Ride the Gornergrat cogwheel railway to 3,089 metres on your first clear morning, then take the cable cars to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at 3,883 metres, the highest lift station in Europe. Walk the Five Lakes Trail down from Blauherd to Sunnegga, give an hour to the Matterhorn Museum, and end in the Hinterdorf among barns from the 16th century.
Zermatt sits at 1,620 metres at the head of the Mattertal, and no combustion car reaches it: you stop at Täsch and take the train. The village is ringed by 38 of the Alps' four-thousand metre peaks, and one of them is the reason almost everybody comes.
The cogwheel railway climbs more than 1,400 metres in 33 minutes to a ridge at 3,089 metres, facing the Matterhorn across the Gorner glacier. Ride it on the first clear morning of the trip. The light is better early and the terrace empties again after the lunch trains.
Europe's highest cable car station, at 3,883 metres on the Klein Matterhorn. The platform reads 38 four-thousanders and 14 glaciers across three countries, and the Glacier Palace is cut about 15 metres into the ice below it. Altitude is the catch: move slowly up there.
Just under ten kilometres from Blauherd down to Sunnegga, past Stellisee, Grindjisee, Grünsee, Moosjisee and Leisee. Two and a half to three hours, 165 metres of climb against 454 of descent, and the Matterhorn reflects in two of the five when the wind drops.
A reconstructed village dug in under a glass dome beside the church, built around the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 and the descent that killed four of Edward Whymper's party of seven. The broken rope is here, in a case.
The old village, one street back from the shops: larch barns and granaries built between the 16th and 18th centuries, raised on stilts capped with flat stone discs to keep mice out of the grain. Five minutes' walk, free, and it explains what Zermatt was before 1865.
The reflection shot, ten minutes below Rotenboden station on the Gornergrat line. Come before the wind picks up, which usually means before nine, and the water holds the whole mountain. A second, smaller pool sits just beyond the first.
The path to the foot of the Matterhorn's ridge, from Schwarzsee at 2,583 metres to the Hörnli Hut at 3,260. Around two hours up, rocky and exposed, and it puts you where the climbers start. Turn back early if the weather closes in.
A wooden walkway bolted into the slot the Gornervispa has cut through the rock below Furi, about twenty minutes' walk from the edge of the village. Short, cold and loud, and the best hour to keep in reserve for a day the cloud takes the summits.
A funicular and two cable cars reach Rothorn at 3,103 metres, on the sunny side of the valley and looking straight across at the Matterhorn. Blauherd, one stage below, is where the Five Lakes Walk starts and where the afternoon light is best.
Beside the parish church lie climbers who did not come back, among them men from the 1865 first ascent. It takes ten minutes and it is the quietest correction to the cable-car version of this valley.
A century-old family farm turned terrace, and the benchmark lunch above Zermatt.
A short forest descent into the hamlet, and the way most people walk to lunch.
Long cruising runs off the cogwheel railway, and the sector that holds the sun.
Glacier terrain to 3,883 m, and the reason the resort still skis in August.
The Italian half of the pass, on the International ticket. Lunch costs less there.
A playground, rafts and barbecue pits at 2,288 m, three minutes up by funicular.
Three multimedia rooms at the top station, included in the Gornergrat ticket.
Over the pass into Italy on the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing, on lifts the whole way.
Two stops down the line, then the 494 metre footbridge on the Europaweg.
The panoramic line starts here. Ride it to Brig or Andermatt and come back.
Two castles on two hills, and the largest wine region in Switzerland.
Switzerland's largest open-air curling tournament, played on rinks laid out in the village.
A ski-mountaineering race the Swiss army runs every two years, 57.5 km from Zermatt to Verbier.
Five days of acoustic sets, with more than 130 concerts across seventeen stages in the village.
A field capped at 2,222 runners climbs from St. Niklaus up the valley to the Riffelberg finish.
The 1st of August brings bonfires on the slopes, brass bands and a programme through the village.
Around thirty groups fill the streets with costume, alphorn and yodelling across one weekend.
Trail races over several distances, starting from the Obere Matten and run here since 2013.
Chamber music at the Riffelalp chapel, 2,222 m up, led by players from the Berlin Philharmonic.
The usual way in from outside Switzerland. Trains run through Visp and take about four hours. Zurich (ZRH) is a similar journey from the north.
The Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn climbs the Mattertal from Visp, on the main Swiss network, in a little over an hour. The Glacier Express terminates here.
Zermatt is car-free, so drivers stop at Täsch. The terminal holds 2,100 covered spaces and the shuttle train up to the village takes 12 minutes.
No combustion vehicles. Small electric taxis and two bus lines cover the village, though almost everything is inside a ten-minute walk.
A covered Valais pie of potato, leek, apple, cheese and onion, baked in one dish.
Macaroni, potato, cream and cheese under fried onions, with apple sauce alongside.
Half a wheel melted at an open fire and scraped onto potatoes, plate by plate.
Half Gruyère, half Vacherin Fribourgeois, and the default winter dinner here.
The Valais cold plate: dried meat, raw ham, bacon, alpine cheese and rye bread.
Beef salted, spiced and air-dried for weeks, then sliced thin over rye bread.
Dense sourdough rye, at least nine tenths rye flour, baked dark and kept for days.
Luizet apricots from the Rhône valley on short pastry, in season from July.
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