Any normal person would have headed home after 4 consecutive days of 6+ hours of skiing black diamond powder at 3,330 meters followed by six hours of raving in a blizzard.
But I am not a normal person. Unlike most people, I don’t procrastinate on fulfilling lifelong dreams. I follow through on the plans and head to Zurich, where my sore body will keep up.
After a day of reset in Geneva with the Tomorrowland Winter group and saying our goodbyes from the elevators, I slept in until 10am to find everyone had already driven off to the airport. I made some coffee, meditated on the Airbnb’s 9th floor balcony, and took the public tram outside to the train station, where I bought my ticket and waited for the 11:14am departure from Platform 5 to Visp.
Because it’s Zermatt and I’d like to ride in style, I took first class. Totally empty.
I ate what I’d picked up at the Coop supermarket in the station, did some work at the window-facing workstation, and spent two and a half hours watching Switzerland scroll past.
At Visp I had plenty of time before the connecting Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, the train that runs the last leg into Zermatt, departed fourteen minutes later.
This was also in first class, which had wider seats and more privacy.
It took another hour and 15 minutes to reach Zermatt from Visp.
Approximately 3 and a half hours after leaving Geneva, I arrived in Zermatt at 3pm.
Like Venice, Zermatt is entirely “pedestrian” past the train station, which means no cars. If you need to get around in faster vehicles, there are small electric golf cart-style minibuses that are either hired as taxis, caught as a free bus running every ten minutes, or sent by your hotel if it’s fancy enough.
The crown jewel is the sight of Matternhorn itself around Zermatt, as if the entire town was built around its views.
For the first time I used the American Express $600 premium hotel credit that comes with the Platinum card every year, and put it toward the Schweizerhof, which is steps from the train station and equally close to the Gornergrat tram that takes you up toward the best views of the Matterhorn.
While I waited on a free room upgrade, Amanda arrived 30 minutes behind me. Amanda is one of our newer but consistent monsooner who started coming on my Tomorrowland trips and has since migrated to our ski trips too. We’d made the promise to come to Zermatt together as far back as when we first formally met 2 years ago, then renewed our vows again during our first ski trip of the season in Killington last December. On that same trip, Deb, another first-timer monsooner who I’d met through my partner’s friends at a game night, had floated the idea of joining us. Well, 4 months later, Deb had gotten in the night before and was already at the Schweizerhof.
All 3 of us had also used the Amex hotel pipeline to book here, where Amanda ended up with a better room than mine. Yet, at this level of luxury, I couldn’t care to be spoiled enough to complain.
I dropped my bags, booked a massage at the hotel spa on the basement level from our rooms, picked up ski rentals from the office right next to the spa, stored everything in the hotel locker room across the hall from the rentals office, and grabbed my lift pass from reception, all without ever leaving the building. What thoughtful convenience.
We then caught up with Deb in Amanda’s room for an hour before I headed down early for the massage and my second in two days (both necessary!) and joined Deb and Amanda afterward in the sauna and baths. Fully relaxed, we went up to our rooms to change for our 7:45pm dinner at Alpine Gourmet Prato Borni, Michelin-starred and one of the top restaurants in town.
The restaurant is located in the Zermatterhof hotel about a 6 minutes walk from the station.
They took our coat and guided us into a ballroom-style dining room:
We began with a flight of champagne, rosé, and red wine on a bottles cart, and they offered us to have much as we wanted.
Then we began with an Amuse Bouche which included 22 year old aged cheese over beef tartare:
Then in order with bread:
Valaisan Perch and Oona caviar from Frutigen
Valaisan Verjus / Shoju / Blood Orange
Jerusalem Artichoke
Hay / chestnuts / Truffle Tart
Mousseline cream soup of Aemme Shrimps
Krupuk / Lemon Verbena
Scottish hand-dived scallop and Luma pork belly & Miéral Pigeon
Beetroot / Double Cream from Gruyère PDO
Trio of Swiss Wagyu Beef
Mountain Potatoes from the Albula Valley / Stachys / Tardivo / Winter Truffle
Rhubarb palette cleanser
Zermatterhof Cheese Trolley
Choice of raw-milk Cheese from Switzerland and the neighboring Countries
(we had a little bit of ALL OF THEM):
Pear
Walnut / Valaisan Cornalin / Zermatter Honey
Dark Felchlin chocolate
Rosehip / Spruce
Petit fours:
After 4 hours of dining, we wobbled back with bliss back to our hotel:
The next morning we woke up to a comfy, cozy breakfast spread at the Schweizerhof downstairs:
Then my friend Caty Zhao arrived from Zurich; mind you: Zurich is four hours away by train.
