We were mountain rescued! Part 1

The view from Zermatt

I don't think I was tempting fate with all my talk about insurance and mountain rescues. It might just have been inevitable. I hope someone in my family was smart enough to start a betting pool on when it would happen.


First things first - no one was hurt. There was no helicopter or evacuation involved. Our insurance didn't kick in. We just got a little lost and had to call for help.

It felt like a saga, but I could probably easily fit it into one post. I won't though for a couple of reasons. First, the girls were in charge of the cameras and went absolutely nuts taking pictures of the beautiful scenery around Zermatt, including the Matterhorn. The second reason - I have no desire to leave the house this week and need to have something to fill the blog. I have horrible callouses on my toes and can't quite walk straight due to sore knees and a pulled muscle. The whole thing was physically and mentally exhausting.

Zermatt and window boxes

Before we came to Switzerland we did a lot of research on where to go and what to do and decided we definitely wanted to spend a night in a mountain hut. It seemed like an exciting thing to do: spend the night in a rustic cabin up on a mountain with a beautiful view. It seemed like a nice thing to do: it would be so cozy, we would see sunset over the mountains, and our astronomy loving kids would see lots of stars because we would be away from light pollution. And it seemed like a practical thing to do: it would be an inexpensive place to stay in an area too far from Zurich for a day trip.

Another angle of the Matterhorn

We chose a hut near Zermatt which had a beautiful view of the Matterhorn and was listed as family friendly. It was described as being two and a half hours from the nearest lift. Since E and I would be carrying the little ones, we figured it would take us 4-5 hours. That seemed fairly conservative. On our hikes so far we have taken about double the estimated time walking. But that is with T walking and slowing us down. It stood to reason we'd only go just as fast or faster with him in a carrier. Five hours was okay. We have done that without trouble. E called the hut to ask if the hike really was that long and if we could do it with two kids walking and two on our backs. He called another time to confirm that the hike really would not be too strenuous. I went online to read reviews of the hut and route. The last 15 minutes of the hike were said to be fairly steep, but that it wasn't too bad, and certainly worth it.

So it was all set. I looked at several different maps to confirm our route and wrote out step by step directions with landmarks to supplement the usual hiking signs and markings. We had our phones, cold weather clothes, emergency gear, etc. And we went.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Hardly a cloud in the sky and warmer than expected. We arrived in Zermatt, and it was gorgeous. Cute houses all down the street with bakeries, toy shops, souvenir stores, etc. Mounds of red geraniums hung from every window box. And it all lead to a perfect view of the Matterhorn. Or, as S calls it, Toblerone mountain. We rode the gondola up to Schwarzsee. Because we had caught an earlier train than we planned, we took a quick break at the restaurant there to have a drink, soak in the view, and fill the little kids with some very good chicken nuggets, fries, and salad.

Then we started on our hike. It was very pretty, and it went fairly quickly, it was well marked, and we easily went from landmark to landmark. And then there were no more signs, and the landmarks were ambiguous, and the trail ranged from tricky, to questionably a trail at all, to suspiciously treacherous. Tune in tomorrow!

Easy going and entering the boulder field. It looked like Hobbit town! 

Very steep, but at least we know we're on the trail.

(E just read this and says, "A cliff hanger! Literally!" Also, he says that he spoke to his work colleague today who said it's very easy to get lost near Zermatt and it has happened to several people he knows.)