Matterhorn

Long, long ago, the land of Africa slowly moved toward Europe.

The rocks crumpled and were pushed up high. Rock from Africa ended up on top! Then ice slowly carved the mountain into a sharp point.

About 100 million years ago, the African plate, a giant slab of Earth's surface, began creeping toward Europe at about 2 centimeters a year. As the plates pushed together, rock was squeezed, scraped off and stacked up in huge piles, and the Alps began to rise.

Zermatt Tourism says the Matterhorn's rock was pushed upward about 50 million years later. Geologists writing in EARTH Magazine explain that the Hörnli hut, where climbers set off, sits on old ocean-floor rock, while the steep walls above it are rock that was once part of Africa, stacked on top. Later, glaciers in bowl-shaped hollows called cirques ate into the mountain from three or more sides, leaving the steep, pointed peak we see today.

The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, describes the Alps as a crumple zone of the Africa-Europe collision: from about 100 million years ago the African plate moved toward Europe at around 2 cm a year, the European plate bent down and sank into the mantle, and slices of both plates were scraped off and stacked as enormous rock packages. Erosion has raced against that stacking ever since, and Sardona says the process is not yet complete.

Geologists Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, writing in EARTH Magazine (American Geosciences Institute), describe the stack at Zermatt from bottom to top: European rock of the Briançonnais microcontinent, an oceanic nappe from the floor of the vanished Piemont Ocean, and on top crust from Apulia, then a peninsula of Africa. The Hörnli hut sits on the green oceanic rocks; the walls above it are the African rocks. The Swiss Academy of Sciences likewise lists Adriatic-continental (African) elements in the ridge profile from Monte Rosa to the Matterhorn. Zermatt Tourism names this African rock the Dent Blanche nappe, of gneiss and gabbro, and dates the thrusting up of the Matterhorn's rock masses to about 50 million years after Africa began its approach. The form came later: the National Snow and Ice Data Center defines a horn as a peak thinned and eroded by three or more glacial cirques and says the Matterhorn was carved by glacial erosion, and Swisseduc's Glaciers online uses it as its example of a steep, pyramid-shaped horn.

For a long time, nobody could climb to the top.

Then, in 1865, a team of seven climbers reached the very top! Three days later, another team climbed up from Italy. Today, climbers use ropes fixed to the rock to help them.

From 1857 onward, climbers tried again and again to reach the top, mostly from the Italian side. The British climber Edward Whymper failed for five summers. In July 1865 he chose a different way, the Hörnli ridge above Zermatt, and on 14 July his team of seven became the first to stand on the summit. On the way down, the team had a terrible accident.

Three days later, Jean-Antoine Carrel reached the summit from the Italian side. In 1868 the first fixed rope was attached to the mountain to help climbers, and in the 1980s fixed ropes were added to the upper third.

Zermatt Tourism records unsuccessful attempts from 1857, mostly from the Italian side; in 1862 John Tyndall reached the southwest shoulder, now Pic Tyndall, with guides including Jean-Antoine Carrel. Edward Whymper, in his sixth summer in the area in 1865, concluded the mountain could be climbed by the Swiss northeast ridge, the Hörnligrat. Learning that Carrel had set off on the Italian ridge without him, he assembled a team in Zermatt, and on 14 July 1865 the seven climbers, Whymper, guide Michel Croz, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow and the Zermatt guides Peter Taugwalder senior and junior, made the first ascent. The descent ended in tragedy after a fall above the Shoulder; the snapped rope is displayed in Zermatt's Matterhorn Museum.

Carrel reached the summit three days later from the Italian side, by a traverse across the upper west face onto the Zmutt ridge, the so-called Galleria Carrel. The first fixed rope went up in 1868, and fixed ropes on the upper third were installed in the 1980s; they are checked and repaired every early summer.

The Matterhorn is very high and steep.

Only climbers with lots of practice go up, with a mountain guide. Families can walk on the marked paths below and look at the mountain. Never walk onto a glacier without a guide.

You don't have to climb the Matterhorn to enjoy it. Marked hiking paths, like the 5-lake route, show it reflected in mountain lakes in good weather. Zermatt Tourism's trail rule is clear: don't leave the marked paths, and don't go onto glaciers without a mountain guide. It also warns walkers not to go toward the end of a glacier on their own, because water can burst out and hidden ice can collapse.

Climbing the Matterhorn itself takes two days, a sure foot, a good head for heights and lots of fitness. Zermatt Tourism says a mountain guide is necessary. The weather can change very fast, with sudden cold and storms.

Zermatt Tourism describes the Matterhorn climb as a two-day trip, usually from the Hörnli hut, only for climbers who are sure-footed, have a good head for heights and have stamina. It estimates that 300 to 400 people a year attempt it with a guide, and that of the roughly 3,500 who try without one, some 65 percent turn back, usually for lack of fitness or of a head for heights. Weather changes quickly, with plummeting temperatures and storms, and melting permafrost has increased rockfall on the routes.

Its trail pages repeat the same rules: do not leave marked paths, do not go onto glaciers without a mountain guide, and be considerate of other hikers, plants and animals. Glacier tongues are singled out on the Gorner Glacier trail: walkers should not approach them alone, because of sudden water outflows, ice break-offs and hidden ice under debris that can collapse. Research also hints at another hazard: a 2021 study reported by the Swiss research institute WSL found the summit moves up to 14 times more than the base during ambient shaking, and its authors note that such amplified areas are likely more prone to rockfall in a strong earthquake.