Matterhorn
The Matterhorn is a mountain of the European Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is above sea level, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. Sometimes referred to as the "Mountain of Mountains", it has become an indelible emblem of the Alps and is claimed to be the most photographed mountain in the world. The Matterhorn has four faces, each roughly oriented toward one of the four cardinal points. Three of these are on the Swiss side of the border and watershed, while the south face lies on the Italian side. These four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, are separated by the Hörnli, Furggen, Zmutt, and Leone ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, to the northeast, and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides, which has been a trade route since the Roman era.
The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the late 18th century; this was followed by other renowned naturalists and artists, such as John Ruskin, in the 19th century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained and became the subject of an international competition for the summit. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper, but during the descent, a sudden fall claimed the lives of four of the seven climbers. This disaster, later portrayed in [|several films], marked the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is among the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as "The Trilogy". The west face, the highest of the Matterhorn's four faces, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world.
The Matterhorn is mainly composed of gneisses from the Dent Blanche nappe, lying over ophiolites and sedimentary rocks of the Penninic nappes. The mountain's current shape is the result of cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face. Since the end of the 19th century, when railways were built in the area, the mountain has attracted increasing numbers of visitors and climbers. Each year, numerous mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn from the Hörnli Hut via the northeast Hörnli ridge, the most popular route to the summit. Many trekkers also undertake the 10-day-long circuit around the mountain. The Matterhorn has been part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of Natural Monuments since 1983.
Names
The name Matterhorn derives from the German words Matte and Horn, and is often translated as "the peak of the meadows".In the Schalbetter map, printed by Sebastian Münster in 1545, the valley is labelled Mattertal, but the mountain has the Latin name Mons Silvius as well as the German name Augstalberg, in concord with the Aosta Valley. The 1548 map by Johannes Stumpf gives only Mons Silvius.
The French name Cervin, from which the Italian term Cervino derives, stems from the Latin Mons Silvanus, where silva means "forest"; this was corrupted to Selvin and then Servin. The change of the first letter "s" to "c" is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who thought the word was related to "deer".
Josias Simler hypothesized in De Alpibus Commentarius that the name Mons Silvius derived from a Roman leader, a hypothesis that was readopted by T. G. Farinetti: "Silvius was probably a Roman leader who sojourned with his legions in the land of the Salassi and the Seduni, and perhaps crossed the Theodul Pass between these two places. This Silvius may have been that same Servius Galba whom Caesar charged with the opening up of the Alpine passes, which from that time onward traders have been wanting to cross with great danger and grave difficulty. Servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesar's orders, came with his legions from Allobroges to Octodurum in the Valais, and pitched his camp there. The passes which he had orders to open from there could be no other than the St. Bernard, the Simplon, the Theodul, and the Moro; it therefore seems likely that the name of Servius, whence Silvius and later Servin, or Cervin, was given in his honour to the famous pyramid." It is unknown when the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, from which it seems to be derived.
The Matterhorn is also named Gran Bècca by the Valdôtains and Horu by the local Walliser German speaking people.
The German name "Matterhorn" first appears in the year 1682.
Because of its recognizable shape, many other similar mountains around the world were named or nicknamed "the Matterhorn of" their respective countries or mountain ranges.
Height
The Matterhorn has two distinct summits, situated at either end of a exposed rocky crest which forms the Italian/Swiss border. In August 1792, the Genevan geologist and explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first measurement of the Matterhorn's height, using a sextant and a chain spread out on the Theodul glacier. He calculated its height as. In 1868 the Italian engineer Felice Giordano measured a height of by means of a mercury barometer, which he had taken to the summit. The Dufour map, which was afterwards followed by the Italian surveyors, gave as the height of the Swiss summit.In 1999, the summit height was precisely determined to be at above sea level by using Global Positioning System technology as part of the TOWER Project and to an accuracy of less than one centimetre, which allows future changes to be tracked.
The topographic prominence of the Matterhorn is as the ridge connecting it with a higher summit sinks to a height of at the Col Durand, a saddle between the Pointe de Zinal and the Mont Durand. The topographic isolation is, as the nearest point of higher elevation is the higher Western Liskamm.
