Christmas Day! We woke up relatively early and headed back out to the Gornergrat Railway. This time we took the train to Riffelalp, one stop down from Riffelburg. Our objective for this day was the Winter Wonder trail (which also shares its first hour or so with the Discovery trail, splitting off in the stone pine forest). Right before the Riffelalp stop, we saw a herd of chamois on the side of the hill grazing. Chamois are goat-like animals that inhabit the mountainous regions of Europe. They are black/dark brown and white with prominent facial markings and small horns. They are all over the mountains around Zermatt and you can frequently spot them from the trains or gondolas if you are looking closely. Their markings help them blend in very well to the mountains even during the winter. They look exactly like a hillside with patches of exposed rock.
The Riffelalp stop itself is very small. To get to the trailhead, head up to the Riffelalp resort. The trail starts by paralleling the ski piste for a few meters up and above the resort and then turning left. The start of the trail is marked with a sign with a pink arrow with a snowshoe on it. Do not take the trail by the playground; this will lead you the opposite direction down the mountain. Once we started the trail, we didn’t see anyone else until we arrived in Findeln. If you want a quiet low traffic trail, this is the one for you. There are tons of animal tracks and signs of wildlife crisscrossing the trail. We even saw signs of what we think may have been lynx scat plus plenty of chamois droppings (one of their favorite foods).
Right above the resort building is a lovely view of the Matterhorn. As you make your way along the trail, be sure to look back every once in a while to take in the views. The trail first leads through a stone pine forest for a bit. The Discovery trail branches off in the forest near the crossing under the gondola; make sure you keep right if you want to stay on the Winter Wonder trail. It then winds its way along Grünsee and the Ze Seewjnu mountain lodge, then crosses branches of the Findelbach river and comes around the hill by the Moosjesee lake. If you return during the summer, the 5 Lakes hike also comes through this area. It was somewhere between Grindjisee and Moosjesee that we looked up the hill and spotted what appeared to be a lone chamois looking down at us. It blended in pretty well and we only spotted it because it twitched its tail. We stared at each other for about a minute and I snapped some photos when another one popped up from the cover under a tree. There was probably a whole herd up there but they must have all been bedded down. The only one standing was what we assume was the lead male of the herd keeping watch. After snapping a few more photos we headed onward to our lunch destination: Findeln. Right before getting to Findeln the trail skirts along a rock wall with a view of the Matterhorn in the distance and the forest to the left. This makes for an excellent photo opportunity if that’s your thing.
Findeln is a tiny hamlet above Zermatt that, for whatever reason, has become something of a gastronomic hot spot. There is a gourmetweg that you can hike from Zermatt that passes by several of Findeln’s restaurants. This is the trail we would eventually take down. If you don’t feel like snowshoeing or hiking to Findeln then you can take the funicular from Zermatt to Sunegga and take a 15 minute walk downhill to the restaurants.
The snowshoe hike ends at a ski piste. We made a left and joined the trail coming from the top of the hamlet down to the restaurants. The first three restaurants we came across were Chez Vrony, Enzian, and Findlerhof. All three have excellent reviews and are known for their mountain fare. We ended up at Findlerhof simply because they are the ones that answer the phone and we were able to reserve a table outside. Many skiers also opt to have lunch in Findeln; there are mats to make walking in ski boots easier and plenty of ski and snow boot storage. Findlerhof has excellent outdoor seating with views of the Matterhorn and heaters over the benches with blankets for guests to wrap up in. We started with local wine and ordered the braised lamb shank and kalbskotelette. The lamb was served with spaghetti agile olio. The veal was topped with pink peppercorn and came with eggplant ravioli and a saffron cream sauce (quite possibly one of the best sauces I’ve had in Switzerland) and grilled veggies. Both meals also came with a salad. They were both excellent meals with large portions.
Once we were done with lunch we continued down the trail that leads right past the restaurant back to Zermatt. If you are going to do winter hiking in Zermatt (and honestly in Switzerland in general) I highly recommend wearing good waterproof shoes, preferably winter hiking boots or snow boots. If the trails have any incline or decline at all I also recommend hiking poles and some sort of shoe spike or grip (these can be found at many outdoor stores. There is a Decathlon store in Zermatt if you visit and don’t already own them).
The hike down is all downhill and fairly easy. There was a lot of slush on the trail so we made sure to use hiking poles and shoe spikes. There were several other hikers heading both directions but it wasn’t super crowded (which tends to be the case as far as we’ve experienced with winter hikes; they aren’t as popular as the summer hikes). Once we got close to the bottom we veered off and visited a couple of lookout points and then walked back into town. We were still full from our lunch so decided to stay in for dinner of a nice meat and cheese plate, courtesy of the local grocery store.
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