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Matterhorn
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- "Cervino" redirects here. For the Italian town, see Cervino (CE). For other uses, see Matterhorn (disambiguation).
The Matterhorn (German), Cervino (Italian) or Cervin (French), is a mountain in the Pennine Alps. With its high summit, lying on the border between Switzerland and Italy, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and its north face is one of the Great north faces of the Alps. It is also one of the deadliest peaks in the Alps: from 1865 to 1995, in fact, over 500 alpinists have found their death on its faces.
The mountain overlooks the town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais on the north and Cervinia in the Aosta Valley on the south.
Although not the highest mountain in Switzerland, the Matterhorn is considered as an iconic emblem of the region of the Swiss Alps.
Matterhorn has two distinct summits, both situated on a 100-metre-long rocky ridge: the Swiss summit (4,477.5 m) on the east and the Italian summit (4,476.4 m) on the west.
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Encyclopedia
- "Cervino" redirects here. For the Italian town, see Cervino (CE). For other uses, see Matterhorn (disambiguation).
The Matterhorn (German), Cervino (Italian) or Cervin (French), is a mountain in the Pennine Alps. With its high summit, lying on the border between Switzerland and Italy, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and its north face is one of the Great north faces of the Alps. It is also one of the deadliest peaks in the Alps: from 1865 to 1995, in fact, over 500 alpinists have found their death on its faces.
The mountain overlooks the town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais on the north and Cervinia in the Aosta Valley on the south.
Although not the highest mountain in Switzerland, the Matterhorn is considered as an iconic emblem of the region of the Swiss Alps.
Altitude
The Matterhorn has two distinct summits, both situated on a 100-metre-long rocky ridge: the Swiss summit (4,477.5 m) on the east and the Italian summit (4,476.4 m) on the west. Their names originated from the first ascents not for geographic reasons as they are both located on the border.
A recent survey (1999) using Global Positioning System technology has been made, allowing the height of the Matterhorn to be measured to within one centimetre accuracy, and its changes to be tracked. The result was .
Because of plate tectonics, the part of the Alps in which the Matterhorn is located still continues to rise at a faster rate than the forces of erosion are able to erode it.
Naming
The mountain derives its name from the German words Matte, meaning meadow, and Horn, which means peak.
The Italian and French names (Cervino and Cervin) come from Mons Silvinus from the Latin word silva, meaning forest. The changing of the first letter s to c is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, believing that the word was related to a deer (French: cerf).
Geography
The Matterhorn has a pyramidal shape with four faces facing the four compass points: the north and east faces overlook, respectively, the Zmutt Valley and Gornergrat ridge in Switzerland, the south face (the only one south of the Swiss-Italian border) fronts the resort town of Breuil-Cervinia, and the west face looks towards the mountain of Dent d'Hérens which straddles the border. The north and south faces meet at the summit to form a short east-west ridge.
The Matterhorn's faces are steep, and only small patches of snow and ice cling to them; regular avalanches send the snow down to accumulate on the glaciers at the base of each face, the largest of which is the Zmutt Glacier to the west. The Hörnli ridge of the northeast (the central ridge in the view from Zermatt) is the usual climbing route.
The most well-known faces are the east and north ones, both visible from Zermatt. The east face is 1,000 metres high and presents a high risk of rockfall, making its ascent dangerous. The north face is 1,200 metres high and is one of the most dangerous north faces in the Alps, in particular for its risk of rockfall and storms. The south face is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. Finally, the west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest routes of ascent.
The four main ridges separating the four faces are also the main climbing routes. The easiest, the Hörnli ridge (Hörnligrat), lies between the east and north faces, facing the town of Zermatt. To its west lies the Zmutt ridge (Zmuttgrat), between the north and west faces. The Lion ridge (Cresta del Leone), lying between the south and west faces is the Italian normal route and goes through the Pic Tyndall. Finally the south side is separated from the east side by the Furggen ridge (Furggengrat), the most difficult ridge of all.
