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Yet Another Zermatt Report!

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
The Journey

Our journey was relatively uneventful 12 hours of road, air, and rail travel topped of by a short journey in a converted milk float (Zermatt electric taxis) to our hotel.

Our Hotel

We stayed at the Hotel Butterfly *** which is situated a few minutes walk to the Gornergrat railway station. The Hotel was immaculate, 5 courses meals (not huge portions), and the staff were friendly and courteous. Most evenings whilst dining Madam Butterfly (I kid you not!!!) would do the rounds chatting to her guests.
Despite this, we would in retrospect choose somewhere a little more lively.

The Village

The village is very charming oozing with character. There are numerous shops, restaurants and bars. The shops are expensive so I didn’t venture into many.

The Apres

The après is lively and varied; we mainly did early après and ate later. Our favourite bars were:-

Grampis Look out for the vertically challenged keyboard player, he played his drum and keyboard with just about every part of his anatomy and in every position. Laughing

Papperla Pub Very popular, lively après bar with an excellent jazz/funk band Cool

Brown Cow Lively bar, but unfortunately the air was thick with Camel-dung cigarette smoke! Skullie

The Pistes

The area is ideal for a weeks skiing with plenty of variety. As we were fortunate enough to have a week of sunshine, Cervinia was well worth the visit, and we would have spent much more time there if it weren’t for our ski lessons.

The pistes were in remarkably good condition, despite this being Zermatt’s driest season for 16 years. However, the pistes are now hard packed and rather icy in places, with
some bare patches on the lowest slopes.

The off-piste is virtually non existent, although the waiters from our hotel were still skiing the itinerary pistes.

The scenery is spectacular. Our first day on the mountain was not so good though, as the winds were high and there was quite thick fog. My first run resulted in me having to stop and regain my balance as the wind was blowing the snow up and across the piste, and |I couldn’t see a thing and ended up feeling totally disoriented. If we had had a week of this my view on Zermatt might not be quite so favourable.

Mountain restaurants

We ate in the main at the self service restaurants as this is were we ended up with the school except for as a treat we had lunch at:-

Chez Vonnry, Sunegga

This was a very charming restaurant, with spectacular views. We enjoyed a very good Rossti, sat in brilliant sunshine and ended up staying for 1hr 30mins. I recommend you visit for a drink, even if you don’t eat there.

Thanks Krammer for that tip! Very Happy

Getting around

This was the biggest downer of the holiday, my SO was not impressed with the transport system. rolling eyes
I would definitely go to Zermatt again as I really had a wonderful time; my SO isn’t as keen, but we would leave it for a few years before we visited again. There are plans for some new lifts which will make connection to the different areas far easier.

Be prepared for an expensive trip and lots of waiting/walking for various connections to the pistes, it is well worth the effort it IF you get good weather/snow conditions. snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
IncogSkiSno, good report.

How were the lessons?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Ray Zorro, The lessons were good with max 6 in a group, we had 4 or 5 for all of our lessons. I skied 3 of the black runs without too many problems which i wouldn't have done before. snowHead

The lessons, i think, worked out at nearly £200 each for the 5 mornings (private on the sunday) and another £100 (ish) each for the ski hire Shocked
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IncogSkiSno, great report, captures the essence. Could you have stayed somewhere more convenient? Or was it the lift system your SO objected to? Shouldn't you be unpacking/doing the laundry?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
IncogSkiSno, Good report, glad that the lessons were well worthwhile. Now you can do black runs, that makes you an advanced skier wink
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slikedges, Yes we could have stayed somewhere more convenient, but I thought that we would have used the Gornergrat Railway more than the once. Laundry is in the washer, we didn't have an awful lot Very Happy

snowbunny, I can get down a black using lots of controlled turns (very tiring), I think it will be some time before I am whizzing down them. So not an advanced skier yet, although our class was advanced level 4, I certainly don't consider myself advanced. Confused
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
IncogSkiSno,
Quote:

Laundry is in the washer, we didn't have an awful lot


Eewwwh! Toofy Grin
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
slikedges, I thought it was only guys that majored in making clothes last by turning them inside out etc . Has IncogSkiSno, managed to find a way to offend your sensitivity Twisted Evil Laughing
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snowbunny, Oi, trust you, I still have a couple of loads to go, but didn't wear half of the things that I took rolling eyes
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IncogSkiSno, I must admit that I have no idea how much commercial lessons cost these days as we have only paid £30 for 5 days x 2 hrs for the last couple of years Embarassed (non-commercial rates). I guess the important thing is whether or not you found them value for money. It sounds like they helped you to do things that you couldn't do beforehand snowHead so I guess they were?

I remember from other threads that you were also one time considering Wengen. I think that your SO would get frustrated at the transportation system there also. You would want to visit both Murren and Wengen and you couldn't do both without lengthy travelling/waiting on/for trains. I guess it is just part of the swiss system. snowHead
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IncogSkiSno, Good report.
Chez Vrony (note spelling NehNeh ) is a superb place to eat, mind you Zermatt is renowned for its mountain restaurants Very Happy
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Alastair Pink, Thanks for that ! Embarassed We have just been looking at the photos and I spotted that one too rolling eyes
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IncogSkiSno, just got back at 5pm today. (forgot to PM you my mobile no) Sad

Loved the place, we are definitely going back there Wink
Quote:

The Apres

The après is lively and varied; we mainly did early après and ate later. Our favourite bars were:-

Grampis Look out for the vertically challenged keyboard player, he played his drum and keyboard with just about every part of his anatomy and in every position.

