Rothornhütte SAC (3198m)

We started early in the morning in Winkelmatten. After 1 hour we reached Pension Edelweiss. It took us another 45 minutes to get to Berghasthaus Trift. The valley is very beautiful and rather calm, taking into account that it's quite close to Zermatt. That's probably because there aren't any cableways here, much unlike the Sunnegga-Unterrothorn region. At Trift you can go to Höhbalmen (Edelweissweg) or in the direction of Platthorn/Rothornhütte. A bit further, there's another junction. We went left, to the Rothornhütte. First you walk in the valley a bit more, and you have to cross a little mountain river. Once you've done that part, the path goes up the moraine (quite steeply). While taking a look at the map, we noticed that this part actually is an alpine trail, hence the blue direction signs to the hütte. However, we only saw white-red-white indications on the rocks. Indeed, the path may be a bit steep, but I wouldn't call it alpine, it's T3 + at most. At the hütte (3198m), you have a real nice view at the Triftglacier. In the descent, we stopped at Pension Edelweiss to have a drink. We had already done 1600 meters up and 1300 down, so that was a nice refreshment. Apparently there are new owners... (In 2012 it was still Edgar & Bernadet). We descended further and saw some marmots at the same spot where we had seen one in the morning: some large boulders close to wooden huts just above Zermatt.