Wednesday, the first of August, is Switzerland's "National Day," the equivalent of our Fourth of July.  It's celebrated similarly, with local parades, speeches, and fireworks.

On Thursday morning, Dave met his Swiss guide, Freddy, and set out to climb the Matterhorn.  The climbing route goes up the ridgeline as shown in red.

On Thursday afternoon, above the Hornlihutte (the mountain hut where Dave and Freddy would spend the night), they climbed the first 1/4 of the mountain for practice.

A Japanese couple descends late in the day from a summit attempt.  The climbing route continues up and left from their tracks straight up to the summit in the clouds.

We awoke at 3:30AM ready to climb, but the clouds had socked in the mountain, and there was risk of lightning.  When this photo was take around 8AM, you could barely see 100 feet in through the mist.

Clearly, it would not be safe to attempt the summit in this weather, so we hiked down from the hut, hoping to try again another time.

Here's Dave and Freddy back in Zermatt Friday noon.  Behind them the Matterhorn  is still completely enshrouded in clouds.

Friday afternoon we took the train to Pontresina (near St. Moritz).  The weather remained rainy on Saturday, but we got a good hike in Sunday afternoon.  Here's a postcard view of Laj de Segl from the trail.

The insects were still out in force, visiting the plentiful wildflowers.

Another view of Laj de Segl, with thistle in the foreground.

The hills were almost like a Japanese garden with flowers, rocks, and waterfalls.

Karen looks back from the trail as we approach the hamlet of Curtin in the Fex valley.

After our morning's walk, we had lunch on the terrace of the Hotel Fex. It can also be reached via horse-drawn carriage.

    This glorious view back down the valley, includes the town of St. Moritz. 

From our hotel room, we could look up the Roseg valley to the snow covered peaks at its head.  Tomorrow we hope to hike up there.