Hiking in Zermatt: what you can only find out from a local
Anyone hiking in Zermatt often walks paths that Beat Truffer's family already followed over 100 years ago. In this conversation, the certified hiking guide and director of the Matterhorn Museum shares what has changed, where his insider tips lie, and how history and the mountains belong together.
There are people for whom several lives seem to come together. Beat P. Truffer is one of them. Born in Zermatt in 1965, he grew up with the Matterhorn on his doorstep. Insurance manager in Zurich for over 30 years. Back in the valley for two and a half years as director of the Matterhorn Museum Zermatlantis. In addition: hiking guide with a federal certificate and member of the Union of international Mountain Leaders with T4 accreditation and 73 four-thousand-meter peaks to his name, all of them Swiss, and author of several books about Zermatt and the Matterhorn.
There is something in the family that explains his connection to the mountains. His great-grandfather Fridolin Kronig was a Zermatt mountain guide who accompanied Edward Whymper, among others, for several years after the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. His brother-in-law was later hut warden at the Monte Rosa hut. Beat himself came to hiking via mountaineering. "I started when I was about twenty and climbed one four-thousand-metre peak after another," he says. "At the same time, the history of Zermatt never let go of me."
The impetus for leading hikes came by chance. While studying business administration, Beat was once sitting in the office of the then spa director when a call came in: a Swiss tour group was looking for a hiking guide for a summer with senior citizens in Zermatt and Saas-Fee. The spa director closed the earpiece and asked: "Wouldn't that be something for you?" And so began another career.
Hiking in Zermatt sounds easy: well-marked trails, mountain railroads directly to the top. So why book a hiking guide? We spent a morning asking Beat about the trails, the dangers and the stories that lie between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa.
There are many beautiful mountain regions in Switzerland, Beat admits. The Ferdenrothorn in the Lötschental alone is insane. And yet Zermatt is unique. "Nowhere else in the Alps are there so many high mountains so close together," he says. Chamonix is the only comparable place, where things are a little wilder, but the harmony and beauty of the mountains in Zermatt is incomparable. But one thing is almost always underestimated: the geology and therefore the basis for everything.
Even as a teenager, Beat was interested in mineralogy and even gave radio interviews about it. Today, this knowledge is incorporated into his tours. "The plate tectonics that come together here are unique in the world," he says. Sedimentary rock, gneiss and slate lie side by side in a very small space. When he is out and about with guests, he sometimes asks them whether they are aware of where they are actually standing when you go back a hundred million years. It changes the way you walk, he says. The same applies to the alpine flora: plants grow around Zermatt that are found practically nowhere else in the world.
"Those are extremely difficult questions," laughs Beat when we ask him about his favorite tours. There are simply too many great things to do. But after a moment's thought, he comes up with names that are not usually on the standard program.
There's the high trail from Ried to Findeln, "I still think it's beautiful". There's the tour from Blauherd towards Chumme and the Ritzengrat ridge to the Unterrothorn, where there's hardly anyone out and the views and flora are simply fantastic. And then there's the hike to Gross Kastel, which you reach from Randa. Instead of the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn is in full view here. A lesser-known, wild area where you are practically always alone.
Perhaps his most personal insider tip: the Hörnliweg, but from Staffelalp upwards instead of from Schwarzsee. "Frontal Matterhorn north face. Incredible, but an achievement." Much tougher, much steeper, but emotionally a different world. Beat only recommends this option for the ascent; the path is too steep and slippery for the descent. As soon as you reach the main path at the top after the Hirli, you are back in the flow of the others. But on the section before that, Beat says, he has "often never met anyone". The Hohtälli ridge up to the Stockhorn is also lonely and offers great views.
If you want to go even further, you can also go pathless with Beat. The continuation of the "lost valley", for example, which is actually called Findeltrift. The popular name comes from a novel by Hannes Taugwalder. From there, you climb further up to the hidden lakes: impressive, lonely, a completely different atmosphere. "I once suddenly saw over 100 chamois there at once."
What does a hiking guide offer that no app can replace? Beat mentions three things:
1. safety. The trail conditions and weather are in your head. That makes all the difference when things get dicey. "Even on Schwarzsee, I've experienced how quickly the weather can change. I was surprised too."
2. knowledge about the history, nature and landscape. Reading up on the internet is never the same as someone standing next to you and explaining that the bowl stones on the Hubel are possibly sacrificial stones from prehistoric times. Or that some of the paths in the area are old Roman roads towards Italy. Or that the Männertreu, a small alpine orchid, tastes of vanilla. (Picking is forbidden, the plant is protected).
3. company and sharpening your perception. If you are out and about alone and have no experience, you only see the big picture. "Many people don't know, for example, that there are two different alpine roses, one on limestone soil and the other on silicate soil." As soon as you know that, you see the ground with different eyes.
If you wish, a hike in Zermatt can also be combined with culinary delights.
Beat is accredited for T4 hikes (alpine blue-white hikes) and has hiked even the most challenging routes around Zermatt several times. When asked what mistakes he sees most often when hiking independently, he answers without much thought:
1. lack of preparation.
2. incorrect assessment of the tour.
3. too much or the wrong equipment. "You always see people with incredibly heavy rucksacks who completely underestimate how much energy it takes."
