Swiss Rest Area At Sion

So after my first descent from my aborted first ascent of the Mettelhorn, I noticed my pedometer had 22,000 steps (eventually it hit 24,000 that day). Vicki and I met up again and decided all our most reasonable goals for Zermatt had been met and that it was time to move on. In fact, it was a very pleasant day, beautiful weather, great views, a good but not exhausting workout on the trails. We are glad we did Zermatt one more time.

We drove back down to Visp, hit the main highway, drove on into the sunset, and then stopped for the night at the rest area just east of Sion. Not the most interesting rest area we have encountered, but one of them...

Sion is in Rhone country and is famous for two old hill-top
fortresses; the rest area was maybe 4-5 miles away

Thus, by day

The valley is very big-time vineyard country

Although what the Swiss do with all these grapes is a
mystery to me; it's a small country, and who drinks Dole
anyway?

So anyway, here is the aforementioned rest area, two concrete
modern buildings, both two stories high, trimmed in vines and
grapes; one building is the bathrooms, telephones, etc.; the
other is the picnic area, complete with grill, ponds with koi, nice
little paleolithic picnic tables; thus 

Bathroom building

Up on the second floor of the bathroom building

Bunches and bunches

Picnic area

Paleolithic picnic tables; as we drove on the next day, down
the road we noticed several more variations on this rest area
theme, none identical in structure but certainly in theme

Zermatt Hike

Our plan, after discussions at the TI, was to do some light hiking higher up and then for me to trudge up 2000 feet to a refuge and then ascend the Mettelhorn the next day. From the Mettelhorn one has a high panorama of the Mattertal's greatest peaks, three of the four highest in the Alps, Matterhorn, Taschhorn, and Monte Rosa, and dozens of major glaciers and high passes. The hike we selected took the funicular up a thousand meters or so and then visited five tarns before returning via the funicular. Looked reasonable according to the map, and the TI babe assured us it was a 2 hour trip.

The funicular; runs up and down inside the mountain and
is thus the world's longest indoor funicular

Us just off the funicular and ready to begin our hike

Mountain vistas...Monte Rosa?

Taschhorn?

Big glacier; 25 years ago I used to know all the mountains,
glaciers, passes, in this area; now just one...

Vicki by a big old tree

Flowers abloom all over

Detail

It looks like just a passing cloud, but Whymper would tell
you it's a storm, and if anyone is up there this late in the day,
they're fighting for their lives...

Return To Zermatt

We hadn't been to Zermatt in recent years, although we did visit the other, Italian, side, Breuil/Cervino, in 2010. Zermatt hasn't always been our favorite nor most successful mountain visit. In 1979, we shivered through a couple nights and days hoping to get a glimpse of the Matterhorn. The summit finally and briefly peaked through the clouds just as we were stepping into the station to leave. In 1989, I got within a couple hundred meters of the summit (the guide said) but then had to retreat in deteriorating awful weather. But our road to the Mont Blanc area lead right past Visp/Tasch/Zermatt, the weather was improving, and we decided just seeing the mountain again would be worth the time and effort. We found overnight parking in Tasch and took the train up to Zermatt early the next morning.

Indeed the great mountain was out, and we enjoyed a whole
day of glorious views from all over the Mattertal

Main drag Zermatt, early in the day

Camping Matterhorn, where we stayed in 1979, and probably
some other years too

It's a pretty place, as a playground of the super-rich should
be

In an older part of town, a garden adorned by lost ski and
hiking poles

"Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever..."

Still in old town; old structures

They keep a few of the old shacks around
for "heritage" reasons, I suppose, so present
residents and visitors can see how their
maids' and tour bus drivers' forbears lived

Outside the Monte Rosa Hotel, where the fateful meeting
took place, and from which the Matterhorn was finally
conquered

Virtually next door, the house of the Taugwalders, father
and son, the Swiss guides who along with Whymper
alone survived the first descent

Looking back to Zermatt from my attempted first (for me)
ascent of the Mettelhorn, abandoned at the first sign of rain
and after noticing my pedometer already had 18,000 steps
that day

Trummelbach Falls And Beyond

The weather turned wet. It can really rain in the Alps. All-day down-pours. All-night too. So what does the enterprising tourist do in such circumstances? Right! Go see waterfalls! And in Lauterbrunnen Valley, they even have indoor waterfalls, namely, Trummelbach Falls, a 10-cascade extravaganza that occurs inside the mountain.

Thus; it's a major tour bus stop, but we did it in '89 with the
girls, and, what the hey, it was really raining outside

First, you ride up a couple hundred feet in the indoor
funicular

That's to cascade #6; then you hike up to cascade #10, and
then work your way down

Fortunately, it's all illuminated on the inside

Thus

And thus

And thus

It's pretty cool, actually; and wet; anyhow, here, after the
Trummelbach experience, we had one of those really
singular experiences on trips such as ours: some folks from
Billings, Montana, were walking by, noticed our Montana
license plates, did a more-than-usual double-take, and then
talked with Vicki at length about what we were doing, what
they were doing, etc. Nice folks (I was still up the mountain);
above, looking from Trummelbach back down the
Lauterbrunnen Valley

Anyhow, the falls are inside that mountain

It had been raining heavily for hours, and, in a place like
Lauterbrunnen Valley, that means all sort of "new"
waterfalls show up where none had been the day before

And existing falls become real gushers

We proceeded on, up and over Grimsel Pass; here we are
parked at a lake at the top of the pass, watching these
insane fisherpersons; it is 42 degrees outside, wintry mix,
gale winds, and they are fishing; they finally left while we
were there and had a sizable basket full of fish

A bit of Grimsel Pass coming down, and Furka Pass going up
the other canyon; I think we did Furka a couple years ago

Hinterlauterbrunnental Flora

I am not a flower person. I can recognize only three alpine flowers: rhododendron, blue gentian (if it's blue), and edelweiss (which causes me to start humming tunes from The Sound of Music.) They're pretty much all in bloom now, mid-summer, even the rhodos in the higher elevations. They starred in our upper Lauterbrunnen hike, that is, until the myrtilles appeared. Here are a few...

OK, Fireweed makes four