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Zermatt, located in southern Switzerland in the canton of Valais, is considered by many to be one of the top ski resorts in the world. While the name Zermatt might not ring a bell in everyone’s head, the sight of its most famous landmark definitely will. With its 4478 metres high summit, lying on the border between Switzerland and Italy, Matterhorn is one of the highest peaks in the alps. Said to be the most photographed mountain of all, its majestic north face is easily recognized throughout the world.

Matterhorn

But Matterhorn is not the only awe-inspiring thing in Zermatt. In February 2009 I had the good fortune of spending a week in this resort, and it left me with a desire to go back. I hope this review can give you an overview about skiing in Zermatt, and perhaps even convince you to give it a shot, and book your holiday there during the winters to come.

General Resort Information

The town Zermatt is located in a valley in the altitude of 1620 m. The relatively high altitude of the resort guarantees good snow conditions and a long season. Some of the pistes at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise are even open throughout the whole year.

Matterhorn and the moon. A view from the balcony of our hotel room early in the morning.

The main square

The town itself is by far the most beautiful mountain town I’ve visited so far. It is located in the end of Mattertal-valley right under the Monte Rosa massif. Zermatt offers its residents a spectacular view of the north face of Matterhorn. This, of course, is good news for the thriving tourism industry, whose importance to the town can only really be understood by looking at the population demographic of Zermatt. While housing it’s 5500 inhabitants, Zermatt’s various hotels offer approximately 15000 beds for the tourists to fill. Walking around the city, these numbers become obvious as the vast majority of all the buildings are hotels. Fortunately they are built with good taste as most of them resemble the traditional swiss chalet style architecture. Zermatt takes its main livelihood so

A typical electric car

seriously, that in order to prevent air pollution from disfiguring the town’s view of Matterhorn, the whole town is combustion-engine car-free zone. Local commerces handle their transportation needs with small electric vehicles. The most important sights in the town include the Alpine Museum as well as the Climbers’ Graveyard both of which are located in the city center. The climbers’ graveyard, as the name implies, serves as the final resting place for some of the more than 500 alpinists who have met their destiny trying to reach the summit of Matterhorn ever since the first ascent that took place in 1865.

Skiing in Zermatt

As I mentioned earlier, the town is in the altitude of 1620 m whereas the highest lift-station, Gobba di Rollin, is in the altitude of 3899 m. The total vertical height difference is therefore a respectable 2279 m. Furthermore, its possible to ski all the way down to Zermatt from Gobba di Rollin, if one so wishes. Matterhorn Ski Paradise and its 197 km of marked pistes are naturally divided into three distinct areas:

1. Sunnegga Paradise
2. Gornergrat area, and
3. Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and Schwarzsee Paradise

Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is also lift-linked with the neighboring Cervinia resort, which is on the italian side of the border. Including Cervinia, the total number of piste-kilometers reaches 313 km.

All three distinct areas are served by their own transport system from the town. The fastest one is the Sunnegga Express train that takes you to Sunnegga Paradise (2288 m) in just 8 minutes. There’s also a ski-lift station on the outskirts of the town from where you can get to Schwarzsee Paradise. The last alternative is to take the Cornergrat Bahn cog-wheel train with which you can travel all the way up to Gornergrat (3089 m). The ride takes a little over half an hour. The lift system in Zermatt is quite impressive. There seemed to be no bottlenecks anywhere, and the overall capacity of the lifts seemed to be sufficient to say the least. Our vacation took place in the beginning of february, which should be the busiest time of the year. Nevertheless, we never had to stand in a lift queue for more than a few minutes at a time. The other side of the coin is that Zermatt apparently has the most expensive skiing tickets in the alps. We paid CHF 421 for 6 1/2 day tickets including access to the italian side.

One of my favorite pistes. The "Red 9" from Blauherd to Patrullarve.

While there are several ski schools and plenty of beginner areas, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Zermatt would be a good resort for the beginner. There are not too many blue pistes to begin with – only about 9% of all the pistekilometers are blue. In addition, not all of them are very easy. Especially the ones descending down to Zermatt are, in fact quite challenging. This of course means that there’s a huge selection of great runs for the intermediate / expert skier or snowboarder. In addition, Zermatt offers a variety of freeride runs for the experienced skier. If this is not enough to satisfy your appetite you can always hire a mountain guide for a day and go off-piste. Unlike in France, heli-skiing is also possible. There are in fact two companies offering heli-skiing services.

Gornergletscher glacier as seen from the cablecar to Klein Matterhorn

As mentioned earlier, Zermatt is lift-linked with the italian ski resort Cervinia. However, because of avalanche danger the access to Cervinia was closed for the whole duration of our holiday. This was no biggie since there’s lots and lots of skiing to do on the Zermatt side as well. But if this happens to you, it’s good to know that in this case you are entitled to get some of your money back. So better hold on to that receipt.

While skiing you will occasionally see signs about Matterhorn Ski Safari. The safari is a route that has been put together by the tourist office. It’s basically a day-long trip that gives you the chance to ski the whole international ski area without using the same lift or run twice. If you’re planning on staying only a few days, the ski safari might be a good option for you. The safari route is also presented on the piste map.

Tips for planning your holiday in Zermatt

The first thing to mention here is: book early!! The hotels with the best value for your money are the ones that get fully booked first. I’d recommend booking your hotel at least half a year in advance. We stayed in an apartment hotel with basic cooking facilities in the room. Thus we were able to cook by ourselves, and didn’t need to eat out every evening.

If you plan to go skiing on the italian side, its very important to remember to come back before the lift-link closes for the night. If you miss it, you either have to find a hotel room in Cervinia, or take a very expensive 6 hour taxi ride back to Zermatt.

Zermatt as seen from Trockener Steg (2939 m)

The runs 52 and 51 from Schwarzsee Paradise to Furi earn a special recommendation. They take you so close to Matterhorn that you’re basically a touching distance away. As an added bonus, probably because of the relatively remote location of these runs, there were very few skiers on them. Especially in the late afternoons you can pretty much ski just by yourself.

For the occasional bad weather day, there are also other things to do in Zermatt. You can go visit the alpine museum, or relax your muscles in one of the small spas. There’s a nice small spa in the Style Hotel. If you want to swim laps, you should head to hotel Christiania. It has a 25 m pool, a sauna and a fitness-room.

In order to get the most out of your stay, I’d highly recommend getting a guide book. Prior to our holiday, we bought the Mad Dog Ski Resort Guide to Zermatt. It proved to be especially useful in choosing both on- and off-piste restaurants. Indeed, there are around 30 on-piste restaurants scattered across the skiing area plus several more on the italian side. We had some really good meals thanks to Mad Dog’s recommendations. The mountain restaurant Marmottes deserves a special recommendation due to their beautiful restaurant, delicious food and excellent service.

It’s good to know that the weather, especially on the highest peaks, can occasionally get quite extreme. We experienced temperatures down to -27°C accompanied by a strong wind.

Conclusion

If it’s not obvious yet, I really liked the place. Zermatt is a beautiful resort with some excellent skiing to be done. It’s a place that every skier should experience at least once in their lives. I’d love to go back, and I definitely will at some point. And when it comes to Matterhorn, I know that we’ve all seen an endless amount of photos of it’s north face. But believe me, when you’re actually there looking at its majestic appearance, you will be impressed. It’s a sight you just won’t get bored of.

A view from Schwarzsee Paradise