Most of our local mountains are now either stone gray or green, as the snow has now retreated to the glacier regions. We head to the snowy mountains of Zermatt in the canton of Valais to replace freeride abstinence with trail exhilaration.
The village of Zermatt, with its 5,000 inhabitants, lies at an altitude of 1,620 meters and is surrounded by several majestic 4,000-metre peaks. The omnipresent sight of the Matterhorn overwhelms every visitor as soon as they arrive. The village is bustling with tourists from all over the world, including a conspicuous number of Asians. They try to capture every moment of their stay with their cameras. The image of Asians constantly taking photos will accompany us throughout our days in Zermatt and on the mountain.
The hustle and bustle at the train station also includes the many small electric cars that drive tourists through the town, bring the post, deliver goods to the supermarkets and transport building materials. You really can't say that Zermatt is an idyllic mountain village. Anyway, we are here for biking and have planned the Schwarzsee round tour, a tour of the Gornergrat and the Rothorn.
At the foot of the Matterhorn
The Schwarzsee circular tour leads from Zermatt via Furi through the Inneri forests past the reservoir in the direction of Schönbielhütte. After the path branches off to the left up to Stafelalp, it becomes increasingly steeper and the gravel becomes rougher. Now you follow some steep ramps up to the Schwarzsee Hotel at 2,583 m, which can be ridden or pushed, depending on your fitness level. Once you arrive at Schwarzsee, you have about 1,100 meters of altitude in your legs and can take in the Matterhorn and the Hörnligrat. Due to the strong wind, we soon start the descent. The descent runs mostly on the ski slope and has a very loose surface in several places, which greatly inhibits the flow fun. Unfortunately, a tempting single trail is marked with a no biking sign. In Furi, we therefore pedal up again briefly and choose a great trail in the direction of Zermatt. Luckily we still found it! Satisfied with our craving for a trail that is easy to ride, we let the day pass in review in a café in Zermatt with a view of the Matterhorn. As we didn't go to Zermatt just to eat up the vertical meters, we planned a pure downhill day on the Gornergrat for the next day.
A deep rush to Zermatt
During the comfortable ascent to the Gornergrat with the Gornergratbahn, the sun smiles from the sky and the anticipation of the descent increases with every minute. After about half an hour and 1,400 meters in altitude, we reach the 3089 m high mountain station. The temperature is noticeably cooler and the air is quite thin. In bright sunshine, we enjoy the magnificent panoramic view for a few minutes before plunging down to Zermatt. The trail is rideable almost all the way and becomes increasingly "flowy". The feeling of flow increases with every meter of descent. At an altitude of around 2,800 m, you can decide whether to descend directly to the Riffelsee or take the route over the Riffelberg. Both descents have enormous potential, with some exposed and tricky passages to master. From Riffelsee, a challenging trail leads down through a beautiful larch forest to Zermatt. The huge amount of adrenaline in our bodies has to be worked off afterwards with a regenerating drink in Zermatt. Will it be possible to beat this run? Possibly on the Rothorn? Let's find out the very next day.
The highest point by bike
After an extensive day of descending, it's time to pedal again. However, we don't want to climb the entire 1,700 meters in altitude under our own steam and use the Sunneggabahn for the first 600 meters, which later turns out to be a mistake. At the start, a trail leads through steep terrain past Lake Grindji to Tällinen. There we make a short flying visit to the Fluehütte to admire the Findel Glacier. The route is easy to ride up to Blauherd, but from there it gets really tough. You follow the ski slope to the Rothorn and have to climb about 600 meters in altitude on a steep tractor track. We pushed the bike almost all the way and only recommend this route to very fit bikers. On this section, you can clearly see the damage to the ground caused by skiing. Surprisingly, however, nowhere else could we see so many edelweiss plants in bloom as here at the edge of the ski slope. In retrospect, we are still convinced that an ascent from Zermatt to Blauherd is more interesting - after all, that's another 1,100 meters in altitude
that have to be overcome with muscle power - and to use the gondola for the remaining 600 meters in altitude from Blauherd to Rothorn.
After a short break on the Rothorn at 3103 m and the magnificent panorama, we set off on an epic singletrail descent to Zermatt. The first part through the Tufterchumme could go on forever. Due to a bike ban at Tufteren, you have to take a short detour onto a gravel road until you turn left again onto a fantastic singletrail through a larch forest to Winkelmatten. There is only one clearly recognizable key section to overcome on this trail. Once you arrive in Winkelmatten, you are abruptly torn from the downhill rush and don't want to believe that the 1400-metre descent is already over.
Our opinion on the Zermatt bike area
The mountain village of Zermatt boasts a unique mountain backdrop of 29 mountains over 4,000 meters high. The idyll is "disturbed" by the hustle and bustle of the many tourists and there is no question of it being "car-free", as there are lots of vehicles with electric motors on the roads. Unfortunately, there are currently only six mountain bike routes (as of August 2010) that can be used; all other trails are not officially permitted and the "Singletrailmap Zermatt/Saas-Fee" is not recognized, according to the Zermatt tourist office. Those responsible are trying to expand the mountain bike network, but this will still take some discussion and time, and it was really depressing to see how much the glaciers have receded. At exactly the same time as we were in Zermatt, a glaciologist started his attempt at artificial glacier growth on the lower Theodul Glacier (Trockener Steg). The news reported that the expected results had not materialized. The experiment is to continue. It will be interesting to see. To summarize, Zermatt has terrific potential for biking with guaranteed flow. The epic and never-ending single trails give you a real downhill rush.
