I can barely drag my eyes away from the window, with the views from my 3100-metre perch stretching out to 29 snow-frosted peaks more than 4,000 metres high. Snaking down the slopes below, like a millipede crawling atop the snow, are the vermilion carriages of the Gornergrat Railway, the highest open-air railway in Europe, which is my ride for the day.

Then there’s the menu, which may be the cheesiest offering in the Valais Alps – and that is saying something. This canton is the home of raclette, that woozily delicious dish of cow’s cheese melted over an open fire, spread on bread, and best enjoyed with a glass of crisp white wine.

Today, though, I plump for the fondue, which arrives as a bubbling cauldron of strong Valais cheese, fresh crusty bread, potatoes and porcini mushrooms – the perfect fuel for the afternoon ahead, when I’ll be taking on one of the most spectacular yet accessible walks in the Valais Alps.

Fully sated, I stagger out into the crisp summer air and wander for five minutes to the nearby Gornergrat Viewing Platform to survey the alpine landscape before me. The Gornergrat is a high alpine ridge (3,135 metres or 10,285 feet), which connects the Gorner and Findel glaciers and offers magnificent views over some of Switzerland’s most iconic mountains.

Then there’s the lumpen Monte Rosa, Switzerland’s highest peak – and in the centre of them all, from my viewpoint, the nibbled pyramid that is the Matterhorn, one of the world’s most instantly recognisable montane silhouettes.

The 3100 Kulmhotel has two domes, one of which houses the Gornergrat Stellarium, an observatory built in the late 1960s to take advantage of the clear, dark night skies in this part of the Valais and used today by the universities of Bern and Geneva.

The presence of this scientific research centre, alongside the panorama of some of the most iconic peaks in Swiss mountaineering, contributes to the reassuring feeling that this is a place over which humankind has achieved some level of mastery.

Beneath the observatory, the mountainsides plummet, tracked with glaciers striped white and charcoal-grey, the slopes bejewelled with reservoir lakes, perfectly round and emerald green, like a peacock’s eyespots. It’s a feeling not unfamiliar in awe-inspiring landscapes like those of the Valais: the sense that, as I gaze out over it, the landscape is watching me back.

Thankfully, owing to the Gornergrat Railway, it’s possible to explore this rugged landscape in style. I make the short walk from the hotel down to Gornergrat station, and one of those fiery orange trains which I’d seen from the mountaintop soon slides into the platform.

It’s possible to make a whole day of it on the Gornergrat Railway, with the NostalChic class tickets whisking you away on a vintage carriage from the 1960s, taking in the gorgeous village of Zermatt and stopping for a four-course gourmet meal at the luxurious Riffelalp Resort.

My own use of the Gornergrat is more practical, however – a five-minute, one-stop hop down the mountain to Rotenboden, where I disembark for a stroll through Europe’s highest alpine garden, at 2,800 metres above sea level.

A visit is always worth it though, because local information boards teach visitors about more than 100 plant species which flourish here between early June and late July.

I march onwards to the Riffelsee. Blooming through tufts of grass and cracks in the stony ground are the fluffy white flowers of the Matterhorn pennycress, waxy green thyme-leaved willow, and the sunny inflorescences of yellow whitlow-grass.

Accompanying me all the way are views of the imperious array of 4,000-metre-plus mountains for which the Gornergrat is famous, but none of them draw my eye quite like the Matterhorn, its bizarre peak like a wedge of upright parmesan eroded by millennia of harsh mountain weather.

Suddenly, I crest the top of a small hill and the view of the Matterhorn is doubled, the real-life impression mirrored in the still waters of the Riffelsee. Having been alone for the whole walk down here I’m suddenly surrounded by other people, pointing at the view and snapping pictures.

This is one of the most popular photo spots in the whole Matterhorn area, and it’s no surprise…