Everything about Matterhorn totally explained
» "Cervino" redirects here. For the Italian town, see Cervino (CE). For other uses, see Matterhorn (disambiguation).
The
Matterhorn (
German) or
Cervino (
Italian), (
French:
Mont Cervin or
Le Cervin) is perhaps the most familiar
mountain in the European
Alps. On the border between
Switzerland and
Italy, it towers over the Swiss village of
Zermatt and the Italian village
Breuil-Cervinia in the Val Tournanche. The mountain derives its name from the
German words
Matte, meaning
meadow, and
Horn, which means
peak.
The Matterhorn has four faces which face the four compass points: the north and east faces overlook, respectively, the
Zmutt Valley and
Gornergrat ridge in Switzerland, the south face fronts the resort town of
Breuil-Cervinia in Italy, and the west face looks towards the mountain of
Dent d'Hérens which straddles the Swiss-Italian border. The north and south faces meet at the summit to form a short east-west ridge. The 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 Hörnli ridge of the northeast (the center ridge in the view from Zermatt) is the usual
climbing route.
Climbing
The Matterhorn was one of the last of the main
Alpine mountains to be ascended, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of the fear it inspired in early
mountaineers. The first serious attempts began around
1857, mostly from the Italian side; but despite appearances, the southern routes are harder, and parties repeatedly found themselves having to turn back. However, on
July 14,
1865, in what is considered the last ascent of the
golden age of alpinism, the party of
Edward Whymper,
Charles Hudson,
Lord Francis Douglas,
Douglas Robert Hadow,
Michel Croz and the two Peter Taugwalders (father and son) was able to reach the summit from the the Hörnli route in Switzerland. Upon descent, Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Douglas fell to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier, and all but Douglas (whose body was never found) are buried in the Zermatt churchyard. Three days later on
July 17, the mountain was ascended from the Italian side by a party led by Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich. Julius Elliott made the second ascent from the Zermatt side three years later in
1868, and later that year the party of
John Tyndall, J. J. Maquinaz, and J. P. Maquinaz was the first to traverse the summit. In
1871,
Lucy Walker became the first woman to stand on top of the mountain, followed a few weeks later by her rival
Meta Brevoort. The difficult north Zmutt Ridge was first ascended by
Albert F. Mummery,
Alexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta on
September 3 1879, and it wasn't until
July 31–
August 1 1931 that the extremely difficult
north face route was first ascended by Franz and Toni Schmid.
Today, all ridges and faces of the Matterhorn have been ascended in all seasons, and
mountain guides take a large number of people up the northeast Hörnli route each summer. By modern standards, the climb is fairly difficult (AD
Difficulty rating), but not hard for skilled mountaineers. There are
fixed ropes on parts of the route to help. Still, several climbers die each year due to a number of factors including the scale of the climb and its inherent dangers, inexperience, falling rocks, and overcrowded routes.
The usual pattern of ascent is to take the Schwarzsee cable car up from Zermatt, hike up to the Hörnli-hütte (elev. 3,260 m/10,695 ft), a large stone building at the base of the main ridge, and spend the night. The next day, climbers rise at 3:30 am so as to reach the summit and descend before the regular afternoon clouds and storms come in. Other routes on the mountain include the Italian ridge (D Difficulty rating), the Zmutt ridge (D Difficulty rating) and the north face route, one of the six
great north faces of the Alps (TD+ Difficulty rating).
Cultural references
» *
Parascotopetl, the fictional 'Matterhorn of the
Andes', appears in
H. G. Wells's short story "
The Country of the Blind" (1904).
*In the
1957 Warner Brothers animated short Piker's Peak,
Bugs Bunny and
Yosemite Sam try to beat each other to the summit of the Schmatterhorn, towering high above a fictional Swiss village, with the winner receiving 50,000 cronkites.
» *A miniature imitation of the Matterhorn featuring a
bobsled ride is one of the attractions at
Disneyland in
Anaheim, California.
Matterhorn Bobsleds opened in
1959 as the world's first tubular steel coaster and partially encloses a 1/100 scale replica (147 feet in height) of the mountain.
*The peak is featured prominently in the popular 1974 Japanese anime version of
Heidi. This attracts thousands of Japanese tourists to the area every year.
» *In an episode of the television show
The Simpsons Homer Simpson climbs the highest mountain in Springfield known as the Murderhorn, an obvious play off the Matterhorn.
*In HBO's "Entourage",
Matterhorn is a fictional film script that's touted as a possible project for the shows main character, Vincent Chase. Chase's agent, Ari Gold, pitches him the script on numerous occasions, but each time Vince declines, suggesting the script reads like "
Die Hard at Disneyland".
» *The 'Mini Matterhorn' is the unofficial name of a 75-cm piece of Martian rock immediately east-southeast of the Mars Pathfinder lander.
(External Link
)
*The individual pieces of the chocolate bar
Toblerone are claimed by its maker Kraft, to be formed in the likeness of the Matterhorn.
Other 'Matterhorns'
Many other prominent mountains around the world are nicknamed the 'Matterhorn' of their respective countries or mountain ranges. Examples include:
» *
Ama Dablam ('the Matterhorn of the
Himalaya')
*
Mount Aspiring in
New Zealand ('the Matterhorn of
the South')
» *
Mount Assiniboine ('the Matterhorn of
North America')
*
Clach Glas ('the Matterhorn of
Skye').
» *
Cnicht ('the Matterhorn of
Wales')
*
Innerdalstårnet ('the Matterhorn of
Norway')
» *Kajaqiao ('the Matterhorn of
China')
*Kurtbashitsa ('the Matterhorn of
Bulgaria')
» *
Machapuchare ('the Matterhorn of
Nepal')
*Olomana ('the Matterhorn of Oahu')
» *
Roseberry Topping ('the Matterhorn of the
Moors')
*
Shivling ('the Matterhorn of
India')
» *
Sloan Peak ('the Matterhorn of the
Cascades')
*
Spitzkoppe ('the Matterhorn of
Namibia')
» *
Ushba ('the Matterhorn of the
Caucasus')
*
Mount Yari ('the Matterhorn of
Japan')
An outcrop on Grey Friar in the Lake District in England is known as the 'Matterhorn Rock'.Further Information
Get more info on 'Matterhorn'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://matterhorn.totallyexplained.com">Matterhorn Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
