Tour of the Matterhorn in perfect conditions

 This has been a fabulous summer all over Europe and the Alps haven't missed put on the sunny weather. Last week it cooled a touch and this suited us fine for the Tour of the Matterhorn which takes a mix of normal trails and glaciated passes. Crisp cool mornings meant the snowy sections were nice and hard, followed by warm sunshine later in the day for the meadows and picnics.

The Matterhorn looks so different from varying angles and at different times of day, I could never tire of it. We sat opposite it on the first day spying out climbers with our binos. Later in the week the Spanish phenomenon Kilian Jornet crushed the ascent record by running up and down the peak in 2h52 mins from Cervinia.

None of that nonsense for us, but we had a great time walking around it. My team were all very fit and once again international - this time, as well as the UK, we had Lithuania and Denmark represented.

 

Although the valley flowers are now waning, the high alpines are in full bloom.

 

As for the wildlife, marmots were a bit thin on the ground but the ibex more than made up for it at our high hut 2900m above the valley.

 

We finished the trek with an ascent of the Breithorn peak above Zermatt. At 4164m this peak is quite the climb and we were extremely lucky to have calm and warm conditions. I thought it was stunning as did the folks on the rope with me. The other team seemed to be less excited by the whole affair, one of them describing it as if it was a walk in the park!

Take a look and decide for yourselves :)