Geography · Physical geography

The Matterhorn

first climbed 14 July 1865

Pyramidal Alpine peak, 4,478 m — on the Swiss–Italian border above Zermatt

A four-sided rock pyramid of 4,478 metres on the watershed between the Swiss canton of Valais and the Italian Aosta Valley, above the villages of Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia. Its almost perfect horn shape was carved by glaciers gnawing at four faces at once. The first ascent, in July 1865, ended in a fall on the descent that killed four of the seven climbers and made the mountain notorious across Europe.

How to spot them

▸A four-faced rock pyramid with a slightly hooked summit, the emblem of the Swiss Alps
▸Quiz clue: 'Whymper', 'Zermatt', 'Hornli ridge', 'Cervino', 'Toblerone'
▸Straddles Switzerland and Italy; not the highest Alpine peak, nor even the highest in Switzerland
▸A textbook glacial horn, formed where several cirques cut back into one mass

Key facts

Seven men reached its summit on 14 July 1865; a snapped rope on the descent killed four of them (1865)

Edward Whymper's party; Michel Croz, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow and Lord Francis Douglas died

Three days after the first ascent, Jean-Antoine Carrel led a party up the opposite ridge from Italy (1865)

Carrel, Whymper's former guide and rival, climbed from Breuil by the Lion ridge

Geographers use it as the classic example of a glacial horn, cut by cirques on four sides

Its faces look roughly north, south, east and west

Its silhouette has appeared on the packaging of a triangular Swiss chocolate bar since the 1970s

Toblerone — with a hidden bear of Bern in the outline

At 4,478 metres it is not the highest peak in the Alps, nor even the highest wholly in Switzerland

Mont Blanc is the highest Alpine peak; the Dufourspitze is Switzerland's highest

The normal route follows the north-east ridge from a hut at 3,260 m above a car-free Valais resort

The Hornli ridge, from the Hornlihutte above Zermatt

In Italian it is Cervino and in French Cervin, names quite unrelated to the German one

The German name means roughly 'the peak in the meadows'

Quick-fire facts

•Height 4,478 m, on the border of Valais (Switzerland) and the Aosta Valley (Italy)
•First ascent 14 July 1865 by Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Lord Francis Douglas, Michel Croz and the two Peter Taugwalders
•Four of the seven fell to their deaths on the descent; Whymper and the Taugwalders survived
•The disaster prompted widespread debate in Britain about the ethics of alpinism
•Jean-Antoine Carrel made the first Italian-side ascent on 17 July 1865
•Italian name Cervino; French name Cervin
•The Swiss base is Zermatt, which has banned petrol cars; the Italian base is Breuil-Cervinia
•It is the emblem of Toblerone and of much Swiss tourist branding
•Geologically its summit rock belongs to the African plate, thrust over European crust

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

Edward Whymper — Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860–69
Zermatt Tourism — Matterhorn