My perfect (?) luggage record on 4 Euro ski trips is still intact. My main suitcase did not make the 2 hour connection at JFK. Given that track record, I was prepared this time with a full set of ski clothing and accessories crammed into a carry-on backpack boot bag. The bag arrived shortly before dinner Sunday.
The good news is that this trip clearly has the best snow conditions of my 4 Euro ski vacations. But what produces that snow is weather that can limit one's skiing at a high Alpine resort like this. So with day one weather predicted decent I hoped to cover more ground than the Dogs' planned schedule. Around 9:30 the group headed up the underground funicular railway to Sunnega, then the gondola to Blauherd. There was a fog patch on the warm up run back to Sunnega, Liz got ahead and did an extra lap. We got below the lift and eventually regrouped at Blauherd after riding the 2,000 vertical chair for Patrullarve. Though mostly overcast with occasional sunny breaks, there was no fog up high so we went up to Rothorn, the highest point of this sector at 10,177 feet. Rothorn has an 1,100 vertical chair on its NW side with 3 pistes. We were pleasantly surprised to find only occasional tracks in the powder between the pistes.
On one of the runs I tried the chute just looker's left of the lift.
My track is the highest emerging into the sun in foreground.
After runs here we skied off the back of Rothorn 3,000 vertical down the winding Piste #19 to Gant. View of this area from the other side of the valley later on.
There were a few opportunities here to cut switchbacks and ski some fresh snow too. From Gant we took the gondola back to Blauherd, arriving at 12:10. Most people skied down to Sunnega for a scheduled 12:30 cafeteria lunch, but Liz and I decided to take an extra run down to Patrullarve. Some powder in scattered trees was too tempting to resist so we diverted left from #16.
Eventually the trees became denser and we worked our way to Piste #8 and got to lunch about 1PM.
After lunch Liz and I were on our own, but I had an afternoon agenda based upon recommendations from Fraser Wilkins of http://www.weathertoski.co.uk/. First was the yellow (meaning ungroomed) ski route #10 down to Findeln.
This faces south and the moguls down the middle were sometimes scraped off, but there were open sections of powder to the sides, a bit heavier but not crusty. We took the chair to Breitboden and Piste #26 over to Gant. Now we rode the 3,450 vertical tram to Hohtalli, intending to ski Piste #28 recommended by Fraser. But riding the tram we could see a huge empty and moderately steep bowl under the lift just skier’s right. View in that direction up toward Stockhorn at 11,600 feet.
I told Liz I was going in there and she decided to follow. Here’s Liz approaching about 2/3 of the way down.
The entry up high was between the tram cable and the building in the picture The bowl was 2,500 vertical and we were the only people in there at 3PM , so plenty of room to make our own tracks.
When we got back to Gant Liz took the gondola up to Blauherd and skied back to Zermatt while I took another tram lap. This time I started down #28, but soon diverted into ski route #30, another expansive bowl not as steep as the previous run but still with some more powder. The gradual clearing progressed and the Matterhorn finally came into view.
I skied down to Findeln, rode up to Sunnega and this classic view.
There’s a long trail to the bottom with a nice overview of the town of Zermatt.
24,500 vertical, 7K of powder, definitely one my best Euro ski days. The Davos Parsenn day last season was similar but on much mellower terrain. The parts of Zermatt I saw this first day have expansive off piste terrain that can be scoped from lifts more readily than most of the places I’ve skied in the Alps. Verbier was most comparable in this respect, but my day there was shorter with only a couple inches of fresh snow.
