Haute Route - Hiking From Zinal to Gruben

The trail was great and the rain stopped after a few minutes. To top it off, the usually confusing directions of the book were crystal clear. By forty minutes I was overheating and pulled off my jacket, counting my blessings. If I could do any part of the trail without rain I would consider myself lucky. As I rose, I actually saw glimpses of our goal, the Matterhorn.

I made it to a landmark, a cabin with a cross. For my reward it started to rain. My boots already felt like bags of water on my feet, how much worse could it get? I was a few hundred meters from the col, so I ate half a Snickers bar and pushed up. The rain wasn’t horrible. I stayed focused, watching the trail through the pea soup. The GPS told me I was close and then, voilà, there it was, the sign for the col.

The story continues...