Backpacking the Haute Route: Day 14 and 15 – Europahut to Zermatt

by Gator | Sep 6, 2018

Only two more exciting days in Switzerland! Today would be the last day of hiking the Haute Route and tomorrow we would explore Zermatt. Zermatt is the largest town that we hiked to on the Haute Route, which is ironic because there aren’t any cars allowed in the city limits. The city also has commanding views of the Matterhorn with the added bonus of a goat parade every evening in the summer.

We began our last day of hiking with a short downhill walk to the Europaweg Bridge, which is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world. Spanning over 1,620 feet, it is one of the highlights of the Haute Route. Excited to finally see it, I got out the drone to get some footage. I forgot to bring the charger so I didn’t have long to film before the batteries were dead. Just as I was putting it away, we met Jeremy and Anne. I strapped on the GoPro and we all crossed together. The bridge was only wide enough for one person to walk. Every time someone would come from the other direction you had to turn sideways pressing your stomach up against the cable to let them pass. This was difficult with all of the camera gear I had in my pack. We made it across while admiring the breathtaking views of the glaciers above.

Europaweg Suspension Bridge

We decided to hike the rest of the day with Jeremy and Anne as by now we had become good friends. The trail winded slowly down, in and out of mountain coves, all morning. We came to a strange manmade structure. It was a concrete overhang that followed the trail to protect hikers from rockfalls. In the places where it would be too difficult to build the overhang, there were a series of tunnels. Once passed the danger of rockfall the weather started to change. It started with a drizzle, then rain, and then lightning. We took shelter in a restaurant in the village of Täschalp. Once inside we decided to take a cab ride into Zermatt. We finished our journey sad that we missed the last 5 miles of the Haute Route, but happy that we had not been struck by lightning.

Rockfall shield above the trail

Once in Zermatt Nuthin and I had no idea how to find our hotel. Anne had service on her phone, so she helped us. We exchanged phone numbers so that we could meet up for a celebratory dinner later. We went to our hotel to clean up. A few days ago, we told Jeremy about our wood fire cooked pizza in Zinal, and he had been excited at the prospect of pizza ever since. Nuthin also loves pizza, so we all decided pizza and should be our commemorative feast. We sat and enjoyed dinner while reminiscing about the beauty of Switzerland.

The next morning, we planned to take a cable car ride up 12,740 feet to Glacier Paradise, where it’s high enough that you can snow ski in the summer. The station was only a few blocks from our hotel. Once we got tickets, we noticed that every other cable car had a table in it. You could eat breakfast on your way to the top. There were a series of three cable car stations, each one serving a different course and champagne at the end. We settled on the non-culinary option. Once we were at the top we to noticed an ice cave. Artists had carved a series of tunnels in the glacier with ice sculptures. After exploring the cave, we took an elevator up to the top of the observation tower to see the beautiful views of the Matterhorn and Zermatt below. We could see mountaineers climbing up the glacier to the top of the Breithorn towering above. We took some pictures and decided to head back down to Zermatt.

Ice sculpture at Glacier Paradise

View of Zermatt from the top of Glacier Paradise

We decided to have a cheese fondue for lunch. After, we walked through Zermatt browsing all of the shops. There was a wide variety of chocolates, mountaineering gear, watches, Swiss Army knives, and most important of all snow globes. After grabbing a few souvenirs, we decided to spend our evening on the balcony enjoying the views of the Matterhorn. As we took pictures we were saddened by the fact that tomorrow we would have to leave the Alps and their infinite beauty.