Luck Interrupted

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Hiking on Zermatt ski resort, Running of the Goats, more views of Matterhorn
Miles Hiked - 11.99 miles
Vertical Feet - -4,089 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 29, 2009.



Score one for the superstitious. The day after I blogged about the good luck and fortune I have experienced during my trip, I was hit with a rash of bad things. Superstitious people would say that I was asking for trouble by acknowledging that so many things had gone well. I prefer not to consider superstition, but those who believe would say that today proves their point. All in the same day, I had the following things happen:
1. My camera sensor started to fail – more later
2. My iPod froze
3. My GPS lost the record of today’s hike (later recovered)
4. A hiking mishap nearly took out my knee with the damaged meniscus.

My camera failed to shut down properly a couple of days ago and it overheated. I think this damaged the image sensor and the camera now only works intermittently. Returning it to the factory is the only way to repair a damaged sensor. That would be a 3-week process that isn’t practical while traveling. It is clear that the camera is going to fail, but I don’t know when it will become unusable. Canon will not do a replacement from a retail store because it is 2 months out of warranty. I could purchase a replacement, but that is very expensive in Europe and U.S. companies like Amazon cannot ship here. There are no good options, but I am going to roll the dice and keep using it until it fully fails.

The most serious problem happened while hiking across a snowfield today. I unexpectedly broke through the snow and my left leg dropped down to my hip where it became wedged between two boulders. This caused my right knee to abruptly go into full flexion, which is the one position I need to avoid while I live with my torn meniscus. It was initially very painful, but fortunately, by the time I am writing this, everything seems to be okay. Like my camera and my shoulder, failure is inevitable, but I am trying to live with their frailties until they impact my lifestyle enough that more definitive action necessary.



I figured out today why Matterhorn is so striking. Its shape and angles are distinctive, but the really noticeable thing is its apparent size. It is a high peak even by Colorado standards at 4,478 m (14,691 ft) and rises out of the town of Zermatt that sits at 1,620 m (5,315 ft). That makes the exposed vertical relief 2,858 m (9,377 ft) which is much larger than anything in Colorado and is a lot of exposed rock rising straight out of a valley floor. As you can tell by the pictures, I was just as captivated by it today.

On the good luck side of the ledger, the weather held out for another day. Considering the rain and snow that have been happening every day in Switzerland, I have been very lucky (there I go again). I’m starting to think that the locals are publishing bad weather forecasts to keep the tourists away.



While returning from my hike today, I was passing through Zermatt on the way to the hotel. I heard a chorus of clanking bells, and then saw a herd of goats heading toward me. Apparently the goats are moved between fields twice a day, and Zermatt sits in the middle. Running with the Goats is considerable less risky than Running with the Bulls.

Two days of intense hiking have left my legs more sore than they have been at any point during this trip. Since I was exploring the lift system today, most of my hiking was downhill. Going downhill is much more likely to make me sore than cycling or hiking up hill.

My last day in Zermatt ended with dinner in the hotel dining room (cheese fondue). The view of Matterhorn at sunset from my table was a good way to end this stay.