Falk Travel Tracks: July 2013

Recently, I was in an American/British import grocery store and I noticed a case of Pepsi Throwback with "retro packaging"...but I remember it as being just normal Pepsi packaging in the 70's and 80's. Yesterday we came home from a trip in the Swiss Alps - this too was a throwback, as I found myself staring in some of the famous ski movies of yesteryear...and remembering why I truly love being a mountain girl.

Cool, fresh, mountain air welcomed us as we stepped off the train in Zermatt. And so did the rain. Zermatt is car-less, so you either walk everywhere, or take little electric run, golf-carts-on-steroids taxis. We figured, hey, we are mountain people, it's only a 15 minute walk to our place, let's walk. So walk we did - with our luggage and our 2 boys that morphed into complaining beings almost instantaneously. We walked up, and then we walked up, and then we walked up, and then it started to rain, and then we walked up. Biking to work and back every day this year did not help prepare us for mountain hills with 2 complaining boys and luggage in tote. The Matterhorn, or rather part of the Matterhorn, as it was partially enshrouded in clouds, rewarded us as we peaked the final hill to our apartment. It was striking. And I thought, I am home.

We spent the following days playing in the alps. Muscles that had been asleep for the past year were rudely awoken from their slumbers. Each night we collapsed in fits of exhaustion that only mountain living can give you. Yet, we woke up the next day asking for more.

Beautiful Zermatt

Where we stayed

The cog rail train: Gornergrat Bahn

At 10,134 feet

On our hike up the Matterhorn Trail.

We went skiing, for the first time in a year. We were all giddy with anticipation. We rented gear the day before, got up early, ate a skiers breakfast - egg, bacon and cheese sandwich, and marched to the lift with the rest of the skiers- mostly ski racers in summer training. We didn't make it far before I found myself staring in several of Warren Miller ski bloopers. One forgets the awkwardness of ski gear, and having to carry it. One also forgets that even though in the summer, it is cold at 12,000 feet, so that is what you dress for, it is summer at the base of the mountain. So one gets very hot.

We didn't have a foot out of the rental shop's door before my children accosted me, accusing me of dressing them too warmly. There is nothing more picturesque and endearing than watching a family waltz off to the ski runs in summer while the children complain. There is nothing funnier than watching said family scramble their way into a gondola, and having one child trip and fall into the gondola - skis, poles and all coming down into a perfect face plant. Nothing funnier, that is, unless it is you this is happening to. We finally settled into a beautiful 35 minute ride up steep slopes.

Now I am no fan of heights. I get awful vertigo, and as we reached the top of the gondola, it dawned on me, slowly and painfully, that we were not at the top. To my absolute horror, I discovered that to get to the ski area, we needed to take the cable car up the Klein Matterhorn (small Matterhorn). Unfortunately for me, and according to Zermatt, it is the highest cable car in the world. It passes over a massive glacier before scaling a ridiculously steep peak. The terminal at the top is a concrete opening built directly into the mountain's face.

Klein Matterhorn, in all it's horrific beauty and steepness.

The glacier we rode over.

It was real hard not to think how an evacuation would take place in one of these things. Because, of course, my mind always goes to worse case scenario.

I tried to be as cool as Glen Plake in the "Blizard of Aahhh's" while going up. Imagining his thumbs up after his magnificent backhand spring over the crevasse - but to no avail. I am just not Plake material when it comes to heights.

The tunnel in which we had to walk after the cable car ride... the literal and figurative light at the end.

I made it, despite my almost paralyzing fear. And at the other end of the tunnel, we were met with a cloudless sky, sunshine and amazing terrain.

Please notice the lifts - you will need that visual in a moment.

I'd like to say that our Warren Miller blooper moments ended with the crash into the gondola, and the breakdown we (i.e. one of the boys, OK and my internal breakdown on the cable car - but I kept that to myself) had in the tunnel - alas, it did not. The lifts that were open on the Swiss side were T-bars. And those moments on the T-bar seriously could have been lifted out of the movies. It took Henry and I several failed attempts to grab and successfully hold on to the T-bar, and then Henry fell on his face part way up the lift. We stayed on the Italian side after that, and rode the easier to get on/off cable car.

Skiing was an absolute soul lifting, unadulterated happy experience and I smiled and giggled the entire time we were up there - and it wasn't because we were above 12,000 feet and the air was thinner.

Despite our blooper moments, and my inability to channel Plake coolness, it was a good day. A throwback day to spring skiing in Vail - with a Swiss/Italian twist.