Day 5

14 miles

Marmotte sightings: 1

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Today we decided to start on a high by going up the Matterhorn Glacier cable car to the Trockener Steg at 2,939m.  It was amazing to think we’d run up this high on the other days as it seemed a long way up, and it was quite amusing being side by side with tourists and skiers, all in full thermals, while we stood out in our vests!

We had wanted to test out conditions for going over the Theodulpass into Italy for a circuit on the other side, but after some scrambling over beautiful red rocks (the area is known as Monte Rosa after all) and running a little on the glacier, we decided into wasn’t such a good idea as you really want to be doing it one way crossing the snow early while it’s still hard, as they do in the ultra trail race.

We returned to the relative safety of the Gandegghütte, perched at 3,029m on a cliff edge over another glacier.  We had a restorative omelette and speciality schoko-rhum to settle the nerves!

We skirted around several lakes to Schwarzsee.  The area is known as the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, but it was harsh moraine around 3,000m, with the Matterhorn looming above, so it certainly seemed awesome in the literal sense, but not a version of paradise we’d choose to live in.

Dropping down into the Gletschergarten area was a particularly brutal combination of steep and rocky path, but made worthwhile with a marmotte spot.  It was a little shy and didn’t want to come out from under its rock, but that certainly validated the authenticity of one of the marmottes on the lovely sculpture back in Zermatt – side by side comparison below!

Further down we found an impressive suspension bridge over the gorge.  We won’t pretend we weren’t gripping the rails tightly… it was quite nerve racking especially with the wind blowing up the valley, but we got used to it and Max attempted to look relaxed for a photo.

Our final descent on tired legs took us past the Gornerschlucht.  Rather accurately described on the map icon as a ‘natural curiosity’, we had to detour and take a look, and it turned out to be a walkway deep in the gorge.  It was impressive and definitely worth it, although our legs didn’t thank us as we had to climb dozens of steep steps to extricate ourselves.

We were then on the home straight and now followed the usual routine of tapping in on the golden marmotte, standing around groaning and gulping down fresh water in front of bemused tourists, before finding a celebratory ‘après-trail’ ice cream and drink.