Matterhorn

The Matterhorn is the mountain most people picture when they think of the Alps: a near-symmetrical pyramid of rock, 4,478 metres high, standing on the watershed between Switzerland and Italy. Its four steep faces point almost exactly to the four compass directions, separated by the Hörnli, Furggen, Zmutt and Lion ridges. Three faces are Swiss and the south face is Italian. The mountain looks down on Zermatt in the Swiss canton of Valais to the northeast and on Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south; just to the east, the Theodul Pass has linked the two valleys as a trade route since Roman times.

Geologically the peak is a remnant of Africa. Its gneiss comes from the Dent Blanche nappe, fragments of the African plate that now lie over ophiolites and sediments of the Penninic nappes, and its horn shape was carved by several glaciers eroding cirques into it from different sides at once. Only small patches of snow and ice cling to the faces; avalanches strip them regularly and feed the glaciers at the foot of each wall.

The mountain was one of the last great Alpine summits to fall, less because of technical difficulty than because of the fear it inspired. Edward Whymper, an English engraver who first saw it in 1860, made seven unsuccessful attempts before reaching the top on 14 July 1865 by the Hörnli ridge from Zermatt. On the descent a fall dragged four of the party of seven down the north face; the rope linking them to the others broke, and all four died. Three days later Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich reached the summit from the Italian side. The disaster is usually said to mark the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and the west face not completely until 1962, and more than 500 climbers are thought to have died on the mountain.

For non-climbers the Matterhorn is a mountain to look at, and the infrastructure built for that is remarkable. The Gornergrat railway, opened in 1898, climbs to about 3,100 metres opposite the peak; a cable car reaches the Klein Matterhorn at 3,883 metres, the highest transport station in Europe; and since 2023 the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing has linked Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia by cable car via Testa Grigia for the first time. Hikers can walk from the Schwarzsee cable-car station up to the Hörnli Hut at 3,260 metres, the starting point of the normal route, and the Tour of the Matterhorn circles the peak through Swiss and Italian valleys in about ten days. In Zermatt, the Matterhorn Museum tells the story of the first ascent with objects that belonged to its protagonists.

Getting there

The main base is Zermatt, which is almost entirely free of combustion-engine vehicles and can be reached only by public transport, on the railway from Visp that has run since 1891; the Glacier Express also connects it with St. Moritz. On the Italian side, Breuil-Cervinia sits at the head of the Valtournenche, off the Aosta Valley; Aosta is about 38 km from the summit, and the Swiss town of Sierre about 36 km. The nearest airport in a straight line is Turin Airport (TRN), about 86 km away.