(all pictures are low res, for high res click here)
Eventually, we made our way to the final climbing town,
Zermatt, Switzerland.
.
Zermatt, is a quaint town about double the size of Wengen
("I'd like a double Wengen, baby!") and is home to the
Matterhorn
(the view from my hotel room!) and
Monte Rosa
(seen above). Before we would begin our climbing, I took some time to walk
around the village. The village is not really that old by European standards,
but these huts have all been built by the earliest inhabitants. Notice how they
are built on stilts to keep the rats out (or as
Vince mentioned, a
rat would have to climb a 5.14 to get into any of these houses).
While in Zermatt, I also spent a few humbling moments to visit the Zermatt
climbers cemetery.
As I continued my walk about
beautiful Zermatt,
I stopped at the
Zermatt Alpine Museum, where they
had
Edward Whymper's
iceaxe and rope
that he used on the first ascent of
the Matterhorn. Also at the mueseum were other artifacts including some of
the first boots used on Everest
as well as a collection of old
iceaxes.
Later that day the drama with my guide continued. It appears
that Lansing has had enough of our guide and the climb and has decided to pass
on Monte Rosa. My guide then spends a bit of time convincing me that we
shouldn't climb Monte Rosa because of our speed. Sheesh! I didn't think we were
going that slow!?!? Paul may be a good climber, but he was really showing his
immaturity as a guide. I am sure that he had some other motives behind not
climbing, but so be it. For an alternative set of climbs, he suggested that we
spend one day climbing the
Riffelhorn
and one day climbing
Pollux.
The Riffelhorn (2927 m) is a
fairly easy rock climb, class 4 scrambling with a couple of class 5.6+ pitches.
Mostly this is bolted sport climbing, depending on the route you choose. I still
was not happy with my guide, but at this point I didn't have much choice. I
joined him on the climb, and it was actually fun -- but it just wasn't Monte
Rosa. 
At the bottom of the route, we were given some great views of Monte Rosa (seen
above) and the Matterhorn.
The next day we took the
telepheric up to
Klein Matterhorn
and proceeded to cross the
glacier
behind the
Breithorn
and head up the back side of
Pollux. The route was pretty frozen, as we started the climb with some easy
angled ice climbing, followed by moderate rock climbing which was enhanced with
the use of a fixed line (in this case the fixed line was a chain). At the top of
the rock climbing pitches, was a statue of Madonna with Child
-
we sat here for a few minutes to eat lunch, then we dropped our packs and headed
up the 50 degree knife ridge
to the summit (4092 m).
.
For a few moments I was actually happy again
, as the views were spectacular
(Monte Rosa) -
(Castor)
.
The next day, my guide kinda dissed me on another climb, so I
just basically decided to hang out in Zermatt, take a few more pictures of this
cool village
(yes, they actually herd goats
thru the streets)
(train station) and find a nice
to tree to sit under and read a
book. It was a needed rest day, as I was leaving in 2 days to climb
Kilimanjaro and I really didn't want to be around Paul
anymore.
Finally, we ended the trip with a long but scenic drive back to
Zurich 
. Along the way there were tons of
crotch rockets
passing us at every turn, as this drive was very popular with sport
motorcyclists.
(check out the
winding road). For
lunch we stopped at
Furkapass (7, 500 ft), home to the Rhone Glacier
, a
tiny restaurant and a great stop for sport bikes.
At the pass, we also found an
unusual 2 person, electrically aided, aerodynamic bicycle.
.
Once in Zurich, I was happy to be rid of Paul. I spent the next day doing my own
tour of the city,
where I noticed yet another
unusual bike. This is a special series
BMW C1 motorbike that is not
available in the US.
. Bikes seemed to be the theme
for the last couple days, as I walked past St. Peter's Church
(which claims to have
the largest clock face in Europe)
, I literally stumbled upon a
bike race. As I found out, this was no ordinary bike race, it was the
Zurich World Cup . I got to watch
America's cycling hero, Lance Armstrong
finish third -- well, at a bike race you really only see them fly past you for
about 5 seconds, then you watch most of the race on the big jumbotron.
Lastly, I spent a few moments to actually go into St. Peter's Church and climb
it's tower.
The view from above was great!
At last, my European portion of my journey had come to an end. I had a great time, and I learned a great lesson - don't climb with guides you are not sure of. I also learned that I probably won't climb with IMG again, either.
Now it was off to the airport to catch a flight to Nairobi, Kenya and begin my trip to the top of the tallest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro.