Matterhorn and Five Lakes Hike 马特洪峰

June 1, 2022

After a good night's sleep, we got up early and took a routine morning walk around the town. As we reached Zermatt Museum, the snow-covered Matterhorn was right in front of us in the northern sky. It was a perfect view of the peak, to our surprise. Opposite to yesterday's cloudy weather, this morning's sky was clear blue with few clouds. It was a good start for us to endeavor another adventure.

As we walked to the Sunnegga Funicular station through the town, we often stopped to take more photos of the Matterhorn from different angles. The funicular station is on the other side of the Vispa river that flows through Zermatt. The Zermatt–Sunnegga Funicular, also known as short SunneggaExpress, is an underground funicular railway. The funicular ride to the top was less than 5 minutes.

At Sunnegga, the people usually took the cable car up Blauherd, saving two miles of uphill climbing. Unfortunately, the cable service had not started for the summer yet. Without the gondola's help, we started our Five Lake Loop hike at Sunnegga instead and hiked our way up to Blauherd. Although the hiking up 2 miles from Summegga to Blauherd with an elevation of 1400 feet was challenging for us, the views of Matterhorn and surrounding mountains and glaciers were stunning and made the hard-working 100% worth it. We had stopped many times along the trail and turned around to look back at Matterhorn; it was the best hiking on this Europe trip.

From Blauherd, we walked to Stellisee, the largest and prettiest of five lakes on the loop. It was an easy, predominantly downhill walk. The lake view with the partially cloud-covered Matterhorn in the background was beautiful. We walked around the lake for the best view of the Matterhorn from the far side of the lake. Not so lucky, the lake was not as calm as we like to have a better reflection of the Matterhorn on the lake. We had our lunch, simple sandwiches, by the lake. Then we continued our downhill hiking as the clouds were moving in. We visited the other four lakes, Grindjisee, Grunsee, Moosjisee, and Leisee. The scenery of these four lakes was good but not as impressive as those in the first half of 8 miles hike. The highlight was that we saw some black goats on our way from Moosjisee to Leisee. Their furs were half black and half white. We learned later that these were the famous Valais Blackneck goats.

The hike to Leisee, the last lake on the loop, was the most challenging part of today's hike for us after six hours on the trail. It was a steep continuous zig-zap walk up some villages before arriving at the lake. The clouds became so thick we could not see the lake at one point. By reaching Leisee, we were almost at our finish line, except there was one last hill to climb to get back to the station. Luckily not far from the lake, a lift could be used to go straight up to the hill where the station was located. We were so exhausted to do another uphill walk that we took the lift to the station instead. We were very proud of ourselves for completing this 8 miles adventure. Overall, the section from Sunnegga to Stellisee was the best part of the Five Lakes Trail, with a much better scenic view.

Back to town, we were hungry for some delicious food. We found a place called Schaferstube, its specialty being black face sheep dishes. But one of us didn't like lamb dishes and was afraid she could not handle the lamb smell. We found another café, Restaurant Julen, at the exact location serving more non-lamb dishes. We followed the direction from Google Maps to the site and walked into the restaurant in the basement. There was no sign outside; we didn't see one. It turned out to be Schaferstube, our first choice. Both restaurants belonged to the same hotel. The atmosphere of the restaurant was warm and like an old Europe tavern. On the wall, black face sheep sculptures and pictures were everywhere. There was no unpleasant lamb smell, so we decided to stay. The kitchen grill was just a few feet away from our table. Three of us ordered the black face lamb dishes, and one had seafood. Overall, it was an excellent choice for everyone.

第十二天：早上天气晴朗，在镇上都可以欣赏到雄伟壮观的马特洪峰Matterhorn。昨天四英里徒步下山算是给大家一个热身，今天著名的五湖环绕徒步对我们来说是自我挑战，由于其一缆车尚未开通，给今天的徒步增加一份难度和力度。五湖徒步一共八英里，上下一千七百英尺，我们花了六小时多才回到镇上。晚餐是烤当地的黑面羊为主，很不错。