Imagine it’s a Friday evening, and after a long week at work or school, you grab your weekend bag and pass by the local supermarket to grab some essentials: bread, fondue mix, and Chasselas (Swiss white wine). While you board the train and open your book to read, the cabin fills with people speaking French, German and Italian. As the sun sets and you switch trains onto a specially made train car with skylights, you wonder what this will all look like in the morning. Once you arrive in Zermatt, the small streets are filled with weekenders such as yourself strolling to their chalets and tiny electric cars (which resemble gondolas with wheels) zooming past you with skis and bags on the roof. Finally, after a 2.5 hour commute you get to your chalet, and all you see out your window are the quaint lights shining from within each house. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you notice little chalets speckled on the mountain top lit ever so slightly, adding to the enchantment of the moon-lit town. Your gaze continues upward, and you see - what else? A shadow, or maybe it’s your imagination, of the Matterhorn in the distance. You'll have to wait for the morning to see....
Mountains envelop the Matter valley, blanketed with chalets. The snow captures all the subtleties of morning light and there it is, the jagged, impressive, massive Matterhorn dominating your view and grabbing not only your attention, but making its presence known throughout the skyline. At ~4,500 meters (or ~15,000 feet), you realize the skiers are carving down a mountainside 3x higher than Lake Louise, Canada. Now the town is bustling with people lined up at bäckereis (bakeries – Swiss German being the dominant language), skiers hiking up the streets, and people walking along the streets wondering if they are daydreaming.
Once you have pinched yourself and realize that no, this is not a dream, you start to marvel at the remarkable infrastructure and the almost intimidating feats of engineering. Standing gondolas, trains that climb up the mountain to the base of the ski hill, and observatories that sit on the border of Italy and Switzerland that overlook the mountain peaks floating above the clouds, just to name a few. On one side of the valley, you have the Swiss Alps and the Matterhorn, while Italy sits on the other side. You feel small, yet on top of the world. Ski hills wave across the mountain top and you find yourself imagining where the best summer hiking spots are. A glacier near the summit gives cross-country skiers the opportunity to get away from it all, although you wonder how your lungs could manage the cardio at this altitude.
The après-ski culture seeps into the town, and terraces fill with weekenders having wine in plastic glasses. The quaintness surrounding Zermatt is upheld with casual travelers just wanting a weekend away, and not being distracted by the party scene. The aroma of firepits and cheese fill the air, and you see jacuzzis and saunas for those who want to calm their muscles after their snowy adventures. Church bells ring at night, and the town is filled with people in search of fondue, raclette, or the type of comfort food that warms the body as much as the soul. As you walk home from dinner, the streets are icy, but the alluring views of the chalets along the mountainside engross your attention. As you wake up the next morning knowing you have to catch the train back, you ask yourself "next time I come, what would I want to do differently?”. At the end of the day, it isn’t about the activities or the view (well maybe it’s a little bit about the view…), it’s about the memories that you'll share with the people you came to this amazing place with.
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