loading ...The Matterhorn (German), Monte Cervino (Italian) or Mont Cervin (French), is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres (14,692 ft) high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, indicate the four compass points. The mountain overlooks the town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais to north-east and Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. The Theodul Pass, located at the eastern base of the peak, is the lowest passage between its north and south side.
The Matterhorn was the last great Alpine peak to be conquered and its first ascent marked the end of the Golden age of alpinism. It was made in 1865 by an expedition led by Edward Whymper and ended tragically when most of its members fell to their deaths on the descent. The north face was not climbed until 1931, and is amongst the three Great north faces of the Alps. The Matterhorn is one of the deadliest peaks in the Alps: from 1865 – when it was first climbed – to 1995, 500 alpinists died on it.
The Matterhorn became an iconic emblem of the Swiss Alps and the Alps in general. Since the end of the nineteenth century, when railways were built, it attracted more and more visitors and climbers. Each summer a large number of skilled mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn via the north-east Hörnli ridge, the most frequented route to the summit.
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.
In August 1792, the Genevan geologist and explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first measurement of the Matterhorn's height, using a 50-foot-long chain spread out on the Theodul glacier and a sextant. He calculated a height of 4,501.7 metres.
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 4,477.54 metres (14,690 ft).
The particularly steep faces of the mountain and its isolated location make it prone to banner clouds formation with the air flowing around and creating vortices, conducting condensation of the air on the lee side.
The mountain derives its name from the German words Matte, meaning meadow, and Horn, which means peak. The migration of the name meadow from the lower part of the countryside to the peak is common in the Alps. The Italian and French names (Cervino and Cervin) come from Mons Silvius (or Mons Sylvius) from the Latin word silva, meaning forest (with again the migration of the name from the lower part to the peak). The changing of the first letter s to c is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who thought that the word was related to a deer (French: cerf).
In Sebastian Münster's ""Cosmography"", published in 1543, the name of Matter is given to the Theodul Pass, and this seems to be the origin of the present German name of the mountain. On Münster's topographical chart this group is marked under the names of Augstalberg (Aosta mountain) and Mons Silvius. An hypothesis of Josias Simler ("" De Alpibus Commentarius,"" 1574) on the etymology of the name of Mons Silvius 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 wont to cross with great danger and grave difficulty (Caesar, "" De Bello Gallico,"" book iii.). Servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesar's orders, came with his legions from Allobrogi (Savoy) to Octodurum (Martigny) 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 not exactly know at what period the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, from which it seems to be derived.
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.
Well-known faces are the east and north, visible from Zermatt. 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 is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. The west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest ascent routes.
The four main ridges separating the four faces are the main climbing routes. The least difficult technical climb, 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; this is, according to Collomb, ""the classic route up the mountain, its longest ridge, also the most disjointed."" The Lion ridge (Cresta del Leone), lying between the south and west faces 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 (Furggengrat), 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"".
The border between Italy and Switzerland is 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 Theodul Pass, located between the Matterhorn and Klein Matterhorn, at 3,300 metres, is the lowest passage between the Valtournenche and the Mattertal. The pass was used as a crossover and trade route for the Romans and the Romanised Celts between 100 BC and 400 AC.
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, among which the Weisshorn (4505 m), Dom (4545 m), Lyskamm (4527 m) and the second highest in the Alps: Monte Rosa (4634 m). The whole range of mountains forming a crown of summits around Zermatt. The deeply glaciated region between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments.
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