JULY 24, 2009
Friday
Friday we thought it would be cool to see the Matterhorn. We drove up a long canyon to Zermatt, only to find that the cost for the ticket on up the hill from Zermatt was prohibitive ($80.00 per person). Don hit up the ticket guy for a retired tram operator discount, but no dice. The weather was cloudy and visibility wasn’t that good anyway, so we returned home. (see more of Don's photos)
The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon, so we decided to drive up some of the Alpine canyons to see if there was any chance of a peek at the Matterhorn that way.
The morning w
as sunny and nice, with a strange, snakey cloud hanging in the valley over Sion. We drove out on the twisting country roads, up and down over the mountainsides until we got to Val d’Herens. We traveled up the long canyon, admiring the dramatic, sharply pointed cliffs on either side—Dent de Perroc and Pigne d’Arolle—3800 and 3900 meters high, snow-capped and rugged. When we arrived at the end of the road in the village of Arolla, we realized that we could not see the Matterhorn, even at it’s majestic height of 4478 meters, because the mountain ridge between was just too high.
So, being the intrepid optimists that we are, we decided to go up the next canyon over, to Ferpecle. That road was even more narrow and rough than the road to Arolla, and often we would meet cars coming down on the one-lane road. Somehow one of us always found a little wide spot to scoot over and let the other go by.
As we drove along the road to Ferpecle we went past a lesser mountain called Sex Pey, through several quaint villages with slate-roofed houses, and then we saw the spectacular peak called Dent Blanche. This mountain is 4500 meters high, and the Matterhorn is hiding behind it. No joy on seeing the Matterhorn today, but the drive was great.
Throughout these remote valleys we saw little villages, sometimes just two or three houses, waaaaaaaay up on the side of the peak. How the heck do they ever get there, and do they ever come down? No roads to be seen up there, so it must be a challenge.
Along the way we picked out a nice bench, overlooking a village, green pastures and craggy mountain ridges, and had our lunch in the sun and Alpine air. Can it get any better? I don’t think so.
11 miles away, 420mm telephoto zoom, FZ50 Lumix
MATTERHORN SUCCESS!!!
July 25, 2009
The following day we decided to try another canyon in search of the Matterhorn. This time we drove up to a little town called Zinal. Again the mountainsides are pocked with improbable Swiss villages, teetering high up the Alpine peaks.
The road to Zinal is an engineering masterpiece, with roadway wedged into rock crevices, tunnels under mountains and bridges spanning 400-foot gorges. Don and I marveled at the intrepid Swiss who made their way up this valley in the 18th century, before roads and tunnels were in place. How the heck did they get so far up the valley when the access is only a steep gorge spewing a roiling gout of snowmelt and steep cliffs dropping several hundred feet down rocky crags? What prompted anyone to explore his way up this treacherous route, and once they got there, did they ever come back out alive?
Zinal is a charming village in a green grassy meadow. The Swiss style buildings keep the atmosphere quaint. There were hundreds of people in the town to go hiking, mountain biking and parasailing, but it still felt like a little town and not Verbier, thank goodness.
In Zinal we found a tram, which services the nice ski area. They run in the summer too, to take hikers and mountain bikers up the mountainside. The price was moderate, compared to Zermatt, and after ascertaining that we could, indeed, see the Matterhorn from the top, we took the tram up the mountainside.
At the end of the tram ride we found a mid-mountain café and we walked around trying to find a spot to see the Matterhorn. It seemed like that search for the end of the rainbow, we just needed to get a little farther out on the cliff and we would see it. Just past that ledge, we could see the elusive edge of the Matterhorn, razoring up toward it’s majestic apex. We eventually walked out on a ledge and then there was a capricious cloud that was nestled in a cliff. It kept drifting in and out over the Matterhorn view. Every time it would move out and Don got set up to take the picture, out snuck that naughty little cloud, covering up parts of the mountain, so we couldn’t see. We finally just waited it out. After awhile it decided we were not paying attention, so it drifted back in between two peaks, and snap! Don got the photo before that rascally cloud could muster its wafts and sniggle back out to block the view again.
As we sat in the meadow, waiting out the cloud, I enjoyed the charming Alpine wildflowers. There was a cute spikey orange one, and a strange fuzzy mauve flower, darling blue bell-shaped flowers and teensy white ones in a mass, lots of yellow buttercups, and a magenta colored blossom, all curled around itself.
