Matterhorn

The Matterhorn stands on the main ridge of the Alps, on the border between the Swiss canton of Valais and the Italian region of Aosta Valley. The Swiss village of Zermatt lies at its foot to the northeast, and the Italian resort of Breuil-Cervinia to the south. In Italian the mountain is called Monte Cervino.

At about 4,478 metres, it is not the highest peak in the Alps, but its almost symmetrical four sided pyramid, facing the four points of the compass, made it famous. It was one of the last major Alpine peaks to be climbed. On 14 July 1865 a party led by the British climber Edward Whymper reached the summit by the Hornli ridge, but four of the seven men died when a rope broke on the descent.

Today the Hornli ridge from Switzerland and the Lion ridge from Italy are the usual climbing routes, and the ascent is a serious mountaineering climb that most people make with a mountain guide. The Hornli Hut, at about 3,260 metres, is the base for Swiss ascents.

Most visitors enjoy the mountain from viewpoints. The Gornergrat railway climbs from Zermatt to about 3,100 metres, with views of the Matterhorn and the Gorner Glacier. Cable cars rise to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at about 3,883 metres, the highest cable car station in Europe, at the Klein Matterhorn, with year round snow. The Riffelsee lake is known for reflections of the peak, and Zermatt holds the Matterhorn Museum on the mountain's history.

Zermatt is closed to normal cars, so visitors arrive by train from Visp or by shuttle train from the car park at Tasch. Viewpoints are free from the village, while mountain railways and cable cars are paid. Clear mornings give the best chance of seeing the summit, which is often wrapped in cloud by afternoon.

Which faces and ridges does the mountain have? The north, east and west faces lie on the Swiss side and the south face on the Italian side, divided by four ridges: the Hornli, Zmutt, Lion and Furggen. A GPS survey in 1999 measured the summit at 4,477.54 metres. Three days after Whymper's party, on 17 July 1865, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich reached the top from the Italian side, and the steep north face was first climbed by the brothers Franz and Toni Schmid on 31 July and 1 August 1931.

The mountain has a serious record: more than 500 people had died on it by the late 1980s, and the average has stayed at about twelve deaths a year. Zermatt itself received almost two million arrivals a year by 2015, so summer trains and lifts are busy; book the Gornergrat and Glacier Paradise early in the day.