Considering mountains with a topographic prominence of at least, the Matterhorn is the sixth-highest summit in the Alps and Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains. It is the fifth-highest summit of Valais and Switzerland and the third highest summit of the Aosta Valley and Italy. Locally, it is the third-highest summit in the municipality of Zermatt and the highest summit in the municipality of Valtournenche. On the official International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation list of Alpine four-thousanders, which also includes subsidiary summits of higher mountains such as the nearby Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn is the 12th highest summit in the Alps.
| 1792 | 1862 | 1868 | 1880 | 1934 | 1946 | 1999 | 2010 |
| 4,501.7 m | 4,482 m | 4,505 m | 4,482 m | 4,481 m | 4,477.5 m | 4,477.54 m | 4,478 m |
Geography
The Matterhorn has a pyramidal shape with four faces nearly facing the four compass points. Three of them are on the Swiss side of the border and watershed and one of them is on the Italian side of the border. The north face overlooks the Ober Gabelhorn across the Zmutt Glacier and valley, the east face overlooks the Gorner Glacier system between the Gornergrat and Monte Rosa across the Theodul Pass, the west face overlooks the upper basin of the Zmutt Glacier between the Dent Blanche and the Dent d'Hérens and the south face fronts the resort town of Breuil-Cervinia and overlooks a good portion of the Valtournenche. The Matterhorn does not form a perfect square pyramid, as the north and south faces are wider than the west and east faces. Moreover, the latter faces do not actually meet on the summit but are connected by a 100-metre-long horizontal west–east ridge between the north and south faces.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 are the Tiefmattengletscher to the west, part of the Zmutt Glacier, and the Matterhorn Glacier to the north. Smaller glaciers lie at the base of the south face and the east face. In this area, the border between Switzerland and Italy coincides with the main Alpine watershed, separating the drainage basin of the Rhone on the north and that of the Po on the south. The north side is drained by the Zmuttbach and the Gornera through the Furggbach, tributaries of the Rhone through the Vispa. The south side and face is drained by the Marmore torrent, a tributary of the Po through the Dora Baltea. The Theodul Pass, located on the watershed between the Matterhorn and the Breithorn, at 3,295 metres, is the easiest passage between the two valleys and countries. The pass was used as a crossover and trade route for the Romans and the Romanised Celtic population Salassi between 100 BCE and 400 CE. The area is now heavily glaciated and covered on the north side by the Theodul Glacier.
Well-known faces are the east and north, visible from the area of Zermatt, although mostly hidden from the Mattertal by the chain of the Weisshorn. The east face is 1,000 metres high and, because it is "a long, monotonous slope of rotten rocks", 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, well visible from the Valtournenche, is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. The west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest ascent routes and lies in a more remote area than the other faces.
The four main ridges separating the four faces are the main climbing routes. The least difficult technical climb and the usual climbing route, the Hörnli ridge, lies between the east and north faces and is aligned towards the Oberrothorn above Zermatt. To its west lies the Zmutt ridge, between the north and west faces and aligned towards the Wandfluehorn; this is, according to Collomb, "the classic route up the mountain, its longest ridge, also the most disjointed." The Lion ridge, lying between the south and west faces and aligned towards the Dent d'Hérens is the Italian normal route and goes across Pic Tyndall; Collomb comments, "A superb rock ridge, the shortest on the mountain, now draped with many fixed ropes, but a far superior climb compared with the Hörnli." Finally the south side is separated from the east side by the Furggen ridge, which is aligned towards the Klein Matterhorn. It is, according to Collomb, "the hardest of the ridges the ridge still has an awesome reputation but is not too difficult in good conditions by the indirect finish".
While the Matterhorn is the culminating point of the Valtournenche on the south, it is only one of the many 4000 metres summits of the Mattertal valley on the north. Its height is exceeded by four major summits: the Weisshorn, the Dom, the Liskamm and the second-highest in the Alps, Monte Rosa. This section of the Pennine Alps, including the Matterhorn, the Zinalrothorn, the Dent Blanche, the Dent d'Hérens, the Breithorn, the Strahlhorn, the Rimpfischhorn and the Alphubel, concentrates most of western Europe's highest mountains and forms a crown of peaks around Zermatt. The deeply glaciated region between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments since 1983.