The border between Italy and Switzerland is also the main Alpine watershed, separating the drainage basin on the Rhone on the north (Mediterranean Sea) and the Po River on the south (Adriatic Sea).
The Matterhorn is one of the many 4000 metres summits surrounding the Mattertal valley, with the Breithorn, Zwillinge, Liskamm and Monte Rosa on the south and the Dom and Weisshorn on the north. The region between Matterhorn and Monte Rosa is one of the major glaciated area in the Alps and is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments.
Geology
Except the base of the mountain, the Matterhorn is composed of gneiss belonging to the Dent Blanche klippe, an isolated part of the Austroalpine nappes, lying over the Penninic nappes. The Austroalpine nappes are part of the Apulian plate, a small continent which broke up from Africa before the Alpine orogeny. For this reason the Matterhorn has been popularized as an African mountain. The Austroalpine nappes are mostly common in the Eastern Alps.
Formation
s from the oceanic crust. The peak itself (above the seracs) is composed of gneisses which come originally from the African continent.]]
The story of the formation of the Matterhorn as well as the whole Alpine range started with the break-up of the Pangaea continent approximatively 26 million years ago into Laurasia (containing the actual Europe) and Gondwana (containing the actual Africa). While the rocks constituting the nearby Monte Rosa remained in Laurasia, the rocks constituting the Matterhorn found themselves in Gondwana, separated by the newly formed Tethys Ocean.
26 million years ago the extension of the Tethys Ocean stopped and the Apulian plate broke away from Gondwana and moved toward the European continent. This resulted in the closure of the western Tethys by subduction under the Apulian plate (with the Piemont-Liguria Ocean first and Valais Ocean later). The subduction of the oceanic crust left traces still visible today at the base of the Matterhorn (accretionary prism). The orogeny itself began after the end of the oceanic subduction when the European continental crust collided with the Apulian continent, resulting in the formation of nappes.
The Matterhorn acquired its characteristic pyramidal shape in much more recent times as it was caused by natural erosion over the past million years. At the beginning of alpine orogeny, the Matterhorn was only a rounded mountain like a hill. Because its height is above the snowline, its flanks are covered by ice, resulting from the accumulation and compaction of snow. During the warmer period of summer, part of the ice melts and seeps into the bedrock. When it freezes again, it fractures pieces of rock because of its dilatation (Freeze Thaw), forming a cirque. Four cirques led to the actual shape of the mountain.
Rocks
Most of the base of the mountain lies in the Tsaté nappe, a remnant of the Piedmont-Liguria oceanic crust (Ophiolites) and its sedimentary rocks. Up to 3,400 metres the mountain is composed of successive layers of ophiolites and sedimentary rocks. From 3,400 metres to the top, the rocks are gneisses from the Dent Blanche klippe (Austroalpine nappes). They are divided into the Arolla series (below 4,200 m) and the Valpelline zone (the summit). Other mountains in the region (Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Dent Blanche, Mont Collon) also belong to the Dent Blanche klippe.
Tourism
Rail and cable-car facilities have been built to make some of the summits in the area more accessible. The Gornergrat railway was inaugurated in 1898. Areas served by cable car are the Unterrothorn and the Klein Matterhorn ( 3,883 m). The Hörnli Hut (3,260 m), which is the start of the normal route via the Hörnli ridge, is easily accessible from Schwarzsee and is also frequented by hikers.
The Matterhorn Museum in Zermatt relates the history of mountaineering in the region.
Climbing history
The Matterhorn was one of the last of the main Alpine mountains to be ascended, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. The first serious attempts began around 1857, mostly from the Italian side; but despite appearances, the southern routes are harder, and parties repeatedly found themselves having to turn back. However, on July 14, 1865, in what is considered the last ascent of the golden age of alpinism, the party of Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow, Michel Croz and the two Peter Taugwalders (father and son) was able to reach the summit by an ascent of the Hörnli ridge in Switzerland. Upon descent, Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Douglas fell to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier, and all but Douglas (whose body was never found) are buried in the Zermatt churchyard.