Beat finds something exciting that many people underestimate: The greater dangers are often not on the more difficult T4 routes, but on the seemingly more harmless T3 routes. "On T4, people have usually already dealt with the tour," he explains. "On T3, many approach with the feeling that they can already do it." As an example, he mentions a mountain outside of Valais, the Great Mythen in the canton of Schwyz. A T3 trail with 44 bends. Two to three people die there every year.
The most dangerous things are anything that has to do with water: snowfields, (frozen) rivers, avalanches, thunderstorms, frozen paths, falling rocks. Especially in spring, when snow remains are underestimated, and in late fall, when rivers freeze over and hikers think they can just walk over them. Added to this is carelessness.
Actually, says Beat, hiking in Zermatt is best in spring and fall. In spring, because the flowers are phenomenal until the end of June: fields of anemones, carpets of gentian, orchids. In autumn, because the larch forest changes color. Here are his specific recommendations for each season:
Early summer: In the area from Findeln to Gornergrat. Best flora around Zermatt, many rare flowers. Also worthwhile near Blauherd.
High summer: Up to the Oberrothorn. "At first glance, the landscape looks barren, but at the top you really feel like you're on a high mountain." It is the highest hiking mountain in Zermatt.
Golden fall: In the Riffelalp area. Fantastic larch forest and lots of old Swiss stone pines, which Beat likes to talk about.
Winter: With snowshoes on the Theodul plateau or a little more secluded on the Täschalp. "As a guest, it's worth getting to know Zermatt from the outside: Z'Mutt, Findeln, Täschalp."
Another tip in passing: most hikers are out too late. "It's a shame to start a five-lake hike at ten o'clock. You miss so much." You see more early in the morning and late in the evening because the animals are more active and the hotspots are less frequented.
Beat has experienced Zermatt in several roles. As a local in the 60s and 70s, as a returnee, as a hiking guide and now as museum director. One thing immediately comes to mind when you ask him about changes: there are a lot more people out and about. "Hiking has really become a popular sport."
What he finds worrying is not the number itself. It's the way many of these hikers treat the mountains. They just set off without planning. Some hotspots are overcrowded. And it's often more about seeing than experiencing. If guests are only in Zermatt for two to four days and absolutely want to see everything, that's actually the biggest mistake. A week is the minimum to understand this mountain world.
"We should actually move more towards leisure tourism and away from Instagram tourism."
Beat Truffer, hiking guide ZERMATTERS
What worries him most is that the unspoiled nature that Zermatt still has in many places is slowly being strained. But he is not resigned. "If you're looking for peace and quiet, there are plenty of places where you can find it." Only three or four places close to the cable cars are overcrowded, the rest are free. All it takes is a little preparation and a willingness to deviate from the standard route.
If you listen to Beat for a while, you realize that the mountain world around Zermatt is never just geography for him. It is also always history. And his family is part of this history.
His great-grandfather Fridolin Kronig was a mountain guide who accompanied Edward Whymper in the mountains after the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. However, Beat only really became aware of this late in life. His great-uncle gave him his great-grandfather's guide book shortly before he died. "It revealed that Kronig had been on two climbs with Edward Whymper, including one on the Matterhorn."
Beat describes it as pieces of the mosaic coming together. "It's as if I had the virus in my blood, but didn't know where for a long time."
The guide book contains many well-known names from the golden era of alpinism. Whymper himself, Beat smiles, was taciturn: "Was on the Matterhorn with Fridolin Kronig, everything was fine." Other guests filled two pages with descriptions of how fantastically they had been looked after. Today, the book is a historical document.
Beat's great-grandfather also had an accident. A brutal snowstorm on the Matterhorn, with lasting long-term consequences. Beat's grandfather later accompanied various climbs as a porter, a part of the family chain that continues to this day.
"Back then, mountaineers did something completely different to us," says Beat. "No apps, no weather forecasts, the routes often unknown. It was a pioneering spirit that almost nobody can have today."
Beat has been running the Matterhorn Museum Zermatlantis for two and a half years, and for him there is a direct link between the museum and hiking. Anyone hiking in Zermatt should establish a relationship with the place, he says. The museum deepens this relationship. You don't just see how it is today, but how it all came about. Geology, early history and "At the latest in the rooms of the first ascent, with the broken rope, with the objects found on the Matterhorn glacier, the connection becomes clear."
Finally, we ask Beat for three tips for someone coming to Zermatt to hike for the first time:
1. set off early in the morning.
2. prepare well. Familiarize yourself with the area, the weather and the conditions and be clear about what you actually want to see.
3. allow enough time. So that nature can unfold its full effect.
If you absolutely want to photograph the famous reflection of the Matterhorn in a mountain lake, you have to go to a well-known location, says Beat, "But there are also beautiful reflections of other mountains in small, often nameless lakes. I've taken photos where guests have said: 'I've never seen Zermatt like this before'."
A hike with Beat P. Truffer is a journey through several layers of Zermatt at the same time: through the topography, the history, the flora and fauna and the human stories that are linked to them. Which chamois grows where, how the landscape was created and how it changes, which path is called what, which hut looked completely different 100 years ago.
"There are always guests who say that Zermatt has so many tourists that you don't meet any locals," Beat concludes. "A hike with a Zermatt hiking guide gives you the chance to be out and about with someone from Zermatt."
If you want to experience Zermatt in this depth, our hiking guides and mountain guides will accompany you on everything from a simple panoramic hike to a multi-day hut tour around the Matterhorn.
