Arising today to a promising morning, we proceeded to start out for a drive to see the Matterhorn. This requires some assurance that the clouds won't totally obscure it as the trip is long. We set out to come down off the Crans-Montana elevation into Sierre. From there we drove east to Visp and then south to Tasch where we parked the car and boarded a cog-driven train up to the village of Zermatt. From there we boarded another shuttle train to Gornergrat at an altitude of 10,134 ft. There it was -- the Matterhorn! But it's spectacular peak was obscured by light clouds. But by waiting patiently we were able to get a pretty good view of her and Wow! We had encountered fresh snow as we left Zermatt and there were lots of skiers aboard as many of the too-numerous-to-count ski runs and lifts were open.
I want to comment on the fantastic facilities that greeted us in our visit. The parking garage in Tasch was large and clean along with attached railway station. The two trains had modern well-maintained coaches and the facilities at all the terminals were very well designed. There even was a very upscale shopping area in the stone building at the top along with a restaurant.
Zermatt is a large ski village with shops of all kinds including high-end ones. Throngs of skiers are accommodated in the winter months as there are restaurants and numerous small chalet hotels. Thus the reason for the large railroad facilities.
The rail trips back down afforded more views of the mountain as the cloud continued to move away. Nice dinner at 'Le Chalet' Restaurant.