Berg der Berge (Mountain of Mountains)

Let’s start in Zermatt, a city without combustion-engine autos (to preserve its pure mountain air). Electric-powered shuttles provide local transport. Most visitors reach Zermatt via the cog railway from the nearby town of Täsch. Trains also depart for Zermatt from farther down the valley at Visp and Brig, which are on the main Swiss SBB rail network. For the more affluent, Zermatt also has a heliport and a local helicopter operator, Air Zermatt, which also provides alpine rescue services.

Any serious skier also knows that Zermatt, in the Swiss canton of Valais, is famous for its excellent skiing facilities, with the bonus of spectacular views of the Matterhorn, located along the border between Italy and Switzerland. The unique peak can be viewed from each of those two countries. The Italian side of the mountain (called il Cervino in Italian) is accessed via the village of Breuil-Cervinia, which is much smaller and less popular than Zermatt (pop. 5,800). With a population of just 700 people, the Italian side also has the disadvantage of offering a less spectacular view of the pyramidal shaped Matterhorn.

Most of the Alpine four-thousanders (Viertausender), peaks that are 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) high or more, are located around Zermatt or tower above neighboring valleys. The Matterhorn (Swiss German for “peak in the meadows”) is 4,478 meters (14,692 ft) above sea level.

The Matterhorn is a towering near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps. The peak’s four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais. PHOTO: Liridon (Wikimedia Commons)

“The Night Manager”
If you have ever watched the TV series “The Night Manager,” you have seen some of the best views of Zermatt and the Matterhorn, all beautifully filmed on location in Switzerland.

In fact it was a repeat viewing of the British series on Amazon Prime Video that inspired me to write this blog post. In the series, the eponymous night manager Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddelston) is working at the (fictional) Hotel Meister, a luxurious hotel in Zermatt, when he gets recruited by British intelligence officer Angela Burr (Olivia Coleman) to help her nail the notorious arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). One scene, in which Pine and Burr meet in person for the first time, was filmed at a real Zermatt location, the dining room at the Chalet Hotel Schönegg, just a short walk away from the center of town and offering a spectacular view of the Matterhorn. Pine and Burr also travel on the scenic Gornergrat Bahn (The Matterhorn Railway), which first began operating in 1898. Those scenes and others filmed in and around Zermatt offer stunning views of the Matterhorn and Zermatt.

So, let’s learn more about this special mountain. One surprise for me was the Toblerone connection, but there are many others.

Matterhorn Facts and Trivia

Although the Matterhorn is not the world’s or even the Alps’ tallest mountain (12th ranked), nor considered an extremely difficult ascent, the Swiss mountain is relatively deadly, having so far claimed the lives of more than 500 climbers, about a dozen fatalities per year. Inexperience, a lack of adequate fitness, and the obvious risks of mountaineering have been contributing factors ever since the first successful ascent in 1865 – and the first deaths. The Matterhorn’s north face is the most difficult climb; it was not scaled until 1931. In recent decades the average annual number of climbing fatalities has gone down, but 10 people died on the Matterhorn in the summer of 2018.

Personally I prefer to admire such heights from afar. Happily, the mountain’s awe-inspiring views are easily available to less adventurous types like me. Your biggest risk is inclement weather that may obscure your view. Many fairly easy hiking trails are also scattered around the area. You don’t have to be a skilled alpinist to enjoy the Matterhorn and its gateway town of Zermatt.

Okay, here are 10 more interesting facts and tidbits related to Switzerland’s most famous peak.

• 1 | The first successful ascent of the Matterhorn, from Zermatt in July 1865, resulted in four deaths. The climbing expedition was led by Edward Whymper, a British artist and engraver turned mountaineer. While all seven of the climbers made it to the summit, only three returned alive: Whymper, the Swiss mountaineer Peter Taugwalder, and his son, also named Peter. The bodies of French mountain guide Michel-Auguste Croz, British novice climber Douglas Robert Hadow, and Anglican chaplain and climber Charles Hudson were later found on the Matterhorn Glacier below. All three now lie buried in Zermatt. (See item 10 below for more.) The body of Lord Francis Douglas has never been found, despite efforts to do so over many decades. Three days after Whymper’s successful first climb, a rival party of Italian alpinists also reached the summit.
• 2 | There are four peaks named “Matterhorn” in the United States (not counting the artificial one in Disneyland). California, Colorado, and Nevada each have a Matterhorn. Montana has a Little Matterhorn. Canada has its own Matterhorn Peak in British Columbia. Of course none of them are as high or as dramatic as the Swiss original.
• 3 | Matterhorn Art: In 1865, the same year of the first ascent, the German American painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) first visited Zermatt and other Swiss Alpine locations to sketch the Matterhorn and other scenes. His ca. 1875 “Sunrise on the Matterhorn” is one of the best known paintings of the mountain. (Mount Bierstadt in Colorado is named in his honor.) An iconic Matterhorn/Zermatt poster was created in 1908 by the Swiss artist Emil Cardinaux (1877–1936). See the photo below.
• 4 | The first woman to reach the Matterhorn’s summit was Lucy Walker in July 1871, setting out from Zermatt wearing a long flannel skirt. The Englishwoman had a rival named Meta Brevoort, who also made a successful climb a few days later from the Italian side, yet another climbing first for a woman.

