A rest day, exploring the neighbourhood and then we were off to the Italian border.
To save money we only rode the Kleiner Matterhorn lift to the middle stage and walked up the moraine and glacier from there, a few people had walked down here, but it did seem like a long time since anyone had gone up. The Matterhorn dominates all this area standing in its magnificence, and one reflects on the undeniable draw that has called people to climb it for years. The summer skiers were all surprised to see anyone walking and it was with wry smiles when this caused them to wobble unstably. These were the days when we did not understand how useful skis could be in the mountains when there is snow around.
Our target for the day was the Theodulpass hut, this sits on the Swiss/ Italian border, at the top of the two ski areas. Apart from a few skiers the place was almost deserted as we would find out the next day, no one stays at altitude here, they just pay the lift toll.
We were the only ones getting up before dawn, and hot water was lukewarm of the "prepared the night before and placed in thermos" variety, .
 |
| Breithorn with the Kleiner Matterhorn to the right |
To save money we only rode the Kleiner Matterhorn lift to the middle stage and walked up the moraine and glacier from there, a few people had walked down here, but it did seem like a long time since anyone had gone up. The Matterhorn dominates all this area standing in its magnificence, and one reflects on the undeniable draw that has called people to climb it for years. The summer skiers were all surprised to see anyone walking and it was with wry smiles when this caused them to wobble unstably. These were the days when we did not understand how useful skis could be in the mountains when there is snow around. |
| Matterhorn at sunset ... View makes the stay worthwhile |
Our target for the day was the Theodulpass hut, this sits on the Swiss/ Italian border, at the top of the two ski areas. Apart from a few skiers the place was almost deserted as we would find out the next day, no one stays at altitude here, they just pay the lift toll.We were the only ones getting up before dawn, and hot water was lukewarm of the "prepared the night before and placed in thermos" variety, .