Gornergrat

The Gornergrat (English: Gorner Ridge) is a ridge of the Pennine Alps, Switzerland, overlooking the Gorner Glacier to the south. It can be reached by the Gornergratbahn rack railway from Zermatt. The towers of the Kulm hotel at 3,089 m hosts the Kölner Observatorium für SubMillimeter Astronomie KOSMA and (until 2005) the Gornergrat Infrared Telescope.

It is located about three kilometers east of Zermatt in the Swiss canton of Valais. The Gornergrat is located between the Gornergletscher and Findelgletscher and offers a view of more than 20 four thousand metre peaks, whose highest are Monte Rosa, Lyskamm, Matterhorn, Dom and Weisshorn.

This is the last stop of the Gornergrat train, opened in 1898, which climbs almost 1500m through Riffelalp and Riffelberg. At the terminus (3,089 m above sea level) on the south-western tip of the ridge is a hotel. The station forms part of the Zermatt ski area. From 1958 to 2007 there was a cable car from Gornergrat over the Hohtälli to the Stockhorn which, until the construction of the Klein Matterhorn railway, was the highest mountain station in Zermatt. At the west side of the Gorner ridge, nearby the Rotenboden trainstation is the Riffelhorn peak.