ZERMATT - ITINERARY

Ever dreamed to spend 4 days shooting Alpine Landscapes alongside an award winning professional landscape photographer? There really is no place on earth like the Alpine town of Zermatt in Switzerland; it is truly one of the most exciting locations in the world to explore and photograph.

This Workshop gives you the opportunities to learn all the inside tips and tricks you need to know on how to capture amazing landscapes and nightscape images. Hidden high up in the middle of the Swiss Alps away from all the city light pollution, Zermatt is also the perfect place to have a go at shooting the Milky Way!

The Tour start at 1:00 pm sharp at the Zermatt Train Station where will get a group transfer to our hotel to drop off the excess luggage we wont need for our first day/ night workshop at Lake Stellisee. If you arrived earlier in Zermatt, we will meet in the Dufour Hotel lobby to have a short orientation and get to know each other, what to pack for the first night and go over some important details about the next four days. Martial will give a short tutorial on camera settings, exposure and the use of your camera’s histogram.

Shortly after, we’ll make our way by foot to Zermatt’s Talstation Sunnegga; you don’t want to miss the last cable car, as it will add an extra 1.5 hours steep walk to the upper station!  At Sunnagga, we will be have our first induction to Alpine Photography Landscape, an short easy 30 – 40 minutes walk will take us to Fluhalp, our ‘base camp’ for the night. (It usually takes us a bit longer with all the photo stops and adapting to the altitude!)

With a bit of luck we will spot a few Edelweiss and hopefully get to meet some of the locals along the way; Marmots, Chamois, Alpine Ibex, Chocard and Eagles

We’ll check-in our accommodation late afternoon, and before dinner go through a few basic camera settings and ‘must do check list’ to be ready for our night photo shoot. We will have an early dinner at 7:00 pm so that we can catch on a bit of sleep, and weather permitting wake up half way through the night to capture the Milky Way shining over the mighty Matterhorn!

For those game, who wish to experience the early light, Martial will offer a pre-breakfast session and make his way down with the group (head torch on) to Stellisee in time to claim a spot to capture the blue hour and immortalise the breathtaking reflections of the Alps in the iconic mountain lake at Sunrise.

After breakfast (8 – 9 am) we’ll make our way to the edge of the Findelgletsher (glacier) via the Grimdjibach Track. It is an awesome hidden gem away from the crowds, a fairly manageable hour hike, offering spectacular viewing spots looking out over the Alps and probably as close as you will ever get to the Ice Ages without freezing your bum off!

After lunch, we’ll check-in at Hotel Dufour and all going to plan, have time to recharge and catch up on a couple of hours sleep for the previous night. Mid-afternoon we’ll catch the iconic Gornergrat mountain train and make our way up to the world most famous 360 degrees panoramic view.

Tonight we’ll enjoy a late afternoon picnic style dinner at Lake Riffelsee as we wait for the light to go down for our second twilight photography session and another great opportunity to capture some amazing images of the ‘King of the Mountain’ peaceful giant, the Matterhorn. We’ll catch the last train back down the valley to Zermatt around 10:30 pm from Riffelalp.

A well deserved sleep-in this morning and after a leisurely breakfast we’ll make our way to a traditional little old Swiss Alpine village, typically build with rocks, wood and slate roofs, away from the busy tourists routes After a well-earned rest and a taste of fresh local produce for lunch, we’ll hike down to Furi and catch a cable car to the Schwarzsee. This is a great place to spend the afternoon with a camera and make good use of those ND filters for waterfall and long exposure effects. We will get back in Zermatt late afternoon to explore the town and enjoy a typical Swiss meal all together. Optional free night to your leisure.

We saved the really best for last, this morning after breakfast we’ll make our way up to the Klein Matterhorn, a snow-covered peak of the Pennine Alps, with unobstructed breathtaking views over the Italo-Swiss Alps and Zermatt in the distance. At 3,883 metres above sea level, it is the highest place in Europe that can be reached by aerial cable cars, as well as by any other means of transport.

We will have the place nearly to ourselves at this time of day and will experience the magical early morning sun glowing on the surrounding Peaks. The perfect place to put in practice everything you’ve learned over the past 3 days and experience snow perhaps for the fist time. Time and weather permitting we’ll adventure for a short walk in the snow before heading back to the hotel to collect our suitcases and say our goodbyes. Our tour ends after lunch. Easy transfer and public transportation to Brigg, Sierre and Visp strain stations via Täsch Station is available daily.