blog post. Of course, the winter Olympics were on as well, which are kind of fun to watch at the top of a snowy mountain.

Gornergrat Observatory

A little while later I met everyone at the Riffelburg train stop to have lunch and relax. If you're up on the slopes, the Riffelburg Buffet and Bar is pretty much your only choice for refreshments- it was a good, easy meeting spot.

Riffelburg Buffet and Bar

After lunch, AH and I stayed in put while CH and BK went out for a few more runs. CH came back after a couple, and the three of us headed back down via train. BK really outdid himself and skied for quite a while longer. He ended up skiing all the way down the mountain into Zermatt on various runs. The part that really killed him though was the walk back to our hotel in his ski boots. Age is just a number, right?

Before heading down the mountain

When we got back down, we enjoyed some desserts and drinks by the fireplace in the hotel lobby, then the guys went to rest a bit. I didn't feel like I had gotten very much exercise during the day, so AH and I headed out for a walk around Zermatt. It had cleared up some and wasn't snowing, so we stopped and checked out the Mountaineers' Cemetery, which is where people who have lost their lives to the Matterhorn are buried.

Markers in the cemetery

And what day was last Friday? Valentine's Day, of course, but they don't really celebrate it here in Switzerland. The four of us went out for a nice dinner at Restaurant Julen, a somewhat traditional Swiss restaurant located in the middle of Zermatt. Everyone really enjoyed their meal; I would definitely suggest you go if you get a chance. They are known for their lamb; I had lamb ravioli and really liked it!

Dinner at Restaurant Julen

After a day full of activity and a dinner of heavy Swiss food, we were all pooped and ready to head back to the hotel after dinner. Saturday our trip came to an end, but brought beautiful weather and lots of great views. More to come on that!