Soaring high above its surroundings, the austere pyramidal peak is one of the world’s best known mountains. The French call it Mont Cervin; the Italians, Monte Cervino. Among German and English speaking people, in turn, it is known as the Matterhorn. But by whatever name, to countless admirers from around the world it is the mountain of mountains, the Alp par excellence.
Straddling the border between Italy and Switzerland in the Pennine Alps, the Matterhorn, at 14,691 feet (4,478 meters), is not the highest peak in Europe. But its stark, sharply sculpted, pyramidal summit has made it unquestionably one of the most famous mountains in the world. Its four nearly identical triangular faces, separated by four jagged ridges, have a geometric purity that is unique. Viewed from any angle, its distinctive profile rising high against the sky is an incredibly breathtaking sight. Dark gray and austere during the summer and glistening brilliantly beneath a mantle of snow in winter, it has been called “the most noble rock of Europe!’
As with other very high peaks in the Alps, the summit of the Matterhorn is composed of extremely hard, erosion resistant crystalline rock that was produced deep beneath the surface. Uplifted when the Alps came into being some 40 million years ago, this very hard core was subsequently stripped of thick overlying layers of softer, younger rock formations. Exposed at last on the surface, the crystalline bedrock itself was then subjected to the forces of erosion.
Weathering, running water, and alternate freezing and thawing each played a role in shaping the Matterhorn’s majestic summit But the master sculptors that carved its steep, massive walls were the great Ice Age glaciers that blanketed the Alps within the past 2 million years. Plucking out chunks of bedrock as they slowly ground down the mountain slopes in various directions, the powerful glaciers chiseled out the neatly faceted sides of the almost perfectly pyramidal mountain crest.
Because of its abrupt, forbidding slopes, the Matterhorn long defied the efforts of mountain climbers. The first successful ascent was not completed until July 1865, when a team headed by the English mountaineer Edward Whymper reached the top by way of a ridge on the Swiss side. Just three days later an Italian team led by Giovanni Carrel scaled the summit by traversing a ridge on the Italian side.
Although other parts of the mountain remained unclimbed until much later – the south face was not conquered until 1931 – the exploits of Carrel and Whymper soon transformed the previously quite isolated region around the Matterhorn. Zermatt on the Swiss side, in particular, became a popular gathering place for walking holidays, mountain climbers, and more recently, winter sports enthusiasts. With the development of other resort centers, sightseers and skiers can travel well up on the slopes of the Matterhorn by means of railways, tramways, and other types of lifts.
Indeed, even the summit – once a challenge reserved only for the most experienced climbers – is now quite easily accessible to amateurs. The ridge route pioneered by Whymper has since been equipped with foot holds and cables to help tourists over the difficult spots. On clear summer days, as many as 200 enthusiasts have been known to meet the challenge successfully.
On their way to the top, however, they pass a memorial erected on the spot where four of Whymper’s companions fell to their deaths during their descent from the summit. It is a grim reminder of a fact that veteran Zermatt guides are quick to point out: even today the mountain is not without dangers. Devastating storms can move in swiftly, and this most familiar of peaks can suddenly be transformed into the implacable, perilous Matterhorn of old.