Oh! The Places You'll Go!

13th September 2013. This date marks the day my trusty travel sidekick Mia and I attempted to hike from Zermatt to Hörnlihütte.?
This escapade all began with a conversation with a scruffy looking nomad in our cheap dorm room the night before. He told us of the hike he had been on that day. The only useful piece of advice we received from the delusional traveller was that our converse sneakers would not be sufficient for the path. This should have been a hint of what was to come, but being young, naïve and abroad, the gleam of adventure was too seductive to refuse.  ?
The day had arrived. We would spend the next few hours toeing the line between Switzerland and Italy in order to look out upon the two countries from the point of view of the Matterhorn. We had navigated our path over boulders and along razor sharp bends, to finally come to the realization that our misinterpretation of the German signs had resulted in us becoming lost. We looked up at the almost vertical path of unstable stones; how did we get here?

By the time we had found our way back to the path, we were faced with a new set of challenges. The path had become so vertical, ropes were in place to enable us to climb. The temperature had plummeted to a crisp -10 degrees and snow lined our path. Four hours had passed and I was cursing that delusional nomad who set us on this ‘light hike’. We were so close to Hörnlihütte, we needed to push through.

We finally set foot at Hörnlihütte. The base camp was under construction and the workers looked at us with an expression of shock. They were bewildered as to why we were at Hörnlihütte so late in the day. We were in real danger, and the prospect of making it back to Zermatt before dark was impossible.

We began running back down the mountain as fast as our little legs could take us. We were taking bends on the edge of cliff faces, laden with ice, far too quickly. My knees and shins were screaming with pain at the repeated downhill impact. Never in my life did I anticipate that I would be racing the sun down a mountain in Switzerland, and oh my, if my mother knew what I was doing!??Civilization! Tears streaked down my face as we set foot in Zermatt. I don’t know how we managed to survive the hike to Hörnlihütte, but one thing is for sure; someday I will be bouncing my grandchildren on my lap, telling them believe it or not, this old lady hiked the Matterhorn, and kids, you too will move mountains.