Before the first ascent
In the summer of 1860, Edward Whymper came across the Matterhorn for the first time. He was an English artist and engraver who had been hired by a London publisher to make sketches of the mountains in the region of Zermatt. Although the unclimbed Matterhorn had a mixed reputation among British mountaineers, it fascinated Whymper. Whymper's first attempt was in 1861, from the village of Breuil on the south side. He was at the beginning of the climb, with a Swiss guide, when he met Jean-Antoine Carrel and his uncle. Carrel was an Italian guide from Breuil who had already made several attempts on the mountain. The two parties camped together at the base of the peak. Carrel and his uncle woke up early and decided to continue the ascent without Whymper and his guide. Discovering that they had been left, Whymper and his guide tried to race Carrel up the mountain, but neither party met with success.
In 1862 Whymper made further attempts, still from the south side, on the Lion ridge (or Italian ridge), where the route seemed easier than the Hörnli ridge (the normal route today). On his own he reached above 4,000 metres, but was injured on his way down to Breuil. He soon returned to the mountain with a local guide and went higher, but the Matterhorn still remained unconquered.
Whymper returned to Breuil in 1863, persuading Carrel to join forces with him and try the mountain once more via the Italian ridge. On this attempt a storm, however, soon developed and they were stuck halfway to the summit. They remained there for 26 hours in their tent before giving up. Whymper did not try any more attempts for two years.
In the decisive year 1865, Whymper returned with new plans, deciding to attack the Matterhorn via its south face instead of the Italian ridge. On June 21, Whymper began his ascent with Swiss guides, but halfway up they experienced severe rockfall; although nobody was injured, they decided to give up the ascent. This was Whymper's seventh attempt.
During the following weeks, Whymper spent his time climbing other mountains in the area with his guides, before going back to Breuil on July 7. Meanwhile the Italian Alpine Club was founded and its leader, Felice Giordano, hired Carrel to make the first ascent of Matterhorn, before any foreigner could succeed. He feared the arrival of Whymper, now a rival to Carrel, and wrote to the latter:
- "I have tried to keep everything secret, but that fellow whose life seems to depend on the Matterhorn is here, suspiciously prying into everything. I have taken all the best men away from him; and yet he is so enamored of the mountain that he may go with others...He is here in the hotel and I try to avoid speaking to him."
Just as he did two years before, Whymper asked Carrel to be his guide, but Carrel declined; he was also unsuccessful in hiring other local guides from Breuil. When Wymper discovered Giordano and Carrel's plan, he left Breuil and crossed the Theodul Pass to Zermatt to hire local guides. He encountered Lord Francis Douglas, another English mountaineer, who also wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They arrived later in Zermatt in the Monte Rosa Hotel, where they met two other British climbers — the Reverend Charles Hudson and his young and inexperienced companion, Douglas Robert Hadow — who had hired the French guide Michel Croz to try and make the first ascent. These two groups decided to join forces and try the ascent of the Hörnli ridge. They hired another two local guides, Peter Taugwalder, father and son.
The first ascent
Whymper and party left Zermatt early in the morning of July 13, heading to the foot of the Hörnli ridge, which they reached 6 hours later (approximately where the Hörnli Hut is situated today). Meanwhile Carrel and six other Italian guides also began their ascent of the Italian ridge.
Despite its appearance, Whymper wrote that the Hörnli ridge was much easier to climb than the Italian ridge:
- "We were now fairly upon the mountain, and were astonished to find that places which from the Riffel, or even from the Furggen Glacier, looked entirely impracticable, were so easy that we could run about."
