My first trip to Zermatt was in December 1972, on a term off from college. A college buddy (Dick) and I traveled around Britain, Norway, Denmark, Morocco, and Central Europe. In Zermatt I was captivated by the ambiance of this small mountain town. Our short stay included a lucky break for Dick, who took an uncontrolled fall, and stopped just short of the "big ride" off a huge cliff during one of our hikes.
My first climbing trip was to Zermatt was in July 1978, after I had spent June climbing in the Lake District, Wales, and the Tre Cime area outside Cortina. I spent the month bivying in a hay field just below the Edelweiss Alterhaupt. I met an older British climber - in his late 30s - who had done a great deal of climbing in the Valais, and so he had a well developed tick list. In pretty short order we climbed one of the North Face routes on the Breithorn (4164m), the Neruda route on the North Face of Lyskamm (4,533m), and the Northeast Face of the Dent d'Herens (4174m). Snow and ice conditions were quite good, and with the exception of glacier travel, we dispensed with the rope, and soloed all the technical terrain. After my partner left to get back to work in London, Lenny arrived unexpectedly and nursed me back to good health with some hot meals.
Fast forward to winter 1991, and my next trip to Zermatt during the NCS spring break. I went across the big pond with Gary, Ben, and Susie. We spent 10 days camping in the unheated winter room, in a hut just below the Theodulpass, with the thought of trying to climb the North Face of the Matterhorn. It snowed, and snowed, and snowed so plans changed. We climbed the standard route on the Breithorn, and skied down it from the summit. We climbed Pollux (4092m), and skied the Schwarztor tour, just east of the Breithorn to the Monta Rosa Hut. Finally, we climbed one of the summits of Monte Rosa - the Dufourspitze (4634m) - and skied 10,000' vertical all the way back to Zermatt. All this skiing was done on vintage 1980 three pin Karhu backcountry skis and leather boots.
(In the photo below, the red lines are my ski routes, while the green ones are climbing routes.)
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