Hiking in the rain in Zermatt | Tales from the Hutt

Sunday, 21-July-2024

After my morning hike in the rain, and a glorious bowl of fondue and a delicious cup of coffee, I was ready for a bit of a rest… which I took.

And then I went hiking again.

Earlier in the week, specifically when I hiked through Gorner Gorge, I noticed an interesting set of signs on a short portion of one of the trails I was on. Something about a “Zermatt fitness trail”… which seemed interesting, especially since Zermatt is particularly conducive to fitness – elevation, mountains, no cars, etc…

What sort of fitness trail would a village in the Swiss Alps have? I needed to find out.

What I found was basically exactly what one would expect a fitness trail to be, regardless of location and elevation – it was a lovely trail, through the mountains, with various workout stations scattered throughout. Jumping jacks, lunges, squats, pull-ups, and push-ups. Lots of -ups.

Today was, in the end, one of my rest days… regardless of how much hiking I was doing. As such, I went light on the fitness trail – just stopping for a single station to do some pull-ups, since those targetted antagonistic muscles to those I’d been using on my hiking poles… and muscles unlikely to be dramatically necessary to the hike I had planned for tomorrow.

It was lovely, it was rainy, and I felt good.

As should be!

Sunday, 21-July-2024

After a long and amazing hike the previous day, I decided to take Sunday as a rest day.

That fits pretty well, in my mind. Some kind of historic significance to that…

This is me, we’re talking about, though. In one of the most beautiful mountain towns in the world. I wasn’t about to sit on the couch eating bon-bons and watching TV… no matter whether or not they were available in large supply in the various chocolate shops around town.

Instead, I did a few hikes. Or… attempted to, I should say.

You see, it was rainy out, which adds a bit of challenge to the trail… and risk of injury from slipping… and limits the views available on said hikes. I still wanted to get onto the mountainside, but I made sure to do so safely and cautiously – which means that I went slowly, and did a nicely simple hike to start out.

My target was the Edelweiss Hut – a restaurant / lodge high up on the steep slopes to the West of town. It… well, frankly it was a bit too ambitious, in terms of elevation gain over distance, but still. It seemed like a fun idea, to hike and then have lunch and then hike down.

It wasn’t to be, though, as the trail that I was aiming for was one of the victims of the recent flash floods, and was closed down with quite a bit of caution tape barring my way. I could have gone around, of course, via a similar (but much longer) trail… but that would have been pushing a bit too far in terms of milage for my “rest” day.

On top of that, I was sticking to the rule of 3. Three things go wrong, you cancel the trip. End statement. Prior to the trail being out, I’d forgotten my hiking poles, and… something else went wrong too, that I frankly can’t quite recall at this time. Suffice to say, I simply took it in stride, and headed around a shorter loop… consoling myself by finding an absolutely LOVELY fondue restaurant when I made it back to town.

And, to be clear – I was rewarded for that discretion. The new trail I took was stunning, and granted me some amazing rainy views that I simply adore. I hope you do, as well: