I have still not taken my VC AT to the depths but today I took it in the opposite direction. I wouldn't usually wear one of my nice watches on a hike for fear of damaging them but today there were no rocks to climb, just snow and glacier the whole way so I thought, why not. Our target today was the Breithorn, one of the neighbors of the Matterhorn.
The Breithorn, 4164m.
That's the Breithorn from one of the cable car stations we passed through on our way to the starting point. Fortunately, that's not the side we climbed. But this photo does give an idea of the amount snow on the summit.
To get to the starting point for this hike, you have to go to Zermatt. That involves driving part of the way up the valley in which Zermatt is located, parking in a town called Tasch (the parking garage is absolutely immaculate - I've never seen anything like it) and then riding a train into Zermatt which doesn't allow cars. There are electric buses, taxis and service vehicles there but no cars. Once in Zermatt, a series of three cable cars leads to Kleine Matterhorn which is where we began.
Here are a couple of shots taken at one of the cable car stations. Only in Switzerland...
And this familiar sight on an adjacent wall:
I took this shot for real IWC fanatics: those of you who look at a photo of the Matterhorn and think, "That's nice but what this picture really needs is an IWC."
Taken from the observation deck on Kleine Matterhorn, ~3900m.
I had planned to take another wrist shot on the summit but sometimes Mother Nature gets in the way. In this case, our time on the summit was very brief due to strong, very cold winds. I couldn't bring myself to remove my glove and peel back the four layers I was wearing. So you'll have to settle for this photo of part of the view from the summit. I apologize for the lack of IWC in this one.
It was a good if very tiring day. Next time I take one of my IWCs up a mountain, I'll try to choose a warmer day so that there will be more wrist shots.
