Zermatt (1620m) -- Riffelalp -- Riffelberg -- Rothenboden -- Gornergrat (3089m) ... and back down

With the prospect for thunderstorms and snow in the afternoon, Gabe, Cullen, and I woke up at 6:45am to get an early start to hike up to Gornergrat, the "Jungfraujoch" of Zermatt. Rather than ascend by train, as most do, we planned to hike up to the viewing area from our hostel, grab lunch, and take the train down in order to avoid the knee crunching descent.

After snarfing down breakfast and making the necessary bad weather preparations, we set off on the hike. The hike in to Gornergrat was a good choice in that every 1:30 there is a train station in the event the weather turns bad, which the reports promised it would. In addition, the scenery is incredibly diverse, changing dramatically after each station stop.

The first stage to Riffelalp was a little over an hour through the woods, with a moderately steep but unrelenting ascent. Surprisingly, this was the most poorly marked section of the hike, requiring the use of a map and discretion at a few intersections along the way. In spite of this, we found Riffelalp, and then proceeded through untouched alpine meadows to Riffelberg. This was the most beautiful section of the hike, providing lots of wildflowers, rivers, and marmots, juxtaposed against the imposing and always impressive Matterhorn. From Riffelberg we procceded through a barren and ugly landscape to Rothenboden. Somohow, we missed Rothenboden, fortunately stumbling on to Gornergrat. With 100 percent visibility, Gabe, Cullen, and I had a cloudless views of the entire "Matterhorn Glacier Paradise" ... (see google images).

Everything about Gornergrat was prohibitively expensive, including the food and 40 Franc train tickets to Zermatt, and after a quick hot chocolate/nutella/challah break, we walked (and I kvetched :)) down to Zermatt, finishing our hike in just under 7hrs and with enough time to grab a final meal of burgers before Cullen had to catch the train to Geneva.