Hotel du Trift

When an avalanche obliterated the original Hotel du Trift in 1898, it swept the entire building clean off the mountain from Platthorn to the pastures of Zermatt below. That spring, locals discovered intact bottles of perfectly good wine scattered across the meadows, the hotel’s cellar having survived the destruction with considerably more dignity than the building around it. Builder Peter Aufdenblatten reopened in 1900 in the exact same style, 70 meters lower, which is either a statement of defiance or a man who had simply found a style he liked.

Today, the pink-painted Berggasthaus Trift is still run by his great-great-granddaughter Fabienne and her husband Hugo, who is known for coaxing weary hikers back outside when the clouds clear. There are no cars, no cable cars, no easy way in. Getting here requires a hike, which means everyone who arrives has already decided something about themselves. The guesthouse sits at a position that generations of Zermatt mountaineers have found strategically unavoidable: high enough to overlook the Matterhorn, low enough to serve dinner.

What it is, exactly, remains a matter of some debate. Hotel, refuge, berggasthaus: the categories blur at altitude. The rooms are modest, the rules are alpine, and the wine cellar has a more storied history than most establishments would prefer. The bottles in the meadow, it turns out, were quite the marketing tool.