Sunday 2 January 2011

Haute Route: Europa Hut to Zermatt

Whilst tucking into our breakfast the clouds parted to reveal our first glimpses of the Weisshorn to the west. Would this herald better weather for our ultimate day of the Haute Route?

The guide book description does not suggest much altitude gain or loss, but there's definitely plenty of both throughout the day. Within the first 20 minutes we first had to descend and then head uphill to skirt round the bottom of a cliff and behind a waterfall. Shortly there after we came to an enormous rockfall area, obviously a very unstable area - previously the route went through a 100 metre tunnel but a rock slide had destroyed this (we saw cement fragments of this), so now hikers go over a very long (250 metre) suspension bridge............

But that was not the only challenge faced by those who built the path. The path also tunnels through cliffs and also tucks under an avalance prone area in this 3-sided tunnel.....

The weather had been playing peekaboo with us, the grey curtain of clouds would quickly pull aside to reveal tantalising glimpses of dazzling peaks, and then close again just as rapidly. But as if the weather god knew this would be our last afternoon of the hike, it decided to glow away all the clouds leaving us with an azure blue sky populated by a few fluffy white clouds. What a way to end our 10 day trip!

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