St. Moritz-Zermatt, part 3: Tour de Monte Rosa

In late summer 2024, I hiked from St. Moritz to Zermatt along the Swiss/Italian Alps. This is a record of the final three days, when I walked the northern half of the Tour de Monte Rosa.

I can hear the wind howling from my bunk in Rifugio Oberto-Maroli and I may guess it’s rather unwelcoming outside but what I didn’t expect is the wintery scene I found when I peaked out:

It had snowed lightly overnight, the fog had thickened and the freezing wind rounded up the winter feel. This was not what I’d have expected from a mostly favorable forecast that warned about cold temps but clear skies and no major events. It will be a hilltop condition with local cloud, I argue, but this alone may make me reconsider my plans.

In previous chapters, I’ve gone in depth about how much I cared for completing my trip by making it to Zermatt and how hard I had worked to make it possible. At my location in Monte Moro and with three hiking days left, distance wise, Zermatt was well within reach. Terrain wise, I’d still need a reasonably good weather window. My idea was to hike the southern half of the Tour de Monte Rosa and reach Zermatt by going across the Alpine Divide on the last day via 3295 high Theodul pass.

I never liked the idea of going through the highest and, in a way, most challenging spot on the trip just hours before finishing with travel schedules to go back home immediately after but it should be fine in good weather conditions. Otherwise, there’d be some risk of getting seriously stuck, I wouldn’t foresee any alternative to Theodul pass that would take me to Zurich on time for my flight.

The good news being the best alternative would take off right from where I was at the time. Instead of going clockwise on the southern half of the Tour de Monte Rosa, I could cross back into Switzerland in Monte Moro and reach Zermatt over the northern half of the loop with no need to cross any other high pass. My lovely hut warden actually recommends this option while he stuffs the table for the best hut breakfast on the trip. By a long shot.

It’s roughly the same distance, shorter only by a few km, and allegedly more scenic but it’s not the logical way to finish the hike as I had pictured it so it’s with a bit of a heavy heart that I decide to cross back into Switzerland and down the Saastal to get to Zermatt while keeping on the right side of the mountains.

The plan update includes added difficulties in the initial climb back up to the pass and down the other side. The conditions are similar to those in the previous evening but colder, with lower visibility and, worst of all, slippery rock. The metal stairs felt a bit overkill the day before but they’re a life-saver with the rock turned into a slippery mess.

It’s a relief the wind is not too strong at the pass so it’s very manageable. It’s super slippery all over the place so I need to keep calm and force myself to make it slow and careful. Route finding is luckily not an issue with the good quality permanent signing plus the temporary flagging in place for a race event.

It takes me about an hour to get off the rock, the snow and the fog, pretty much all at the same time. It’s great to be able to walk on dry dirt again.

Once I’m back into standard hiking, it doesn’t take long to reach grass and the Mattmark, the dammed glacial lake at the headwaters of the Saastal. Water color is the usual milky in a size I’m not used to.

On the other end of the Mattmark and from the vantage point of the dam, I get a first view of the Saastal floor all the way to the first village Saas-Almagell while clearings unexpectedly open in the thick clouds.

Down from the dam, the TMR¹ route parallels the road through some nice woods, then takes the road itself for a less glamorous, still scenic approach and traverse of Saas-Almagell. The town is modern-touristy and very quiet in the September off-season.

Up from the main valley floor on a side branch, the TMR visits most famous, oddly named Saas-Fee village, tucked under sizeable Feegletscher ice and 4K+ peaks that I can’t see because the clouds have thickened again.

Saas-Fee is off-season too but still busy with hikers, urban visitors and ski season prep works. This latter suits the cold weather.

Here I rejoin Route 6, the Alpenpässe-Weg that I had been following for the first week of the trip, now again as it shares tread with the TMR along the flanks of the Saastal. The clouds break again overhead while still clinging to the peaks.

The TMR stays around the tree line while traversing the often steep terrain in the west flank of the main valley but the trail is consistently good, as it’d have to be expected from such a popular route.

I’ll be hiking north to the confluence of Saas and Mattertal but that particular spot will be for the following day. There aren’t many obvious places to pitch a tent in the TMR and I have identified this one on the map that nicely meets a relatively early stop compared to the trip’s standards so far. I’m camped by 7:30 PM and I can see some dusk colors while I have my dinner.

It’s very cold in the morning. No surprise about that but it still was a bit of a shock to see the thermometer go down into the double digits negative.