Caty and I first met 16 years ago when she walked up to me, a random stranger, on a street in Sevilla and asked for directions. I didn’t let her go after that. A year later, after a week in Iran with 9 other monsooners, we pulled an all-nighter from Geneva to Bern by train, arriving at midnight, hanging out with Caty until 4am, then back on the train. She then visited me in New York with her boyfriend a few years after that. And now, 4 hours each way for one day in Zermatt. I guess it comes full circle since I did that for her back in in 2011.
How many of you have acquaintances turned friends around the world who would take a train for 4 hours to hang out with you for just a day? Caty makes me feel so blessed.
Amanda and Deb went to get their rentals while Caty and I caught up. Then Caty and Deb got acquainted while Amanda and I grabbed our gear from upstairs. Deb opted for easier slopes on her own while Amanda, Caty, and I hiked 6 minutes through a snowstorm to the Sunnegga lift for a few runs before our lunch reservation at Adler Hitta, slope trail #6, arranged by the hotel.
Skiing along the Matterhorn is exactly as breathtaking as it sounds.
We made it to the restaurant just in time for lunch.
We spent an hour and a half eating and overlooking Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Then we skied back into town where Amanda got pulled into a last-minute work mediation; she’s a lawyer, had filed her PTO weeks in advance, and here we were. Caty and I then headed back up and skied the rest of the afternoon.
Caty and I first took the Gornergrat train up, realized I’d left my poles back at the end of the Sunnegga trails, skied down from Riffelberg without poles (the rest of the Gornergrat was closed due to high winds), took the free town bus to Sunnegga, retrieved my poles, and lapped Sunnegga over and over until Caty was done and the lifts closed.
Back in town, Caty returned her rentals and freshened up in my room. Afterwards, we tried for dinner at the Cheese Factory which was known for classic Swiss fondue, right within the Schweizerhof complex.
Deb said the earliest she could get was an 8:30pm reservation but Caty needed to catch the 8pm train home. So Caty and I went downstairs in person to ask for 7pm. We were pretty charming because voila: They got it for us! I then messaged the group and within 10 minutes we were dipping bread in wild herb, black truffle, and champagne fondue.
By 7:45pm Caty had to begin her long journey home.
I still can’t believe it; it’s like if a friend comes to visit the USA and is only going to be in Boston and asks if I could come visit them from NYC for the day.
I walked back to finish the fondue with Deb and Amanda, we had a few glasses of wine in Amanda’s room, and said goodbye to Deb who had an early flight from ZRH airport.
Amanda and I woke up the next morning to news that high winds had taken out 2/3 of the lifts. After 5 ski trips this season — Killington, Park City, Lapland, Tomorrowland Winter, and now this — we took the weather’s hint and took it easy. We then finished breakfast, Amanada went to the gym, we walked around town, had lunch at Pavilion with the Matterhorn in front of us, got massages at the hotel, and then headed to Infinity Terrace for dinner.
To get there you walk through a long, Disney-esque tunnel up through the Schönegg Hotel.
No hotel reservation required for drinks and dinner at the top. Just this:
As the evening got colder we moved inside for front-row seats.
I’m going to miss this:
After dinner, back outside one last time under a clear night sky.
To never flaking on our promises.
The next morning
- At time of posting in Zermatt, it was -6 °C - Humidity: 61% | Wind Speed: 3km/hr | Cloud Cover: bipolar bluebirds and blizzards
