Synopsis
Gornergrat Cog Railway: The Gornergrat Railway is a cog railway which takes you from Zermatt to the Station Gornergrat at the summit (10,135 feet/3089m) in 33 minutes. The railway opened in August 1898 and was fully electrified from its opening. Intermediate stops provides access to hiking trails, restaurants, alpine lakes, and more (which I need to explore more).
Our reservations are for the 10am train, allowing us to skip to the front of the line. It appears you could easily spend 6+ hours, depending on where you stop and what you want to do. Many opportunities to take some incredible selfies, such as at Riffelsee.
I expect us to return to Zermatt in late afternoon, after which we’ll likely explore Zermatt and get dinner and prepare for tomorrow.
Commentary
Our Matterhorn selfie at the Gornergrat Station lookout. You see the famous mountain peak, don’t you? Of course you don’t, and neither did we. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Heavy, overnight rains and early morning drizzle led to a wet, gray, overcast morning. I purchased 10am priority reservations for our Gornergrat Railroad trip, and we started wondering how this was going to play out. We duly arrived at the Zermatt station, scanned out tickets, and joined (surprisingly) many others for the 33 minute trip to the top.
The train starts its ascent into the cloudy unknown and you are looking down upon Zermatt. By now you are questioning the wisdom of the trip, as you can see the clouds hanging fairly far down. It may have been raining slightly, which is made inconsequential after you notice the snows starting. This is not going according to plan.
[Note: the last few slideshow pictures are on the return trip, the clouds had slightly broken and Mother Nature was tempting you to try again. However, still a lot of clouds, but blue skies are a positive improvement.]
The Gornergrat Railroad has six stations: Zermatt (1608m/5276ft above sea level), Findelbach (1770m/5807ft), Riffelalp (2211m/7254ft), Riffelberg (2582m/8471ft), Rotenbogen (2815m/9236ft), and Gornergrat (3039m/9970). The cog railway is necessary to navigate the steep slope – which is definitely noticeable at points – and allows the railroad to operate almost year round (other than regular maintenance, such as 03-09 November 2025).
We arrive at the top and confirm the worst: we can’t see anything. The selfie was intended to commemorate our “seeing” the Matterhorn, except – as we learned on Day 7 – the Matterhorn was the other way. How would anyone know, you literally can not see a single mountain peak.
The weather forecast kept changing: clearing at noon, clearing at 2pm, clearing at 5pm, clearing tomorrow. We found a bench to see if anything change, but gave up after 75 minutes and reluctantly returned to Zermatt.
Free Time to Fill
Our afternoon now free, we visited the Matterhorn Museum right across from Pfarrkirche St. Mauritius. The museum tells the story about mountaineering and the Matterhorn through artifacts, exhibits, and video. A particular emphasis is the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 where four of the seven died on the descent when a rope broke. Conspiracy theories, doubts on the story of the one British survivor (the two guides were father and son), and calls to make mountain climbing illegal all contributed to the mystique of the Matterhorn.
The afternoon skies did clear briefly and we caught our first glimpses of the Matterhorn, definitely awe-inspiring. And just as quickly, the clouds came back in and the Matterhorn and all other peaks were hidden. Bummer.
Our second night choice for dinner was GramPi’s, definitely a step up from the so-called pizza served to us the previous night. After that, we returned to the hotel and called it a night.
Image Credits
- map courtesy of Gornergrat Railway
- photos © 2025 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved
