On day two of the Tour of the Matterhorn, Daisy's hair started to stand up.
They were sheltering beside a large boulder, walking poles thrown aside, waiting for a lightning storm to pass. The thunder felt close — Craig says "right next to you" and means it literally. They had already missed three warning signs: everyone else that morning had gone down to the valley floor rather than the high route; one of the trail waymarks had been blacked out, indicating a closed section; and they'd arrived at a section with no safety handrail. Then the bridge was gone, washed out by rain that had turned a stream into something considerably larger.
Daisy knew something about hair standing up in a lightning storm. She told Craig to throw the poles, take cover and wait. When your hair starts to lift, you are in an electric field. They stayed under the boulder. After half an hour the worst passed, and they got off the mountain as fast as they could, not on any official trail, just down to the valley floor by whatever path presented itself.
They were pretty shaken, Craig says. They checked the forecast very carefully on day three.
The Tour of the Matterhorn is a 150-kilometre circuit starting and finishing in Zermatt, circling the Monte Rosa Massif through Switzerland and Italy. Most people walking in this part of the Alps are on the Haute Route — the Tour of the Matterhorn runs against the prevailing traffic, and Craig and Daisy spent much of their ten days walking towards oncoming groups, exchanging information about what lay ahead in each direction. When he described the Tour of the Matterhorn to people coming the other way, most of them had never heard of it.
Several said they wanted to do it next year.
Day One
The Matterhorn is in the rear-view mirror from the first steps out of Zermatt. Craig took 90 photographs on day one, something he’s not apologetic about. The scenery — dramatic peaks, wildflower meadows, glaciers in the distance — was, he says, the only word he can find for it, magical. The weather was perfect too, which always helps.
The first day is relatively easy, from Zermatt to the Europa Hut, and the easiness of it allowed for the 90 photographs. There are some exposed sections — steep drops to the valley floor with cables and safety measures — and there is the longest suspension bridge in Europe, 500 metres long, constructed a few years ago, spanning a drop that feels much bigger than it probably is. Daisy walked that section slightly faster than the rest of the day. Craig, who is fine with heights, walked it at normal speed and thought it was a good way to end the first day.
The Europa Hut was on Craig's bucket list before he even planned the trip — a place he'd heard about from friends who had done the Haute Route. The staff were accommodating and warm, a good atmosphere around the communal dinner tables, and the people sharing the hut were mostly Haute Route walkers on their final night before reaching Zermatt, excited and happy, asking Craig what lay ahead for them. He was able to tell them they were about two or three hours from seeing the Matterhorn.
There was a real buzz, perfect for their first night on the trail.
The Dormitory
They stayed in two huts — the Europa and the Refugio Pradera in Italy. The rest of the nights were in hotels with private rooms, booked through a tour operator who had set the itinerary. The dormitory at the Europa Hut held six people in three double bunks, the mattresses separated enough that you were not sharing space with strangers. Craig slept well. The man in the bunk above him got up three or four times in the night using a head torch with a red light, which Craig took in reasonable stride. Hot showers were available at both huts for a couple of euros, with a queue at the Europa. He says the shower was as good as the one at home.
The food, they found, was less triumphant. Both Craig and Daisy are vegetarian, and Swiss alpine cuisine leans heavily on meat. Packed lunches provided by the accommodation were, with some consistency, a cheese sandwich on slightly stale bread with no condiment. He laughs as he tells me this. When he thinks of food on the Tour of the Matterhorn, he thinks of a soggy cheese sandwich.
Luckily the fondue in the valley on the last day made up for it.
The Tour of the Matterhorn crosses two glaciers, both with guided crossings arranged through the tour operator. The first guide was Italian and spoke no English at all — not even hello. Craig found him at the bottom of what appeared to be miles of boulders with no obvious glacier in sight, by the time-honoured method of making eye contact with a stranger and both parties simultaneously recognising that this was the intended meeting. The crossing was easy, the guide knowledgeable about where the crevasses were that season, the roping-up reassuring. The second crossing followed similar lines.
He used poles mainly on descents, where years of skiing have left their mark on his knees. Daisy used them throughout. They had brought spikes for the higher passes, where snow from a storm the week before their arrival still lay on the path. The highest pass reaches 3,300 metres, and the temperature differential between Zermatt in the valley and the col in full conditions is significant. They changed layers on the move.
Switzerland and Italy
The cultural shift at the border is immediately noticeable. Whereas the Swiss accommodation was formal, efficient and correct, the Italian refugio felt like a family home.
On the final day, walking back around to Zermatt from the Italian side, the Matterhorn appears gradually. You are moving through wildflower meadows on the cliff-side path, and the mountain is hidden by the terrain ahead, and then each step reveals a little more of it. Craig took another 90 photographs. He now has 180 photographs of the Matterhorn from two sides, which he looks through while we are talking.
Craig tells me about a Swiss friend who moved to Scotland. He asks him every time they meet why on earth he left, and never receives a satisfactory answer.
He already wants to go back immediately, to see the Matterhorn again.
