Chamonix-Zermatt-Saas

by Defne

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This year, I had the opportunity to ski with views of two different mountain in two different countries where I had dreamed of, opened the map and looked at it and how it was. One is Mont Blanc, located on the border of Switzerland and Italy, and the other is the Matterhorn, located on the border with Italy in the south of Switzerland.

With a week’s holiday, skiing is possible in both regions. But the best thing is to stay longer on one holiday and the other on another holiday and skate long. Unfortunately, we couldn’t ski in all of them because there were miles of runways in both areas. The route we were following began by flying to Genevre and getting to Chamonix after an hour’s drive by the car we rented there. During the flux hours, we reached our hotel, 2-3 km from the town of Chamonix. Normally staying in town may be more fun, but at the time we went, the hotels in the town were either full or had to stay for at least 7 nights. We stayed at Mercury Les Bossons, the first hotel where we found a place because we were only staying for 3 nights. (http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-0411-mercure-chamonix-les-bossons/print.shtml ) We ate at the hotel in the evenings, the food was made up of the flavors of French cuisine and it was quite nice but if I were to go again, I would prefer to stay in town and eat in different restaurants in the evenings. There are many restaurants and cafés where you can eat the famous fondue and raklet, and sip your white wines next to it.

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We woke up early with excitement on the first day of skiing, the weather was amazing, the snow was also very good the night before, chamonix and there are 4 different areas you can ski around. We first chose Brevent-Flegere. The weather was beautiful, so the vision was clear and Mont Blanc accompanied us as we slid with all the beauty. In the afternoon, we went to The Aguille du Midi, the highest point at 3842m, which can be reached by cable car. It’s a really crazy experience and a project that once again proves how mankind pushes its boundaries. Built by grazing rocks, it offers 360 degree panorama when it’s open. We spent the afternoon exploring the center of Chamonix. It’s a very lively town with restaurants, delies, wine shops, apres ski bars. And, of course, with many hotels.

Unfortunately, the next day we didn’t expect the weather like the first day, we tried to push our borders and ski in a very closed, snowy, windy or even stormy weather. We chose the Balme area, which has relatively low track altitude. Although the pistes are very nice, it’s hard to ski when we don’t see eye to eye, and we had a ski day where we took a lot of breaks and drank hot wine while we were in the process of facial paralysis:) Then we toured the town of Argentiere and walked between the lovely, snowy streets. According to Chamonix, it is quite small but absolutely cute and can be preferred to stay. 3. And on our last day in this region, the weather was turning off again, and we decided to go to the Courmayeur region, on the back of the mountain, on the Italian side. You drive from Tunnel du Mont Blanc to Italy for 40 euros, and the supertracks are waiting for you. We expected the runways to be glacial in this area, which is normally referred to as the Italian Glacier, but the snow was fine because it had just snowed.

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The third floor in Chamonix. And after our last day, we had to move to Saas Allmagel, the next step on our route, and then we set off on the evening after the slide. It took us two hours to get to Saas Allmagel, which is normally an hour and a half away. Even if the sudden-suppressing snow and winding mountain roads force us, if you have a snow tire and a master driver in your car, you won’t have any problems 🙂 And of course it’s definitely but absolutely necessary for navigation/gps! Don’t tell me you’ll find the road with the sign, because there’s no mileage on the signs, and sometimes there’s no signage. Despite gps on mountain roads, you often move on with a sense of loss.

Staying at Saas Allmagel is actually a separate story… Normally we wanted to stay in Zermatt, but not one had room at the hotel. Then we thought we’d stay at Saa Fee and not there. We recently found a very cute hotel in Saas Allmagel, another nearby town (http://www.zurbriggen.ch/saasalmagell/ ). We only stayed for 2 nights but the food and the hotel’s spa section was great, so it was worth it when we went there. Even though we’ve been researching everything online, we’ve missed some important information. For example, the towns of Saas Fee and Zermatt are not allowed by car. You’re driving 40km from Saas Allmagel to the town of Taesh, parking your car and taking the train with your ski equipment. We tied our normal shoes to our backpacks and then put them in the closet at the train station in Zermatt, which is why they did so because if you want to go around the town after skiing, it’s not possible with ski shoes 🙂 Taesh – Zermatt by train for 10-15 minutes. It’s a tasteful route, and you’re going by watching the view. Of course, the ideal would be to find a place in a hotel in Zermatt and not waste the time spent on all these roads. But on those roads you also have the opportunity to see many alpine villages and towns, whichever one you prefer. The Saas and Zermatt region are from the German-speaking regions of Switzerland. But everyone speaks English. Even in French.

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4. We spent our ski day in Zermatt, as you can see from above. In the morning, the sun was showing itself in a show, and some runways had not yet been opened due to the previous night’s snowfall and storm. Anyway we are open and the closest cable car to the train station to climb to Sunnega Paradise. First we slid a little on the tracks in that area and gradually the clouds began to unfold, the Climbers defying Matternhorn, which is really so impressive that I couldn’t even look at the road where I slipped from watching the mountain with my mouth open as I was sliding. We’ve seen lovely alpine villages and houses, which are about 2500-3000m as they ski, and in the summer, the slopes are turning into hiking routes, and the owners of these houses are coming. I even imagined cows grazing on grassgrass:) Of course, because of the season, we didn’t see any cows in the neighborhood. Around noon, the other lifts opened and we were able to get to hochtaelli. From here, we reached Landtunnel, one of the mountain train stations, with a half-hour ski tour. It’s absolutely not supposed to be back before you go here and get on this train. It’s a very different experience. The train, powered by a gear movement, is officially climbing the mountain and the views are great again. We took the train to Gornergrat at 3000m and slid down a very long route down the hill to the town. And by the way, we sunk the sun behind matternhorn. After a little out of town in Zermatt, we went back to our hotel. This time, we were waiting for the delicious dishes and wines of The Italian cuisine. And then our strained muscles are a great relief at the spa.

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It was time to leave our hotel the next day. Plan 5. There was also slider sliders on the day. We went to Saas Fee, which was very close to Saas Allmagel, but the weather was closed again, and the tourist info office’s web cam couldn’t see the eye from the storm. With the tiredness of slipping for 4 days in a row, we declared ourselves a holiday on the last day.

We loved Switzerland and we say the next route is the crazy train ride between Interlaken or Zermatt-St.Moritz 🙂 why not :))
I hope global warming stops and we can experience more snowy and skiwinters…

Useful links: www.j2ski.com, www.chamonix.net, www.chamonix.com, www.saas-fee.ch, www.zermatt.ch

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