top of page
Search
Writer's pictureBree Rose

Winter in Zermatt (Visiting Iglu-Dorf)

Updated: Jun 19, 2023




The thing about the mountains is that no weather forecast ever gets it

right. We had three days planned in Zermatt, and once we checked the

weather on my phone while on the train ride from Tasch, we saw nothing

but little cloud and snow icons for the entirety of the trip. We

started to fear that we wouldn’t get to see the Matterhorn during our

stay.


It felt that way when we arrived Thursday evening; it was grey, cold,

and wet. We checked into our hotel (Hotel Pollux), took a hot shower,

and enjoyed dinner before calling it an early night.



Since the forecast called for another grey day, we decided to sleep in

and have a late breakfast (as in 30min before they stopped serving it,

late haha). However, we were surprised to see sunlight hitting the

tables through the window. Because of that, we ate quickly, went back

to our room, grabbed our cameras, and set out to explore. Even though

there were clouds, they moved fast, and little by little blue started

to take over the sky. Our first stop was a classic lookout of the town

with the Matterhorn in the background. When we arrived, we still

couldn’t see the peak, but we sat down on some steps and enjoyed the

good weather. Eventually, the mountain appeared and we were ready to

photograph it.




After shooting every angle we could think of, we went back to town and

had lunch at our hotel’s restaurant. I had the Raclette d’ Revision

(which meant I had endless repeats). I tapped out after three haha.

Yummy and perfect to battle the cold weather.



Given the change in fortune regarding the forecast, we decided to take

the train (the Gornergrat Railway) up to Rotenboden, the second to

last stop with a great view of the Matterhorn. Normally this is where

you would stop to see it with the Rifflesee lake at your feet, but

unfortunately it was frozen and hidden under snow. Regardless, it was

the perfect place to catch the sunset. There was no one else around,

it was eerily quiet, except for our steps crunching the snow, and we

just laughed as the colors hit the clouds, because this was totally

unexpected.



We stayed until we were frozen, and then took the train back to town.

After showering and enjoying dinner, we went back to our room and

started to look at the photos we had taken during the day before

falling asleep.



The next day we decided to wake up early and be ready in case there

were good conditions again. Lo and behold, it was a perfect day. We

took the train up to Gornergrat (the last stop) to have lunch with the

Matterhorn in the background. Because the day was so nice, we brought

our laptops up and worked at the cafe there until we were ready to go

down to Rotenboden to take some more photos at sunset.



The last day was a different kind of adventure! We checked out of our

hotel after breakfast, and set up shop at a coffeeshop for a few

hours. We were going to spend the night at Iglu-dorf, which is an Igloo

hotel, and check-in wasn’t until later. Around 4pm we took the train

up to Rotenboden and began the 15min hike down to Igludorf. The rest

of the group staying that night wasn’t going to arrive until 6pm, so

we took photos there while we waited. After being given a cup of hot

wine or cider, we dropped our backpacks in our room (the Seahorse

room) and then went to have dinner. We had an apero of cheese, nuts,

and bread accompanied by champagne, some soup, and for the main

course, fondue. Soon after we changed into our bathing suits and

enjoyed our solo time in the hot tub. It was amazing and incredibly

relaxing. It was -2C outside, but the hot tub kept us plenty warm.




We then changed into our pjs (aka thermal base layers), left our wet

clothes in the warm room, and then slipped into our sleeping bags,

watched a couple episodes on Netflix and went to sleep. Even though we

slept at such frigid temperatures, we slept quite well! We were woken

up in the morning with some hot tea and then as a group we hiked down

to the Riffelberg stop to have breakfast in the hotel.


That capped our Switzerland trip! After taking the train back down to

Zermatt, we then took the train to Tasch, packed up our car and drove

back to Zurich to catch a bus out of the country. All in all, it was

an amazing long-weekend filled with good weather, epic views, and

delicious food.





0 comments

Comments


bottom of page