The Best Day Skiing Zermatt & Cervinia

Sunnegga to Rothorn — 3,103m

The best days on the mountain start before the crowds arrive, and this one is no different. The group gathers at the Sunnegga underground funicular at 8:30am, while most of Zermatt is still at the breakfast table — which is precisely the point. The funicular rockets everyone up in just a few minutes, and from there two more gondolas carry the group all the way to Rothorn at 3,103 metres.

Stepping out at the top, the view stops people in their tracks. A full 360-degree panorama stretches in every direction — the Matterhorn directly ahead, with Monte Rosa, the Dom and the Weisshorn forming a ring of peaks around it. These are some of the highest mountains in Europe, and from up here they all feel within reach. It is one of the finest viewpoints in the entire ski area, and a quietly brilliant way to begin the day.

Rothorn to Kumme — The First Run

Skis on, the group drops left off the summit and heads down the wide-open red toward Kumme. At this hour the slope is freshly groomed — smooth, with the perfect gradient to get started. Not intimidating, just breathtaking. It is exactly the right run to open the day with: let the legs loosen up, let confidence build, and let the overthinking fade away. By the bottom, everyone is just skiing.

At the bottom, the Kumme gondola — built in 2020, with ten-person cabins and great views back up to Rothorn — carries the group back to the same point on a different lift.

Rothorn to Sunnegga to Findeln

Back at the summit, the route drops toward Sunnegga and sweeps through Findeln — one of the most picturesque sections on the entire mountain. Wooden chalets sit tucked into the hillside, the Matterhorn framed perfectly ahead. Two of Switzerland's most celebrated mountain restaurants sit along this stretch — Chez Vrony and Adler Hitta — both worth noting for another day.

Gant to Hohtälli — The Big Gondola

The gondola from Gant is an impressive piece of engineering — a long, dramatic crossing all the way up to Hohtälli at 3,286 metres, carrying the group into a completely different part of the mountain.

Hohtälli to Riffelberg to Furi — The Long Sweep

Off the gondola, skis point toward Riffelberg with the famous Gornergrat mountain railway visible to the left, and the Matterhorn dead ahead. This run has a split personality, and both halves are rewarding. The upper section is narrow and technical — it twists and demands precise footwork. Then, without warning, it breaks open into one of the most satisfying wide-open runs on the mountain.

The route continues past the Riffelberg railway station all the way down to Furi. Here the group takes the gondola toward Trockener Steg — and rests. This twenty-minute ride is a well-earned break for legs that have been working all morning. The Matterhorn fills the gondola windows and grows steadily larger as the cabin climbs. As it turns at Schwarzsee you can see all the slopes already skied that morning, wrapping around a village that now looks far away. Four stops later the group steps off at Trockener Steg — it is colder here, and the snow sounds different. A short ski leads to the famous glacier chairlift, Furggsattel.

Furggsattel to Trockener Steg — The Motorway Runs

The Furggsattel chairlift delivers the group to what can only be described as the motorways — two vast, side-by-side pistes rolling down in parallel toward Trockener Steg. The gradient is ideal, the width is generous, and by this point in the morning legs are fully warmed up and ready. This is where the talking stops and the skiing takes over.

Feeling pumped, it is now time to take the 3S gondola to the very top.

One of the Longest Runs in Europe

From the Klein Matterhorn summit to the valley floor at Cervinia lies approximately 11 kilometres of near-continuous skiing, dropping over 1,800 vertical metres in around 30 minutes. The slopes are wide and well-groomed for carving, with a few gentler sections so legs can recover without stopping. It is one of those runs that skiers describe for years afterwards, because there genuinely is nothing else quite like it.

Down Through the Glacier — Into Cervinia

At the top, click in and the descent begins through the glacier — ice walls rising on the left, the light around them a deep, electric blue. The group passes through Testa Grigia, the Italian border crossing, and drops into a different country. The route follows Route 7, the more challenging of the two main slopes down: long, wide red slopes perfectly suited to committed carving, taking you deeper and deeper into the Italian Alps. The run takes 30-plus minutes, sweeping past beautiful restaurants and into an incredible mountain range with the Matterhorn — now called Cervino — on your right. It feels never-ending.

Love Cervinia — Lunch in Italy

A short gondola from Cervinia to Plan Maison, then a short blue, brings the group to the Love Cervinia restaurant around 1:00pm. Pasta, fresh bread, sun on the terrace — this is lunch in Italy at altitude, and it lives up to everything you would imagine. By 1:45pm, double espressos finished and legs loosened, it is time to ski again.

Cervinia — The Italian Red Slopes

After lunch it is straight to the chairlift that climbs the far left side, next to the Cervino, onto the world-class slopes of Cervinia — quieter, less-trafficked runs that carve down the mountain. The Italian side has a different character to the Swiss: more open, bathed in sun. A run or two down the left side, then back up and over to Plan Maison to catch the famous white linked chairlifts back toward the border.

Back Across the Border — Into Zermatt

Three chairlifts return the group to the Swiss border, the Matterhorn right there on the right the whole way. One last pit stop for an espresso or a Bombardino at the border, and then the long descent back to Zermatt begins.

Summit Ridge to Furggsattel — The Scenic Return

This is consistently the run people mention most when they reflect on the day afterwards. Wide, smooth and perfectly graded, with nothing ahead but great snow and an uninterrupted view of one of the world's most iconic mountains. The only sound is edges cutting through snow, and the Matterhorn accompanies the descent the whole way down. This is the point where the day's final decision gets made — red or black — depending on ski level, snow conditions and how much the legs have left. On a warm day with fresh snow the night before, the black runs build up huge bumps, so the smart choice is the red: past the famous Zermatt sign and back down through Furi into town.

The Finish — Hennu Stall

The last stop: some of the group are ready to party, so we pull in at the world-famous Hennu Stall — like a nightclub perched on the side of the slope. The day is complete. Some of the group stays on, and some ski the rest of the way down to town beside the river.

Either way, the group skis back into Zermatt having experienced a day that most visitors to this resort never come close to. And this is only Day One — with two more full days on different slopes, more amazing lunch spots and scenic end-of-day finishers still to come.

Tomorrow is already planned: knowing what the group can do and checking the forecast to make sure the lifts and international links will stay open, we will start at the Matterhorn Express, go straight to the top, and ski 17km down to Valtournenche in the morning — then ski all the way back across Glacier Paradise, Furi and Riffelberg to Sunnegga, finishing at the champagne bar. The days after that will be hard, fast skiing on different slopes we still have not skied around Sunnegga and Hirli, followed by long, late lunches at world-famous restaurants.