This morning Kevin, Mike and I ventured out to see the Glacier Paradise at the peak of Klien Matterhorn. It again was a very cold and crisp morning about -16 C in Zermatt so it was going to be much colder the higher up we got. We passed this little spicket that seemed to constantly be running and this huge chunk of ice was forming below it.
We walked about 1 1/2 miles along the river to get to the base of the mountain. We saw some amazing views throughout town, but then we saw the device that we really needed yesterday on our sledding run. This groovy little black sled let you steer with a little separate ski in the front. What we found out later was that you can't rent something like that here, you have to buy one or bring your own.
The first leg of our trip up was up through these little gondolas. We weren't sure exactly where to get off so we jumped off and on a few times, getting a progressively colder gondola each time. At one point on the journey the cars stopped and we swung back and forth for a while. Then the conversation between Kevin and his dad focussed on the thickness of the cables and wondering how they engineered the devices that keep the gondolas on the cables. They are so funny and so much alike.
Once we were done with the little gondolas, we hopped on one really big cable car that was said to be able to hold 120+ people and they packed us in pretty tight. We rode almost straight up the side of the mountain to this big hole on the side of the mountain.
This big hole we saw was actually the opening to a huge tunnel drilled through the top of the mountain. We walked through the long tunnel and as we stepped out on the other side we were again in amazement.
The mountains seemed to go on forever. At this point we were almost on the Swiss and Italy borders because one of the ski runs starting here would bring you down to an Italian site. I felt on top of the world.
We headed down on a lift to the Glacier Paradice which is a huge "moving" glacier on the side of the Klien Matterhorn mountain. They have carved a tunnel out of the ice which leads you to some ice carving displays and some natural ice crystals highlighted with some pretty lights. It was weird to think we were in a giant ice cube that was moving down the side of a mountain.
After the glacier we walked up a couple flights of stairs to another observation point that brought us to 3883 meters above sea level - 14,000+ feet. What I thought was cool, even more than the absolutely spellbounding views of the mountains again was that there was a large cross with a statue of Jesus on it. Pretty cool that our faith can been seen at the tops of the mountains!!! We all posed for pictures in front of the back side of the Matterhorn. It looks a lot different from up here.
The three of us grabbed some lunch back down on where the large cable car dropped us off. We had some big sausages along with French fries and Kevin got a traditional potato dish that looked and tasted a lot like hashbrowns. Of course the boys had to have a few beers as well.
Just outside on the balcony of the restaurant we saw a view of Zermatt. It is the tiny little down you can barely see down in the valley just above peak of the shadow. It's funny to think how we look up from our chalet up to this point each day and now we were looking down.
The ride back down in the cable cars got quite annoying because we seemed to stop every 30 seconds and sat rocking for a good 2-3 minutes then started all over again for about a half hour. But it was fun to come all the way down to go back up the side of the mountain and go back down. Every time we came into a station stop it felt like the car was coming in at such a speed that you could take out the car in front of you but luckily each time you slowed down just feet before collision. I also liked how all the skiers would put their skis in little slots outside each of the gondolas so they can ride on the outside.
One time while stopped we saw the crazy little machines that smooth out the ski slopes. I had been wondering what kind of contraption could handle some of those steep slopes. At night you could actually see the lights from these "little" guys working all over the mountain sides getting things ready for the next day's skiiers.
Also eventhough their seemed to be a lot of snow on the mountain they must continually need to make snow in certain spots. I had never seen snow makers and thought these were pretty interesting as they looked like they were producing a mist of snow. I guess I imagined big snow blasters that canon-out loads of snow.
Everyday the Matterhorn had a different display of light, shadows, and clouds, and today was spectacular with wispy clouds streaking behind it.
Another amazing sight to see was the set of steps we had to walk up to our chalet. We did have a private little lift available but you could actually walk up it faster with stopping for a few breaks than riding the lift.
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