After having camped for the night, Whymper and party started on the ridge. According to Whymper:
- "The whole of this great slope was now revealed, rising for 3,000 feet like a huge natural staircase. Some parts were more, and others were less, easy; but we were not once brought to a halt by any serious impediment, for when an obstruction was met in front it could always be turned to the right or left. For the greater part of the way there was, indeed, no occasion for the rope, and sometimes Hudson led, sometimes myself. At 6.20 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet and halted for half an hour; we then continued the ascent without a break until 9.55, when we stopped for fifty minutes, at a height of 14,000 feet."
When the party came close to the summit, they had to leave the ridge for the north face because "[the ridge] was usually more rotten and steep, and always more difficult than the face". At this point of the ascent Whymper wrote that the less experienced Hadow "required continual assistance". Having overcome these difficulties the group finally arrived in the summit area, with Croz and Whymper reaching the top first.
- "The slope eased off, and Croz and I, dashing away, ran a neck-and-neck race, which ended in a dead heat. At 1.40 p.m. the world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was conquered. Hurrah! Not a footstep could be seen."
Precisely at this moment, Carrel and party were approximatively 400 metres below, still dealing with the most difficult parts of the Italian ridge. When seeing his rival on the summit, Carrel and party gave up on their attempt and went back to Breuil.
After having built a cairn, Whymper and party stayed an hour on the summit. Then they began their descent of the Hörnli ridge. Croz descended first, then Hadow, Hudson and Douglas, Taugwalder father and son, with Whymper coming last. They climbed down with great care, one man moving at a time. Whilst Croz was trying to help Hadow find where to place his feet, Hadow suddenly slipped, pushing Croz down the cliff, with Hudson and Douglas being dragged by them down the north face. At this moment the rope broke, leaving Taugwalder, father and son, and Whymper alive and stunned by the accident.
Half an hour later the three remaining managed to reach the ridge. When they arrived there, Whymper asked to see the broken rope and saw that it had been employed by mistake as it was the weakest and oldest of the three ropes they had brought. The three finally reached the base of the mountain before nightfall, where they looked in vain for traces of their fallen companions.
After a bivouac, the group finally reached Zermatt, where a search of the victims was quickly organized. The bodies of Croz, Hadow and Hudson were found on the Matterhorn Glacier, but the body of Douglas was never found. Although Taugwalder father was accused of cutting the rope to save himself and his son, the official inquest found no proof for this.
The ascent of the Matterhorn by Whymper and party marked the end of the so-called Golden age of alpinism.
Other ascents
Three days later on July 17, the mountain was ascended from the Italian side by a party led by Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich. Julius Elliott made the second ascent from the Zermatt side three years later in 1868, and later that year the party of John Tyndall, J. J. Maquignaz, and J. P. Maquignaz was the first to traverse the summit. In 1871, Lucy Walker became the first woman to stand on top of the mountain, followed a few weeks later by her rival Meta Brevoort. The Zmutt ridge was first ascended by Albert F. Mummery, Alexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta on September 3, 1879; one hour after they reached the summit, another party reached it having made the first ascent of the west face. This party comprised William Penhall and guides, who had failed on the Zmutt ridge in the previous days. It wasn't until July 31, 1931 – August 1, 1931 that the north face route was first ascended by Franz and Toni Schmid.
On 20 August 1992 Italian alpinist Hans Kammerlander, the former Reinhold Messner companion in Himalayan ascensions, and the Swiss alpine guide Diego Wellis climbed the Matterhorn four times in just 23 hours and 26 minutes. This was a big result, considering that one day and a half are normally required to gain the summit of the Matterhorn from the base. The path they followed was: Zmutt ridge-summit-Hornli ridge (descent)-Furggen ridge-summit-Lion ridge (descent)-Lion ridge-summit-Hornli ridge (descent)-Hornli ridge-summit-Hornli Hut (descent). The record is still unbeaten.
More recently the astronaut Claude Nicollier climbed the Matterhorn and took two stones from the summit which he brought with him on the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-61 mission in 1993. When he got back, one stone was put back on the summit and the other diplayed in the Matterhorn Museum.
