Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

Howdy All

We arrived in Zermatt in time to enjoy Zermatt's celebration of 150 years since the first ascent of the Matterhorn.







Several nights, lights briefly lit up the original route.



On our second day in Zermatt, we took the Matterhorn tram up to Schwarzsee and hiked to the Hornlihutt and back.





















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There was even a special beer to commemorate the first ascent of the Matterhorn:



On our last full day in Zermatt, we watched the first showing of a documentary movie of the climb. Though the documentary was in Swiss-German. it was still chilling to see the re-enactment of the tragedy. That morning, we went into the Matterhorn museum where the broken rope was on display. The section of rope attached to Lord Douglas is still missing as his body has not been recovered.









Hey Ellen! Where are my potato chips

Between visiting the museum and watching the documentary, I went on a walk.









Watch out, she's gonna blow!!!

No pictures of Zermatt would be complete without the horse drawn carriages.









After taking the train back to our lodgings in Les Houches, we spent our last day in Chamonix.







Miles of smiles,
Ellen

What's with those lights on the Matterhorn? Are they a permanent installation?

-Florian

Ellen,

Does the documentary include the story of Whymper's party throwing rocks from the summit down on the Italian brothers coming up the other side?

I knew a guy who fell to his death descending the Hornli Ridge. They had made the summit and were in a hurry going down because of the weather, thunder and lightning moving into the area. When they came to the short section that requires a rope, they decided to do Dulfersitz rappels with no belay to save time. Paul fell out of his rappel. The others in the party weren't sure why, they speculated it could have been an electrical shock or a falling rock, but had not observed anything. Paul was a very capable mountaineer.

Your photos are wonderful. I'm sure everybody is envious, I know I am.