Avril and I arranged a ski trip to Zermatt in Switzerland during the February half term. Several thousand other people seemed to have done the same and so most of the time was spent in queues for cable cars and the like to the tops of the slopes. In order to make the experience more tolerable, we visited some bars. The first was actually on the day we arrived. On our way to the hotel I noticed that the North Wall which was very close by sold takeaway pizzas, and later on I decided to pop down to get us a pizza. As it would take about 10-15 minutes to cook, this allowed me the opportunity to have a small glass of some anonymous Swiss lager, and take in the surroundings. It's quite basic in there, but friendly enough, and is probably a haunt of those keen on climbing and extreme skiing judging by the paraphernalia on the walls.

The next day we began skiing and stopped at the Blauherd Restaurant. I waited far too long for a beer and a wine as a solitary barmaid rebounded from side to side of a circular bar trying to serve rude Continentals who kept pushing in. It was at least an outside bar so quite atmospheric. We decided not to eat here and instead moved to the surroundings of the Rothorn Restaurant. Fortunately it was nearing the end of the lunch hour so not as busy, but the surroundings themselves were pretty cramped. The food was good though and another bonus was that we had a couple of excellent glasses of Weiss beer.

That evening we went to the famed Grampi’s in town and were lucky enough to get a seat straight away. This is really a pizza restaurant, and very good pizza they do too, but the opportunity was taken to partake of beer whilst we were sitting upstairs. There are also proper, albeit crowded, bar facilities so I have no qualms about adding this one to the ratings.

We had more Italian food with beer the following day at the Trockener Steg Restaurant, half way up the mountain. This is again a restaurant really, but it is very spacious and there is so much space that there is a decent bar area in there though why you would venture there is a mystery just for ale. Still, the view and atmosphere were good and the glass of Calanda that I had was a cut above the rest of the lagers that we'd had that week (Cardinal mainly). Later in the day, we popped into the Iglubar whilst half way down from Gornergrat at Riffelberg. This is a unique pub in that it is open air in the snow and most of the construction is snow as the photo shows. It was particularly cold there and I did myself no favours by having a cold beer from the fridge which resulted in a visit to the sub standard toilet. Avril was more sensible and had a Jagermeister coffee.

After the day's skiing had finished, we headed down the mountain and on the way stopped at the well renowned Hennu Stalle. It was busy and Apres Ski was well under way by the time that we arrived but we managed to get an outside table. The selection of beers here was actually pleasing as they had some bottled weiss beer too. They also have an outside bar and awnings that provide some shelter so it's not that cold even when the sun dips.

On the final day of skiing we skied into Italy, but as the weather was a bit unpredictable we could not linger to have any Italian beer, not that we would have missed much anyway. We did get some beer eventually though, at the Schwarzsee Hotel-Restaurant, in full view of the Matterhorn in the setting sun. They have conveniently placed a terrace on one side of the restaurant for just this purpose and even though we were before the apres ski crowd, it was already quite full. This is a very nice restaurant, which also does a nice bit of lunch, and I had a couple of ales whilst Avril had a carafe of wine. Our Portuguese server was also very friendly. We enjoyed sitting there until the sun began dipping behind the Matterhorn and then made our way to the base. I got the opportunity to visit one last bar as I had to return my skis, so took a quick detour to the Little Bar in the village centre. The outside of the bar is basically a window with Christmas lights and a door down a couple of steps. This impression of smallness is carried on inside - it is very narrow with basically a bar and a couple of stools against it, although there is a small room at the end with a couple of tables and a load of cushions and throws, akin to a padded cell. Still, it's a decent and friendly enough place to have a beer, though nothing that special was on when I went in.