Aluminium amid the ice
It looks like a crystal rock or a spacecraft — entirely unexpected here.
Hwking — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Swissair Photo AG — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Swissair Photo AG — CC BY-SA 4.0 · LibriPres — CC BY-SA 3.0
It is strongly inadvisable. The route crosses the Gorner glacier, and glaciers hold crevasses hidden under snow that cannot be seen; crossing without experience and ropes is a real danger. Hire a guide from Zermatt's mountain office if you want to go.
By the Gornergrat railway, which climbs from Zermatt to over three thousand metres overlooking the Gorner glacier. The hut shows as a gleam across the valley from certain stations. That railway is among Switzerland's finest rail journeys in its own right and needs no physical effort.
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A modern mountain hut above the Gorner glacier near Zermatt, among the best-known works of contemporary alpine architecture anywhere. The building is entirely unexpected in this place: a many-sided mass clad in gleaming aluminium, looking like a crystal rock or a spacecraft amid the ice. It was designed by the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and opened in 2009. The thinking behind it is engineering rather than only aesthetics: it runs on solar power, recycles its water and achieves near-complete self-sufficiency, in a location with no electricity, no running water and no road. Everything was flown in by helicopter. Access is a serious mountain route starting from the Rotenboden or Gornergrat station, taking around five hours and including a glacier crossing. This is not ordinary walking: crossing ice requires experience or a guide, and the route changes as the ice melts. Anyone who cannot reach it can see the hut from the Gornergrat railway: it shows as a gleam across the valley, and that alone is a sight worth noticing.
It looks like a crystal rock or a spacecraft — entirely unexpected here.
Solar power and water recycling in a place with no electricity and no road.
Materials came by helicopter because no vehicle can reach the site.
Above the Gorner glacier, about 2,880 m