Alpine Hiking

If you plan to do a trail ride long distance in the Alps this summer, then there is a little known road that can be done in just over a week's holiday while visiting some of the landscapes of the most spectacular mountain in Europe.

The walking route linking two of the best known mountains in Switzerland, the Eiger and the Matterhorn is not even an official long-distance hiking, but when I traveled the road myself, I found good, well marked paths for most courses and fewer people to meet one on established trails such as the Haute Route Chamonix-Zermatt or the Tour du Mont Blanc.

The path of the Eiger to the Matterhorn does, I assure you, not the rise of one of these two summits - none of which are known for ease of ascent - but instead begins and ends with the trails associated with each mountain - the Eiger Trail above
Grindelwald and Zermatt Matterhorn trail connecting with the Schwarzsee Tarn at the foot of the Matterhorn. Although not a family outing, the itinerary is suitable for walkers of the poor - without any difficult terrain or glacier crossings - and yet it passes through little visited parts of Switzerland and crosses high passes to reach a
maximum altitude of nearly 10,000 feet.

In short, the course is suitable both as an alternative to some of alpine hikes where more time may be limited, or as a good introduction to hiking for several days in the Alps.

My adventure began in Alpine own idyllic region of Switzerland towards the Jungfrau, directly beneath the north face of the Eiger. Eiger Trail The trail above the village of Grindelwald is also a good start for a walk, I do not see anywhere in Switzerland.

The next two days saw me passing through the villages of Wengen and Ma¼rren - better known by skiers for their winter activities - and leaving the snowy peaks of the Jungfrau region with a high pass through the many distant lands to the west of Murren. My career has been following a section of Route Alpine passes that moves along the Bernese Oberland in Gsteig in the west, but on arriving in Kandersteg, I left this long distance trail head South on the crest of the Alps to the former level crossing at Gemmipass.

In the vineyards of the Rhone valley in Canton Valais - Switzerland is divided into cantons or regions - and in time my path leads through the Turtmanntal, which is one of the least populous of Switzerland and most preserved regions. From the upper reaches of this idyllic secluded valley road joins another instead of walking trails Long distance - the High Road - which is also in Zermatt, but Chamonix, near Mont Blanc in France.

Climbing over the Turtmanntal Augstbordpass and during which, at 2871 meters is the climax of the Eiger to the Matterhorn route, return to civilization is made in St. Niklaus in the Matter. From now on our path remains after the Matter Valley in the south up to the snow and ice from the Valais Alps - the highest mountains in Switzerland.

With 4000 meters to the Breithorn guide me forward, I followed the paths of the valley through sleepy villages and woodlands along the fresh rush of the river Mattervispa. After an easy day, the climb begins again as the road leaves the valley to climb through the forest to where the first views of the Matterhorn are seen through the trees, the journey's end in sight.

The Europaweg is a spectacular two days of high-level road the bottom Mattertal to Zermatt and is probably the best route to Zermatt. The last part of our route joins the road just past its midpoint and follows all the way to the high Alp Findeln before the final straight down into the forest Zerma.