We snowboarded and skied at Cervinia for the ski resorts closing day last week. I guess I like symmetry because that’s the same place we started the northern winter way back on the 14th November, so it’s been a long season! Unlike in November the snow and weather was perfect this time around, so we splashed out on the international pass and visited the linked resort of Zermatt in Switzerland too. This was both of our’s first time in Zermatt and we loved the area.
Cervinia is a great resort on its own but when linked in with Zermatt it becomes even better, they share the world vamous Matterhorn mountains, but Zermatt gets the more striking north face as its backdrop! However despite that I believe if you stay in Italy you get the best of both worlds. Great Italian food, friendly Italian hospitality and outstanding Italian coffee and probably all for the price of one Swiss Toblerone too. Switzerland is really expensive, even more so than just a few years back and with the worlds highest minimum wage set to be introduced, it will only get less accessible. Therefore my tip would be stay in Cervinia and ski both areas.
The skiing on the Zermatt side seemed more sheltered when we were there and a potentially biased Zermatt local told us the snow normally stays fresh for longer there too. We certainly found this to be true, especially from the summit of enormous Klein Matterhorn lift at 3885m! This reaches a similar height to the Aiguille du Midi lift in Chamonix, but the skiing from the Klein Matterhorn is much more accessible. There are some great ski touring options from the top and the glacier off piste run down the front face is fantastic, however beware of the crevasses on this route. There is also a red and black piste option.
After skiing Zermatt all morning we returned across the border to pick up some delicious homemade Italian Lasagna in the sunshine. The Italians love a sunbathe and the restaurant terrace was filled to the brim with bronzed faces! We returned to Zermatt for a final few runs before skiing the long but fun Cervinia home run into the delightful town at the base of the mountain and then enjoying a hard earned coffee in the sun!