Hike Sunnegga to Riffelalp (Zermatt area) - query

Hi

I will be visiting Zermatt for a day, and am keen to do some walking. I am of average fitness and usually do the yellow sign walks. I am not a mountaineer!

In Zermatt is it correct that low lying cloud tends to come in early afternoon? Would it therefore be safer to hike in the morning when you can see the paths properly? (I appreciate weather is very changeable in any case).

I am thinking of taking the funicular to Sunegga and either walking the botanical path to Blauherd or taking the gondola (will there be lots of flowers out at the end of July?). Then walk to Stellisee lake, Grinjisee lake, Grunsee lake (I know this is part of the 5 Lake Walk). Then I'm hoping to find signs for the walk to Riffelalp. Will I find these signs and is there an easier route to Riffelalp if there is more than one? How long would it take to do the walk Blauherd to Riffelalp please and is it well signposted and easy enough for a reasonably fit adult to do?

Thereafter if there's time, train to Gornergrat, back to Rotenboden, then walk to Riffelalp via Riffelsee. Then train back to Zermatt.

I will have from say 11am to 5pm in Zermatt. If the above itinerary is too much, what would you recommend I should cut out please? I personally like decent, well sign posted paths through grassy, flowery areas with amazing mountain views (like at Wengen and Murren), rather than grey, barren and rocky terrain.

Many thanks in advance for any help anyone can give.

Hi Sapphire-

Welcome to my Swiss alps.

I don't know the area personally, so the first thing I do is look at a good map

map.geo.admin.ch/?topic=inspire&X=96740. 00&Y=621620.00&zoom=5& bgLayer=ch.swisstopo.p ixelkarte-farbe&lang=en&layers=c h.swisstopo.swisstlm3d -wanderwege

I have turned on the hiking trail overlay. The trails up there are all "red" which means "mouuntain trails." The yellow ones are shown, too.

Arno and Annika, the forum moderators, know the area well.

I'm sure that they will have comments.

Slowpoke

Hi Slowpoke

Thanks for replying and for the map. I received yesterday a map from tourist information which shows 1 yellow route between the 5 Lake Walk and Riffelalp which is good, but I'm still unsure if I'm being too ambitious in my plans for the day! Will wait to see if anyone else has some additional advice.

All the best.

Hi Sapphire,

I would say it can be done in your time frame, but personally I would prefer to start earlier, like 9:00 AM. This is not the "lovely Alpine meadow" type of terrain. It's too high for that. From what I remember it's more like rocks, lakes and pine trees, surrounded by mountains. Very nice. There should be plenty of flowers, but that may vary from place to place. It's all signposted, but you should know where you're headed for. Be sure to take along an electronic or paper map.

Hi Arno

Thank you for the advice.

I will be travelling 3 hours to get to Zermatt from where I'm staying and 3 back so whilst I agree a 9am start would be great, it's probably not doable this time round.

if you had to choose, is the best dramatic mountain scenery to be had on the 5 Lakes Walk, or the walk Rotenboden to Riffelalp please?

Kerry

Hi Kerry,

I'd probably pick Rotenboden, to be combined with a visit to Gornergrat, for the Matterhorn views. But you can't go wrong in the entire area. All of it is magnificent.