From Grächen to Zermatt via the longest suspension bridge: part two
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From Grächen to Zermatt via the longest suspension bridge: part two

Byrichard

From Grächen to Zermatt via the longest suspension bridge: part two

 

When you wake up in the Europahütte and look down you can see the span of the longest suspension bridge in the morning shade of the mountains. It’s at this moment that people like me think “shame, not ideal for pictures”. My advice is to plan the day of hiking so that you arrive at the bridge when it’s lit by the sun to get good images. Plan to arrive in the afternoon. I’d be tempted to start from Zermatt if I did this hike again.

Six minutes to cross

When I crossed the bridge it took about six minutes slowing down occasionally to look at the view. It’s stable and hardly swings. I was able to walk with a camera in one hand without holding on to the cable. It’s nothing like via ferrata monkey bridges and others. If you’re used to via ferrata bridges then this one is tame. The Ladders of Death and other via ferrata are more impressive. I’d compare it to the bridge above Saillon but much bigger.

You can see that the bridge is solidly anchored into the mountain on both ends. It’s a mere 86 meters off the ground and when you walk out and look down you can see the tops of trees like a paraglider would see them. It’s a nice taste of the world as seen from a paraglider.

A Walk in the woods

Most of the hike on the other side is through pine forest with some exposed bits where you can look up and see a glacier and streams flowing as well as waterfalls. At one point you pass above a nice gorge before heading back into the trees. This part of the hike is comfortable compared to the previous day. It undulates less. There is one moment where the trail is covered by reinforced concrete to protect hikers from rock fall. There are two tunnels through which to walk. Between the two tunnels, you can see damage created by large boulders. In one case the reinforced concrete is buckled. at another section the concrete has been pushed down vertically. For a brief moment you go back into the trees and head upwards again. Saplings have had time to grow in this section, implying that rockfalls have not occurred for a few years.

There is a prairie with warnings of active rockfall and at this segment of the hike bunkers have been dug into the side of the mountain. If you hear or see rocks falling you can shelter here until the danger has passed.

Zermatt

I feel that Zermatt should have many more solar panels on roof buildings than it has. After decades of electric cars and horse drawn carriages you’d expect them to seize the opportunity to generate and use their own power.

 

From Grächen to Zermatt via the longest suspension bridge: part one
| |

From Grächen to Zermatt via the longest suspension bridge: part one

Byrichard

Hiking from Grächen to Zermatt via the longest Suspension bridge is an interesting two-day hike. It provides you with views of glaciers, boulder fields, scree slopes and more. It also provides you with the opportunity to cross a suspension bridge that takes six minutes.

Hiking up from Grächen

The hike up from Grächen takes you up through a forest. You go through a forest and there is a stream to your left and the nice landscape to your right. The hike up is easy.

As I hike with a water filter I like to get water straight from glaciers when I can. I gathered water from the glacier. It tastes good and it’s fresh. Gathering water from this point is easy.

From this cirque you climb up through some more trees and eventually you get to a nice view point from which you can see the landscape. This provides a good point for a snack and rest.

[vrview img=”https://www.main-vision.com/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/export_1503909534859.jpg” width=”500″ height=”500″ ]

Use mouse to look around image above. (360 image)

Many years ago the glacier reached down into the valley below. You can clearly see the depth of the former glacier. At this point you are above the tree line. You begin to walk on bare rock. The slopes get steeper and you are more exposed.

One segment of this hike crosses a zone of active rock falls. When we were walking here we heard a loud noise that sounded like thunder or a jet. After a few seconds we saw large rocks falling down the slope and bouncing. Where they hit the ground clouds of dirt and dust erupted. It was too far away for me to get good video footage. At this moment we were more attentive. If you look up you see that massive rocks get loose and fall. Look at the contrast between the sign post and the boulders. You need to scramble and climb over rocks and navigate your way towards safety.

The dangerous zone in context

The dangerous zone takes a few minutes to cross and there are big rocks behind which you could try to shelter during a rock fall but the best option is to spend as little time as possible in the dangerous section. Rock falls are usually due to hikers, rain and ice formation. When rock falls are common you see that there is no moss and no trees grow. Later we crossed over boulder fields where trees and moss were growing. The Europahütte is built in an old boulder field overlooking the bridge.

Fractals

In one of the Coastline documentaries I watched a while ago, they said that if you measure the coastline to within one metre you get one distance and if you measure the same coastline to within 30 centimetres or less you would get a much higher figure. During the last few kilometres, this was clearly evident. On the GPS the two or three kilometres were the last two or three kilometres for a long time. The terrain undulates quite a bit and there are many nooks and crannies. In a straight line the distance was 1.6km but in real terms, the distance was closer to three or four kilometres.

Until this hike, I was used to circular rather than linear hikes. Most of the hikes start in one point and go around to another. When you look at the route track for both days of hiking they go in a relatively straight line.