Winter hike from Riffelalp to Findelbach

The route takes you from the idyllic Riffelalp and through the Arven forest.  First, you pass the Riffelalp Resort.  The Grand Hotel Riffelalp once stood here and was known as the ‘playground of European high society’  from 1884 to the nineteen-sixties when, in 1961, a huge fire destroyed the fabled hotel.  In 1988 the building made a come-back as the Riffelalp Resort.  At the Alphitta restaurant you enter the forest where a path takes you downwards to the Chämi Hitta restaurant.  This is the perfect place to try a slice of home-made cake or one of their many coffee creations.  The path zigzags down towards Furi.  Follow the snow-covered Furistrasse road to Findelbach.  If you’re still feeling energetic you can walk on down to Zermatt, otherwise a Gornergrat train will take you comfortably from Findelbach right back to the centre of Zermatt.