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Saturday - A mid-afternoon flight from Gatwick to Geneva was quite civilised from the point of view of not having to get up really early to drive to the airport. However, once we'd arrived in Geneva we had a long coach and train transfer to Zermatt, so we didn't arrive at our chalet until about 22:30. Just time for a bite to eat before bedtime.
Sunday - It was cold, very overcast and snowing a bit on Sunday morning. So I wrapped up warm in several layers and headed out for my first day of walking. To ease myself in, I thought I'd start with the relatively gentle walk from Zermatt (1,620m) up to Zmutt (1,936m).
Having made it to Zmutt without incident (apart from having to stop to take off a couple of layers of insulation - walking uphill for an hour is hard work!), I decided to carry on up the valley to the restaurant at Stafel (2,199m). It was still very overcast and there was no sign of any scenery, so I didn't bother taking any photos at all along the way.
I arrived at Stafel at broadly lunchtime, so decided to stop at the restaurant for a beer and a Rosti.
As I left the restaurant the weather cleared just enough to allow me this tricky directly-into-the-sun shot of the impressive north face of the Matterhorn. The mountain looks kind of short and wide from this angle because Stafel is pretty much right at the bottom of the north face.
There's a trail from Stafel up to the cablecar station at Schwarzee, but unfortunately at this time it was closed due to the avalanche risk. Doh! So I had no choice but to head back the way I'd come. Rather than follow the path all the way back to Zmutt, half way down I detoured to the cablecar station at Furi (1,867m) to give myself the option of a ride home for the last bit if my legs were starting to go a bit wobbly. However, I was still feeling pretty good, so I walked the last couple of miles back to Zermatt (1,620m).
All in all, it had been a pretty good first day of walking, despite the almost complete absence of things to take photos of.
Total ascent today - 2,402 feet
Total descent today - 2,402 feet
Distance walked today - 9.5 miles
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