We arrived by train on Saturday Feb 23 around 5pm - later than planned due to a weather delay on the flight from FRA to ZRH. I waited at the station with our luggage while Dieter did a quick shop so we could stay home for dinner as we were both exhausted from jet-log, poor sleep and a long day's travel. We then caught an electric taxi to our apartment in the Winklematten area of Zermatt. The taxi cost 26CHF for a 10 minute ride - very exxy indeed. All the electric taxi drivers in Zermatt seem to be Italian and that makes sense as the operation must be run by the Mafia to charge such high prices - there is no alternative transportation except the ski bus.
We arrived at our apartment, a very nicely recently renovated one-bedroom with views of the mighty mountain, the Matterhorn. We had cheese and cold cuts for dinner and hit the sack.
Sunday - Feb 24
As planned we had a "rest day" (i.e. no skiing) to get organised - it was a very cold and snowy day so we weren't missing much. It was -12C in the village and -25C on the mountain tops. We went into town checking out the boutiques but did not buy anything - only a couple of close calls. Before doing our big grocery shop, we had lunch in town then did the grocery shopping, collected our ski gear from the train station and paid another 26CHF to take a taxi back to our apartment. We spent a quite remainder of the afternoon at home then had a nice dinner of pasta and salad.
Monday - Feb 25
We woke up early - still fighting off jet-lag, and had an excellent brekkie of fruit salad, yoghurt and cereal. We headed out at 9:15am with our ski gear and hiking boots and caught the ski-bus to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise gondola where we organised ski storage for our entire stay. The ski shop at the base of gondola station offers an excellent facility for storing all your gear in a heated room with nice benches etc. - all for 12 CHF per day (for 2). So for the rest of our stay we didn't need to carry our skis or walk in ski boots - we just walked in our hiking boots to the gondola station - less than 10 minutes and changed there - terrific.
We headed up the gondola which had been extended all the way to Trockner Steg - a great improvement from 5 years ago. It was a sunny but still a bit cold, around -5C in the village but still -24C at the Kleine Matterhorn (not that we had any intentions of heading up that high on the first day). We had a few great runs on packed powder - a sensational start even doing the Furgg to Furi a few times (a black run). We then skied down to Blatten and had an excellent lunch at one of Zermatt's iconic mountain restaurants. By the time we finished lunch we decided to call it a day and headed back to our apartment around 2:15pm.
We stayed home for a nice dinner of roast baby chicken and fresh white asparagus.
Tuesday - Feb 26
Another sunny day, -4C in the village and much colder on the peaks - but perfect for skiing. We set out at 9:30am and skied all over the place - down to Furi from Trockner Steg for a warmer upper then over to Riffelberg and Gifthittli then to Grunsee for lunch and up to Hohtalli for the long ski back to Furi via Riffelberg then finally home.
After a short break at home we headed into town for some shopping - a pair of black jeans for me and some groceries - we had five'es at Grimpi's then took the ski-bus back home for a dinner of cold cuts and cheese.
Wednesday - Feb 27
Sunny and getting warmer - we headed out early again (for us) up the gondola to Trockner Steg. We had lunch at Marmotte at Furi then headed home early as we were both a bit weary. We had dinner at Schaferstubli - excellent but the portions are far too large - best to share a main course.
Thursday - Feb 28
Another great day - we started early and tried to go over to Blauherd but the lift was closed for unknown reasons so we skied to Riffelalp and took the train to Gornergrat where we had lunch and skied down and up again. Then then is home to Furi and a download home. For dinner, we had sandwiches after the big meal of the previous evening.
Friday - March 1
Best day so far - sunny and getting even warmer. We set out really early (9:15am) and headed up to the Kleine Matterhorn and skied over to Italy, skiing all the way down to Valtournech - 2400 meter drop. We had lunch at a great mountain restaurant sitting in the sun - too bad the food and service did not match the venue. We headed back up to Plateau Rosa (the crossing back to Switzerland) via a network of chairlifts, a very slow poma and brand new aerodynamic gondola. Then we skied all the way to Zermatt arriving home totally buggered. We had an excellent rack of lamb for dinner.
Saturday - March 2
Yet another sunny day - best so far again so we again headed up to the Kleine Matterhorn and skied over to Italy - keeping on the Cervina side - on top the the snow was still excellent - Dieter did a few powder runs. We headed back to the Swiss side for lunch at one of the restaurants at Furi - it was now after 2pm so we just headed home after lunch. We went into town for fives'es and bit of grocery shopping then had left-overs for dinner - a salad entree followed by pasta for me and spec, eggs and potatoes for Dieter - we finished off with some yummy Moevenpick chocolate chip ice cream.