After awhile we took the tram back down and sat on a bench watching the parasailers drift over the valley while we ate our lunch. (see more of Don's photos)
Friday we thought it would be cool to see the Matterhorn. We drove up a long canyon to Zermatt, only to find that the cost for the ticket on up the hill from Zermatt was prohibitive ($80.00 per person). Don hit up the ticket guy for a retired tram operator discount, but no dice. The weather was cloudy and visibility wasn’t that good anyway, so we returned home. (see more of Don's photos)
The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon, so we decided to drive up some of the Alpine canyons to see if there was any chance of a peek at the Matterhorn that way.
The morning w
as sunny and nice, with a strange, snakey cloud hanging in the valley over Sion. We drove out on the twisting country roads, up and down over the mountainsides until we got to Val d’Herens. We traveled up the long canyon, admiring the dramatic, sharply pointed cliffs on either side—Dent de Perroc and Pigne d’Arolle—3800 and 3900 meters high, snow-capped and rugged. When we arrived at the end of the road in the village of Arolla, we realized that we could not see the Matterhorn, even at it’s majestic height of 4478 meters, because the mountain ridge between was just too high.So, being the intrepid optimists that we are, we decided to go up the next canyon over, to Ferpecle. That road was even more narrow and rough than the road to Arolla, and often we would meet cars coming down on the one-lane road. Somehow one of us always found a little wide spot to scoot over and let the other go by.
As we drove along the road to Ferpecle we went past a lesser mountain called Sex Pey, through several quaint villages with slate-roofed houses, and then we saw the spectacular peak called Dent Blanche. This mountain is 4500 meters high, and the Matterhorn is hiding behind it. No joy on seeing the Matterhorn today, but the drive was great.
Throughout these remote valleys we saw little villages, sometimes just two or three houses, waaaaaaaay up on the side of the peak. How the heck do they ever get there, and do they ever come down? No roads to be seen up there, so it must be a challenge.
Along the way we picked out a nice bench, overlooking a village, green pastures and craggy mountain ridges, and had our lunch in the sun and Alpine air. Can it get any better? I don’t think so.
11 miles away, 420mm telephoto zoom, FZ50 LumixJuly 25, 2009
The following day we decided to try another canyon in search of the Matterhorn. This time we drove up to a little town called Zinal. Again the mountainsides are pocked with improbable Swiss villages, teetering high up the Alpine peaks.
The road to Zinal is an engineering masterpiece, with roadway wedged into rock crevices, tunnels under mountains and bridges spanning 400-foot gorges. Don and I marveled at the intrepid Swiss who made their way up this valley in the 18th century, before roads and tunnels were in place. How the heck did they get so far up the valley when the access is only a steep gorge spewing a roiling gout of snowmelt and steep cliffs dropping several hundred feet down rocky crags? What prompted anyone to explore his way up this treacherous route, and once they got there, did they ever come back out alive?
Zinal is a charming village in a green grassy meadow. The Swiss style buildings keep the atmosphere quaint. There were hundreds of people in the town to go hiking, mountain biking and parasailing, but it still felt like a little town and not Verbier, thank goodness.
In Zinal we found a tram, which services the nice ski area. They run in the summer too, to take hikers and mountain bikers up the mountainside. The price was moderate, compared to Zermatt, and after ascertaining that we could, indeed, see the Matterhorn from the top, we took the tram up the mountainside.
At the end of the tram ride we found a mid-mountain café and we walked around trying to find a spot to see the Matterhorn. It seemed like that search for the end of the rainbow, we just needed to get a little farther out on the cliff and we would see it. Just past that ledge, we could see the elusive edge of the Matterhorn, razoring up toward it’s majestic apex. We eventually walked out on a ledge and then there was a capricious cloud that was nestled in a cliff. It kept drifting in and out over the Matterhorn view. Every time it would move out and Don got set up to take the picture, out snuck that naughty little cloud, covering up parts of the mountain, so we couldn’t see. We finally just waited it out. After awhile it decided we were not paying attention, so it drifted back in between two peaks, and snap! Don got the photo before that rascally cloud could muster its wafts and sniggle back out to block the view again.
As we sat in the meadow, waiting out the cloud, I enjoyed the charming Alpine wildflowers. There was a cute spikey orange one, and a strange fuzzy mauve flower, darling blue bell-shaped flowers and teensy white ones in a mass, lots of yellow buttercups, and a magenta colored blossom, all curled around itself.
After awhile we took the tram back down and sat on a bench watching the parasailers drift over the valley while we ate our lunch. (see more of Don's photos)
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