 Poster: A snowHead
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Firstly - let me thank David Goldsmith, DG Orf, John Cavacas, susan and others who helped answer numerous questions.
We were originally supposed to visit zermatt over christmas and new years. But the family fell ill and we had to settle for a shorter vacation later in spring.
Logistics: landed in Geneva friday night. Checked in all bags to zermatt at the Cornavin station on Saturday morning at 9am. Boarded the zermatt train from Cornavin on sunday morning. Luggage was at the zermatt station when we reached zermatt. Stayed at Hotel Metropol. Very nice hotel and extremely convenient location - close to sunnega, Gornegrat stations and bus route to Klein Matterhorn.
Registered kids at the Swiss Ski school. and Rented skis at Flexrent - right opp Sunnega station. Choice of skis were somewhat limited - but the convenient location and ability to store skis overnight made up for it.
Skiing: Based on 3 day skiing experience - i found the skiing extremely tame. Most skiing in zermatt seems to limited to pisted runs - mostly flat i might add. more later.
1st day - most people i spoke to at the ski school said that sunnega and gornegrat were hard and slushy. Woke up to find sunny skies - KM was open, cervinia was open. Decided to go to KM. Excellent snow conditions - up there - decided to ski over to Cervinia. Good ski conditions in Cervinia till Plan Maison. Everything below PM - was slushy. Ate at Cafe Etoile.
2nd Day - Met Ed - Ski Club Rep at the sunnega station. He was planning to do some Off piste skiing. There were 12 others who joined us. He took us to Rothorn, Stockhron, Triftiji Bumps. Excellent day of skiing with a great group of skiers. Thanks Ed. Stopped for lunch at Fluhlap - excellent Rosti and Veal Sausage.
3rd Day - Woke up to find the village under 10 cms of fresh snow and reportedly 30 cms up on the mountain. Went up gornegrat. Skied down from Blauherd to Gant, then from Blauherd to Rifellap. Met my non-skier wife for lunch at Ton's Alpharitta. I had the Lamb Steak and my wife had the Salmon Connelini. if it wasn't for the excellent snow conditions outside - i would have called it a day - after a great meal. Went up to Rote Nase and skied down to Gant all afternoon. This was the only area that i would say was challenging and steep.
More about the runs - There are very few marked black runs. most of the black runs i saw on the map were below 2500m at sunnega and schwarzee - meaning - conditions were pretty bad on these runs.
General observations about Zermatt -
. Great Holiday experience
. Expensive.
. very expensive.
Ate at the following restaurants in town - Whymperstube, Shweiser stubli, China Garden, Rua Thai, numerous creperie's. All were good.
Ski - school - Glad I booked early. there were no walk-in registrations available. limited availability of english speaking instructors.
Best advice I recvd on the net - Go to cervinia/KM as early on in your trip as possible. Followed the advice and went on the first day. It was closed the rest of the trip.
- chow
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It sounds like you had a good trip Chow. There's no doubt that Zermatt is expensive, but I kept telling myself when I was there that I was not going skiing to save money. Cheaper ski holidays can definitely be found, but like most things you get what you pay for. And in Zermatt, it's the skiing, the charm, the food.
Do you plan to go back? That's when it gets even better. The knowledge you gained this time will make for an even better time when you return. For example, you know how to handle the ski school, ski rentals, which restaurants to go back to, which to avoid, etc.
Did you get a chance to walk through the cemetary? It's really an interesting place - all the climbers who met their demise are buried there. When my wife said to me on the way back from skiing one day that she'd like to climb the Matterhorn someday, I took her for a quick walk through the cemetary. She walked in thinking about a career in mountaineering, and walked out a bit more educated on the subject.
John Cacavas.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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hiya mrpow - we must have just missed you....
came home on Thurs 7th - skied with Ed and about 25 others on Mon/Tues.
Didnt do the off piste day coz we're not good enough (yet - but thinking of getting some instruction next year).
The powder really was fab on the Wed. We missed skiing with you guys coz my husband was still buying a new pair of skis (Zermatt really did have some good late season discounts!).... so we went to Cervinia on our own..... it was so empty and the runs were in fantastic condition.
Must admit my "ice skiing" improved drastically earlier on in the week in Zermatt.
Agree with you that the skiing (except for the "itineraries" was only made hard by the ice.....
We stayed at the Admiral and met a guy called Dermot - I think he skiied with you on your second day - do you remember him?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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John - yes, Zermatt trip was definitely worthwhile. We knew very well what to expect (from a cost standpoint) when we made our hotel reservation. I just wanted to convey it to other readers who may be considering a zermatt vacation. Would I go to zermatt again? Difficult to answer - primarily because there are so many other nice places to go to - Lech, zurs, st anton, Val D. ...
jayne - I am sure you would have been able to handle the off piste. This was my first time skiing with a Ski club rep. I particularly noticed - how considerate Ed was to everybody's abilities. And yes, the runs were empty both on KM and Cervinia. And yes - I do remember skiing with Dermot.
- Chow
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