To hike or not to hike near the Matterhorn?

Having just returned from Zermatt I can tell you that hordes of people are there right now and your best bet for a happy day there is to take a long hike. So, having said that, look in Rick's book on Switzerland for his suggestions. My daughter and I loved the hiking around blauher and sunnega with a lovely stop for lunch at a mountain restaurant. Varied landscape including small lakes and valais chalets. This year's trip my husband and I rode up to Gornergrat- a better view of the Matterhorn but the hiking is not as interesting unless you just want to look mostly at the glaciers. Loved Hotel Daniella there. Nice three star hotel in a quiet part of town.

The trouble with the Klein matterhorn area is that it is so close to the Matterhorn that you either cannot see the mountain, or the shape is very distorted. The best views of the Matterhorn are from farther away. And for the classic view, reflected in a lovely lake, hike to the Stellisee from the top of the Sunnegga lift. We did this as a day hike, hiking to Stellisee and then beyond to the Fluhalp mountain restaurant for a wonderful lunch. There are various routes back if you want to go a differrent way on the return, including one to th etop of the rothorn (with a lift back down to the Sunnegga lift), or the 5-lakes train down to Grünsee and over to Riffelalp, where you can catch the Gornergrat train back down. I think the Zermatt website (zermatt.ch) may have descriptions of these hikes. Look under "summer activities". We spent 3 days hiking at Aermatt and would love to return for more.

Thanks Judy. I've been doing some more research today and I am leaning towards taking the lift that goes to the top of the Klein Matterhorn but get off at a stop or two and do some hiking that way. I just don't know what's the best and it's my own fault for having such a short stay.

Lola, Thank so much for the feedback. About how long do you think it took you get to Stellisee from the top of the Sunnegga lift? Just an estimate would work... Do you think I'd have enough time to do that hike and then get back down to make my way to the Klein Matterhorn lift? I'd be starting early a.m. of course.

Hi Jennifer-it would have to be a rough estimate as I don't recall exactly. Maybe an hour? We are not exactly early risers, but we are pretty fast walkers/hikers. We walked to the Sunnegga lift from our apartment in Winkelmatten (far end of Zermatt, nearer Klein Matterhorn lift), then rode up the funicular and walked to Stellisee and then to Flualp for lunch, arriving there around 1:00. If you want to shorten the walk you can ride another lift (this one a gondola) from the top of Sunnegga to Blauherd and walk to Stellissee from there-it is probably downhill but I'm not sure as we did not go that way. According to the zermatt.ch website, that walk only takes 20 minutes: http://www.zermatt.ch/en/page.cfm/experience/excursions/lakes This shows other lakes that offer good reflections of the Matterhorn, but I think Stellisee is the "classic". The Sunnegga funicular goes underground and is very noisy and a bit unnerving if you have claustrophobia, in case that makes a difference.

If you are a hiker then YES! great area with lots to do. If you need some help there is a great complany for guided or just self-guided hiking tour in the area... check it out www.alpinehikers.com or get my favorite guide book from UK - the Cicerone guides for the area (amazon). RS lists some too if you want to do the hike back from the little matterhorn area, or from gornergrat.