Papperla Pub Very popular, lively après bar with an excellent jazz/funk band

Brown Cow Lively bar, but unfortunately the air was thick with Camel-dung cigarette smoke!


Our hotel was 30 yards from Grampi's, and that keyboard player was fantastic, I've never heard anyone make that many mistakes. Dunno whether he was really good and acted the fool, or whether he was just bloody useless Wink He played "Waterloo" by Abba, and it was so unrecognisable, one of our party thought it was a U2 song Wink

Papperla was a great place, as was it's club downstairs. Brown Cow depressed me, altho the burgers were good. Did you try Pollux Tea bar, or the North Wall? Both fantastic places. My favourite place was the HennuStall on the Piste just outside the village on the way down from Furri, a fantastic apreski-hut, with live bands on at 5pm most nights.

Quote:

Mountain restaurants

We ate in the main at the self service restaurants as this is were we ended up with the school except for as a treat we had lunch at:-


We ate mostly in the self service places as well, which I thought were quite good, if you go back make sure you go to the Fluhalp Restaurant, on the Rothorn sector. We had a fantastic Rosti, sat in the sun watching the Irish band on the terrace, an unbelievable experience, as it was +6c!!!

Quote:

Getting around

This was the biggest downer of the holiday, my SO was not impressed with the transport system.
I would definitely go to Zermatt again as I really had a wonderful time; my SO isn’t as keen, but we would leave it for a few years before we visited again. There are plans for some new lifts which will make connection to the different areas far easier.

Be prepared for an expensive trip and lots of waiting/walking for various connections to the pistes, it is well worth the effort it IF you get good weather/snow conditions.


I know where you are coming from on this, and it was getting on my nerves at first. We then decided if we were gong the station, we would walk, if not we'd get a milk float down to the cable car Wink To be fair, the job they had done on the pistes was unbelievable for the amount of snow they have had. I only saw one bare patch all week (and that on the run into the village). It will improve when the new links go in, and we managed to do Rothorn, Sunnega, Gornergrat, and the last cable car to Glacier Paradise in one da, so they can't be that disjointed. Saying that, we were going bloody fast Shocked wink We also took an afternoon out to go tobogganing. The best laugh I've had in donkeys years, and fantastic value at 8chf to hire a sledge.

As I said, we are definitely going back, and can only begin to imagine what the place would be like with good snow
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You know it makes sense.
Charlatanefc, Hi there, we saw your Hotel as we were sat right opposite it. Yes, we did go to the North Wall Bar, but it was very quiet the night we went.

We walked to the Sunnega, but not the Kleine Matterhorn Express, which is were our ski school met most of the days. Did you get over to Cervinia?

So you're hooked on the place then Very Happy
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IncogSkiSno, certainly did get over to Cervinia, run 7.0 was absolutely fantastic, they'd had a couple of cms of fresh the night before over that side.

Absolutely hooked on the place, yes. If you never did the Glacier Paradise side, you NEED!!! to go back. There are a couple of red runs above Trockner Steg, which were long, wide and constant in their pitch. Ideal for getting your confidence up on, and practising going faster Twisted Evil The snow was also well better up there, with the extra altitude. The red from the top of the Klein Matterhorn was fantastic.

Oh well, going to St Anton in about 5 weeks, but I think we are looking at booking Zermatt for next xmas Wink
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Charlatanefc, We managed to ski most of the resort, see pics:

http://www.snowmediazone.com/the_zone/showphoto.php/photo/2248/limit/recent
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Does anyone know when/if the stockhorn or hochtalli areas are opening this season, i'm going next saturday and would miss the bumps!!!

Thanks,

T.
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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?
[quote="Charlatanefc if you go back make sure you go to the Fluhalp Restaurant, on the Rothorn sector. We had a fantastic Rosti, sat in the sun watching the Irish band on the terrace, an unbelievable experience, as it was +6c!!!

[[/quote]

If it was the same band as a couple of years ago they were fantastic ! Guitarist was ex 'Bad Manners' the ska band but much more accomplished than that might suggest. Keyboard player was good too and the singer had a great patter. They covered most stuff really well and did requests. I have never seen better on a ski holiday. It was very tempting to jack the skiing in for the afternoon and keep drinking.

As you say, the food and views in Flualp are superb.

We also went to see the band in town one night. If you are under 70, you felt pretty young. It was full of old ones jiving and letting their hair while your man gently took the p*ss out of them. But they did not care, because they were enjoying themselves and it all probably went over their heads anyway.
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Charlatanefc wrote:

Our hotel was 30 yards from Grampi's, and that keyboard player was fantastic, I've never heard anyone make that many mistakes. Dunno whether he was really good and acted the fool, or whether he was just bloody useless Wink He played "Waterloo" by Abba, and it was so unrecognisable, one of our party thought it was a U2 song Wink



I take it he learnt at the Les Dawson school of keyboard? wink
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Latchigo, sounds like them. They were a three piece, 2 of them brothers IIRC.

Alastair Pink, heh heh heh. poor old Les couldn't be that bad if he tried Wink

IncogSkiSno, nice one. I shall be putting our piccies up on my webspace (underneath) in due course
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Charlatanefc, I wonder if we'll have any from the same vantage points. Did you ever stop at the Olympian/The Sun Trap, on the red run down from Sunnega to the village?
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IncogSkiSno, No mate, we only came into the Village via the Red down from Schwarzsee that went via the Hennu Stall (as did we Wink ) Just checked my photo's, and I never took as many as I thought, our kid must have most of them on his camera.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Zermatt sets the standard for Rosti IMO...

Never found anything as good anywhere else.... and I've looked ...!!

And Engelberg for soup.....!!
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