I honestly don’t think it was that cold and that the device was off for some reason but then I went through the frozen streams on the slopes showing some thick ice that had probably built overnight. Double or single digits, it certainly was cold.

You can feel the cold air and see the condensation clouds around the tops and I feel glad I don’t face any high passes anymore. The sky is mostly clear though and the early morning light is beautiful. Climbing up from my sheltered camp, I get a view of what was above.

The TMR is and endless sidehill, often across steep terrain. The trail is drawn somewhere there:

By late morning, I get to the the confluence of the Saastal and the Mattertal. Here I turn south for the final stretch of my trip.

There’s been new snow in the high areas and thick clouds sit around the peaks consistently. It’s an expected outcome of the cold air mass and once again I feel glad I don’t need to climb high anymore. I can feel Zermatt within reach.

The TMR section above the Mattertal goes by the name Europaweg. It follows the same pattern as the section in the Saastal but with a trail so heavily engineered that sometimes it doesn’t feel like a trail anymore.

I might have thought it was a one-off to save a tricky section with no obvious alternative but there were several episodes of such mess. At some point, I felt like if all this was necessary maybe this route shouldn’t be here at all.

As long as I’m hiking it, I can certainly appreciate the scenic quality, starting with the spectacular views to the glaciers on the opposite side of the valley.

There’s also the amazingly beautiful larch trees, whose upper reaches the route skirts.

And the ice formations, which are not melting a bit throughout the day.

Shortly before day’s end, I get an initial view of the Mattertal headwaters with Zermatt town party visible down on the valley and the backdrop of the Alpine Divide. Somewhere there in the lowest section of the crest is Theodul pass, which I should have been crossing from the south.

Coming up is Europahutte, where I had planned to stay for the night, given the cold weather and the limited camping options in the Europaweg. I had phoned the day before to find out whether they were still open as all the summer infrastructure seemed to be about to close. I actually found room by a stretch.

I was not aware this trail section had nothing to do with pretty much anything I had hiked during the two previous weeks, that I had spent mostly on my own and where I could just show up in huts and expect to find room. This area appears to be extremely popular and even this late in the season the hut is full.

It’s Friday night and I’m told it’s the final weekend for the season anyway.

And then it’s the final day of the hiking with just over 22 km over the TMR to reach trip’s end in Zermatt. It’s day 15. For the first time since I started hiking in St. Moritz, I feel relaxed.

Just south of the Europahutte, there’s another straight line in the map, not as long as the 3.5 km tunnel a few days back but just as unnatural looking in the cartography. It’s the Charles Kuonen suspension bridge, allegedly the longest of its kind in the world with a nearly 500 m span.

The bridge saves a wide chute of a very hikeable angle but too prone to rockfall, deemed unsafe enough to justify the mastodon infrastructure. While I may appreciate the safety approach, I have to wonder about the practicality of a recreational trail if the location is so discouraging.

The weather keeps the previous days’ patterns, cloudy and cold. The morning overcast provides easier light conditions for pics than those in the previous evening and I get this great view of the Bisgletscher:

Further up the valley, the dominating view shifts to the Hohlichtgletscher and the Zinalrothorn.

The slopes are not particularly steep but for some reason the whole are seems prone to rockfall. Signs warn about the potential and there are several sections requesting hikers to pay attention and avoid stopping. There are also long stretches where the trail is brimmed or even tunneled.

It doesn’t feel like a good place for a hiking trail.

It’s a cold and overcast mid-September afternoon when I finally get to see live the iconic profile of the Matterhorn/Cervino:

It’s its prominence and relative isolation from other high peaks that make it so outstanding. Rather selfishly, I think of all the hard work it took me to get to this view.

As a testament to that, this is the first day on the trip where I take time for some selfies. So far I could do nothing but hike.

While the Matterhorn is the obvious main character, the trail offers views to several other mountains. It’s an incredibly scenic place.

Unexpectedly, the clouds break and the whole vibe changes dramatically. I can take the gloves off, hike in my shirt again and get a different light on the big horn.

All that’s left at this point is the climb down to Zermatt, where I get in late afternoon. The town is a shock. There seems to be no off-season in this place or I don’t want to think how this is in prime time.

The campground is on the opposite end of town and on the opposite end of the glamour but it’s probably the only place to stay whose cost is not in the three figures. It’s very basic but otherwise fine.

It was difficult to find a place for dinner but I persevered. Not for the food itself but the symbolism. I had earned my beans.

1. Tour de Monte Rosa