Gornergrat

The next day was the day I did nothing. I was tired, thus, I rested. During this rest day, we found out that every Thursday, the Gornergrat train makes an early sunrise trip. Thus, we all decided to make it up to Riffelhorn to start the day. Rachel, being the ultra-runner, decided that she’d run up to the lake (5,276-ft to 9,045-ft). Why? because she’s a badass.

After this declaration, Joe and Xing decided they’d run it. Me being old, and at this point in the trip, decided I’d take the train. Lawrence got a ticket too, cuz he was gonna bike down.

Thus, the morning of, the hikers set off at 2:30am, Rachel set off at 3:30am, and I woke up at 4:45am, to catch a 5-something train. It was dark when we left the hotel, and you could see climbers’ headlamps moving up the ridge of the Matterhorn. The darkness quickly faded, and the views on the ride up were super clear!

The colors from the other end of the valley were a good sign of things to come…

The train got to the Riffelsee *just* in time for the sunrise

^#DefaultSwissPrecision

This will be climbed…

After getting the shots at the lake, we puttered around the area so everyone could get a new Facebook profile photo (jk)… but it kinda was a photoshoot of sorts… First up was my selfie

Next up was Rachel with her sponsor’s headbands

Lawrence and his bike…

…and the stars of Zermatt!

After this, Joe, Rachel, and Lawrence descended, while Xing and I headed up to the top of the Gornergrat for breakfast (it was included with our train tickets) From here, we got EPIC VIEWS of the whole area!!!

The views above Gornergrat Railway Station were also splended… Check out Gorner Glacier, Monte Rosa massif, the Matterhorn, and more!

If you hike a little bit higher, you can get 360-views of the area…

After breakfast and photos, we took the train back down, chilled in town. The historical streets of Zermatt were pretty cool (these buildings were from the 16th century!)