Retreat,Switzerland

Next day the cloud was below the hut, and a fierce wind was blowing over the frontier ridge.

Running out of money we had to retreat...

In the cloud on a bearing, across the glacier, hunting for the rocky outcrop, and eventually the mid station.

Soaking and fed up we caught the cable car down, and back to the camp site.

Effectively this was the end of our trip as the weather was going to defeat us.

We went back home the long way around ...  up the Rhone valley, over the Furka pass, to Andermatt (was not very impressed with this grey town), then the Sustenpass to Interlaken and home.

A "successful" trip in that we learned so much, and only had minor issues which we overcame.

This was the start of many alpine adventures to come.

Theodulpas hutte, Switzerland

 The next day was cloudy with a chance of good weather for the next day. We decided to go up to the Theodulpopass hut, and then take in the Breithorn tomorrow if it was a good day.

We could have taken the cable car all the way up to the Kleiner Matterhorn and walked around, but after the previous week we were scared of soft snow. and also this way saved money, as we would get off at the mid station and walk up. I also took up a huge tin of ravioli up in my bag with a view to use it as dinner.

Getting out at the station was quiet weird as most people were going to the top, here it was almost deserted, and just maintenance people repairing the ski machinery.

Outside the station we headed up the rocky promentary leading upwards, trying to stay on rock rather than snow, until the rock ran out. From there we cut across the glacier to the frontier ridge, following the summer skiing runs.

The hut was a large rectangular building on the ridge, mainly used by skiers. there was plenty of room and as an Italian hut we got a room of our own with 3 tier bunks in it, unlike the Swiss ones which had large dormitories. The other thing we learnt about Italian huts, when we asked they if they would cook the ravioli they pointed to a tin tray in the boot lobby, and said we could cook it there ... Italian huts do not cook for their guests .. but they allow stoves ....  we had not brought a stove!!... cold ravioli for dinner.

Early to bed, but the weather was cloudy.

Rain Day, Switzerland

We woke up to rain ...  constant drizzle, not enough to be a concern, but stops us going up high anywhere.

However it gave us a good opportunity to take a ride into Zermatt and have a look around.

the train ride was on the special service that links up from Brig, in two carriage sets. 10 minutes later we were arriving at the Zermatt train station...  my first impressions were not of a mountain centre but a tourist haven. The streets were filled with people milling around gazing into shop windows, being chased by electric buggies (every hotel seemed to have a fleet for ferrying guests), and the occasional horse drawn cart for sight seeing.

We found the dispersed cable cars and trains stations which disappeared up to various mountain stops.

everything was so expensive we could only afford a coffee before we ran away back to our tents, and the bar at the camp-site reception.

Zermatt, Switzerland

The drive around to Zermatt looked relatively simple ..  back down to the Rhone valley, up to Brig and then up to Zermatt.

the reality was that the roads were all narrower and therefore slower. As we approached the end of the valley, we arrived at Tasch..  the road ended here .. we had heard that Zermatt was electric vehicles only, but did not realise that it would start so far down the valley.

Looking around there was very little at Tasch .. on small grocery shop - closed for the afternoon, and an enormous car park in a series of fields.

Luckily we had spotted a camp-site on the way in - in the village before - this would become our base, and we would return several times over the years to come.