Continued below…

Considered one of the first truly modern posters, Emil Cardinaux’s stylized avoidance of details and a focus on the peak’s basic form has made the poster almost as iconic as the mountain itself. Original prints sell for as much as $10,000. The poster was designed in 1908 for the Swiss railway (SBB). IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons

• 5 | The Matterhorn, when it makes its spectacular appearance above the Zermatt valley, is the most photographed mountain in the world. Estimates calculate that over 100 million pictures of it are taken annually (in non-pandemic times).
• 6 | The Toblerone logo: While enjoying a delicious Swiss Toblerone chocolate bar with its distinctive triangular shape, you may or may not have noticed its Matterhorn connections. The Toblerone logo dates back to 1908 when it was created by Theodor Tobler and his cousin Emil Baumann in Bern, Switzerland. The product’s name is a portmanteau combining the Tobler name with the Italian word torrone (a type of nougat). The logo has a couple of features that many people, in their rush to bite into the candy, fail to see. They may notice the triangular Matterhorn peak, but rarely a somewhat obscure image hidden in plain sight: a bear, the symbol of the Swiss capital of Bern. Once you see the “hidden” bear, you’ll always see it.
• 7 | Elevation: The Matterhorn’s official summit height has varied over the years. The first scientific measuring effort came in August 1792, when Horace Bénédict de Saussure, a Swiss geologist and explorer from Geneva, used a sextant to calculate an elevation of 4,501.7 m (14,769 ft). The next effort, in 1868, was by the Italian engineer Felice Giordano. He measured a height of 4,505 m (14,780 ft) using a mercury barometer, which he took to the summit. (This is the elevation displayed on Emil Cardinaux’s 1908 poster. See above.) Today’s official GPS-measured elevation is 4,478 meters (14,692 ft) above sea level.
• 8 | The Matterhorn actually has two distinct summits situated 100 meters (330 ft) apart along the Italian-Swiss border ridge. There is only a one-meter (3.3 ft) difference in their heights (4,477 and 4,778 m).
• 9 | The Gornergrat Railway (Gornergrat Bahn AG): Known as “The Matterhorn Railway” in English, this electrified cog/rack railway (Zahnradbahn) runs 9.3 km (5.8 mi) from Zermatt (elev. 1,604 m/5,262 ft) to Gornergrat (elev. 3,809 m/10,135 ft) with four stations along the way. Opened in August 1898, the Gornergrat Railway makes it easy for tourists and skiers to get closer to the Matterhorn and almost 5,000 feet higher above Zermatt. In 1950 an Italian engineer proposed a cable car line on the Italian side from Breuil-Cervinia to the Matterhorn summit. Massive protests led the Italian government to declare the Matterhorn a natural wonder worthy of protection, and the line was never built.
• 10 | The memorial Grave of the Unknown Climber (Grab des unbekannten Bergsteigers) is located in the Mountaineers’ Cemetery (Bergsteigerfriedhof) in Zermatt. Created by local mountain guide Harry Lauber, it commemorates the more than 500 deaths on the Matterhorn since 1865, as well as the missing and dead who could not be found or completely removed after their fall. The grave, with a title plaque in four languages, was established in summer 2015 for the 150th anniversary of the first ascent on the Matterhorn in 1865. The Mountaineers’ Cemetery also contains the graves of over 50 climbers who perished in the surrounding mountains, on the Matterhorn, Täschhorn, Weisshorn, Liskamm, Obergabelhorn, and on the Monte Rosa massif. One gravestone is an exception. It commemorates two notable climbers who died of natural causes: Peter and Peter Taugwalder, father and son, the guides for Edward Whymper in 1865. Next to the Taugwalders is the gravestone of Michel-Auguste Croz who died on the descent. The two English climbers, Hadow and Hudson, who also fell to their deaths in 1865, were laid to rest at the English Church in Zermatt, with Hadow outside and Hudson inside by the altar.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at some interesting aspects of the Matterhorn and Zermatt.

– HF