Haute Route Day 9 - Gruben to St. Niklaus
Photos and details of day 9 of our Haute Route hike, hiking a gorgeous high pass from Gruben to St. Niklaus, then taking a train into Zermatt.
Our goal today was to hike the Augstbordpass in the Jungtall mountains to the east of Gruben, then to descend to the little farming village of Jungu, where we'd take another gondola down to the slightly bigger village of St. Niklaus in the Zermatt valley.
Another cloudy morning. Fortunately rain was not predicted.
It was that kinda mood.
Chilly, brisk, and steady gradual climbing. Perfect hiking conditions.
As we got into the high alpine valleys above tree line, we started to see our friends in the guided group through the mist ahead.
We caught up to them pretty quickly with Mark in just-focus-and-hike mode.
As we passed the group again, I gave Peter my contact info to try to get them a copy of the photos I'd gotten of them. I had a feeling some of them would look pretty cool.
After cresting in the chill, we descended in the sunlight of the clearing day, eventually arriving at Jungu.
We took the little private gondola down over big cliffs. This is Brian using his phone to ignore the very large distance to the ground below us... exactly what I was doing with my phone as well.
The trip went safely, but paying for it at the end proved to be more difficult than one would guess. Stupid Americans.
And then we grabbed the train up the valley to spend the night in Zermatt.
See Also
- Day 10 - Täschalp to Zermatt
- Haute Route overview
- Photos and stories from the other chapters of our 2025 Swiss trip