Climbing Routes
Today, all ridges and faces of the Matterhorn have been ascended in all seasons, and mountain guides take a large number of people up the northeast Hörnli route each summer. By modern standards, the climb is fairly difficult (AD Difficulty rating), but not hard for skilled mountaineers. There are fixed ropes on parts of the route to help. Still, several climbers die each year due to a number of factors including the scale of the climb and its inherent dangers, inexperience, falling rocks, and overcrowded routes.
The usual pattern of ascent is to take the Schwarzsee cable car up from Zermatt, hike up to the Hörnli Hut (elev. 3,260 m/10,695 ft), a large stone building at the base of the main ridge, and spend the night. The next day, climbers rise at 3:30 am so as to reach the summit and descend before the regular afternoon clouds and storms come in. The Solvay Hut located on the ridge at 4,003 m can be used only in a case of emergency.
Other routes on the mountain include the Italian (Lion) ridge (AD Difficulty rating), the Zmutt ridge (D Difficulty rating) and the north face route, one of the six great north faces of the Alps (TD+ Difficulty rating).
The table below gives an overview of the different routes and climbing grades:
| Routes | Start | Time of ascent | Difficulty |
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| Ridges | Hörnli | Hörnli Hut | 6 hours | AD+/III+ |
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| Zmutt | Hörnli Hut (or Schönbiel Hut) | 7 hours (10 hours) | D/IV |
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| Lion | Carrel Hut | 5 hours | AD+/III |
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| Furggen | Bivacco Bossi | 7 hours | TD/V+ |
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| Faces | North | Hörnli Hut | 14 hours | TD/V |
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| West | Schönbiel Hut | 12 hours | TD/V+ |
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| South | Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi | 15 hours | TD+/V+ |
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| East | Hörnli Hut | 14 hours | TD |
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Cultural references
:*Parascotopetl, the fictional 'Matterhorn of the Andes', appears in H. G. Wells's short story "The Country of the Blind" (1904).
- In the 1957 Warner Brothers animated short Piker's Peak, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam try to beat each other to the summit of the Schmatterhorn, towering high above a fictional Swiss village, with the winner to receive 50,000 "cronkites". Warner's 1961 cartoon A Scent of the Matterhorn has Pepe Le Pew chasing a female cat (whom he mistakes for a skunk) through the Alps.
- A miniature imitation of the Matterhorn featuring a bobsled ride is one of the attractions at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Matterhorn Bobsleds opened in 1959 as the world's first tubular steel coaster and partially encloses a 1/100 scale replica (147 feet in height) of the mountain.
- The peak is featured prominently in the popular 1974 Japanese anime version of Heidi. This attracts thousands of Japanese tourists to the area every year.
- In an episode of the television show The Simpsons Homer Simpson climbs the highest mountain in Springfield known as the Murderhorn, an obvious play off the Matterhorn.
- The 'Mini Matterhorn' is the unofficial name of a 75-cm piece of Martian rock immediately east-southeast of the Mars Pathfinder lander.
- The individual pieces of the chocolate bar Toblerone are claimed by its maker Kraft to be formed in the likeness of the Matterhorn.
- The Operation Matterhorn was a military operations plan of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II.
- A miniature replica of the Matterhorn exists on the grounds of Friar Park, the former home of George Harrison of The Beatles.
- The matterhorn is prominently featured on the back cover of the album Felt Mountain by Goldfrapp.
Other 'Matterhorns'
Many other prominent mountains around the world are nicknamed the 'Matterhorn' of their respective countries or mountain ranges. Examples include:
Panorama
See also
Bibliography
- Irving, R. L. G., Ten Great Mountains (London, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1940)
- Yvan Hostettler, Matterhorn - Alpine top model (Olizane Edition, Geneva, 2006). The use of the Matterhorn in advertisement, publicity, movies, painting and arts.
External links
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- Mountain Profile - Issue 16
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