/ The Gornergrat rack railway should be one of your top priorities in Zermatt, to ride up the mountain for stunning look at 29 snow-covered Alpine peaks reaching above 12,000 feet, displaying one of the most amazing mountain panoramas in all the Alps. This is the very center of the Alpine range. We are going to have some great views of Monte Rosa and other mountains in the surrounding vista.
This railway is the second highest mountain-railway in Europe, with the highest outdoor train station (10,137feet). Starting in the village opposite the main train station, the line rises with a maximum gradient of 1 in 5 along the slope of the valley and offers good views of the Z’mutt Valley and the Matterhorn. At 2 1/2 miles the station of Riffelalp (7,305 feet) is reached, then the second station is at Riffelberg (8,480 feet). The line then passes above the Gorner Glacier, and reaches the terminus at Gornergrat.
Here you have what is said to be the finest Alpine view in Europe. You are standing on a central peak of rock in a surrounding world of ice and snow as far as you can see.
You have to walk up this final couple of hundred yards to get to the very top observation platform and from there you get this stunning panorama. So don't stop just at the top of the train station or at the restaurant or at the Café Terrace. You want to get to the top, the very top. It's easy to get there and you will be rewarded with this unbelievable Vista. From this spot you can see more high peaks than any other place in the Alps. This is the place the Gornergrat and especially with the Matterhorn. So we're quite happy to be up here.
Gornergrat (10,290 feet) is remarkable from the fact that there is an unbroken range of magnificent snow peaks on every side. There is not a single break in the chain. It is an isolated, rocky peak, that seems formed by nature to enable one to survey at leisure the marvellous scenes around. The huge Gorner Glacier winds round its base at a dizzy depth below ; beyond are the snows of that glorious range beginning with Monte Rosa (which seems within a stone’s throw) and ending with the Matterhorn. Then the central range of the Pennine Alps, with the stupendous summits of the Dent Blanche, the Gabelhorn, the Rothhorn, and the Weisshorn, all linked together in one vast chain of snow and ice. Next, far away beyond the Rhone Valley, some distant peaks of the Bernese Oberland ; and again to the right the group ten more peaks completing the circle around you.Between these mighty peaks lie innumerable glaciers, notably the vast sea of ice formed of the Gorner, the Theodule, and the Furggen glaciers, which lies like a map below ; its moraines, its snow slopes, and its countless crevasses revealed at a single glance.
After soaking up the views, head down to the mountain-top building complex, which includes a hotel and shops, and warm-up in the café – it is not that cold, it's just barely freezing and sunny, there's no wind, really ideal conditions. You can sit outdoors at the terrace cafe if you like or sit indoors in the cafeteria. Most people like to sit outside on the terrace. You can see the Matterhorn in the background, and Monte Rosa, Switzerland's highest mountain. The restaurant offers a convenient cafeteria line where they serve up some hot meals, soups, salads and light snacks.
Tune in to our next episode when we ride down part-way on the train, then walk to the bottom on a lovely mountain trail.