48 Fun Facts About The Matterhorn

Which monster did Disneyland add to its Matterhorn Bobsleds ride in 1978?

The Abominable Snowman arrived in a 1978 revamp that also brought two-car bobsleds, greatly increasing how many riders the ride could carry.

In the 1890s, what was proposed to carry visitors up the Matterhorn but never built?

A railway was proposed, but while the same builder's line to a nearby viewpoint opened in 1898, the Matterhorn line was dropped.

Which Disneyland ride used to pass straight through the park's copy of the Matterhorn?

The Skyway ran through the mountain until 1994, and the Matterhorn itself was built partly to hide the Skyway's big support tower.

Which Italian resort town sits below the Matterhorn's south face?

Breuil-Cervinia is where Jean-Antoine Carrel's Italian party set off in July 1865, only to be beaten to the summit by a British-led team.

In which Swiss canton is the Matterhorn?

Valais is home to Zermatt, which the 1865 first ascent turned from a farming village into a famous mountain resort.

What did Whymper name the ghostly apparition with two giant crosses that the survivors saw after the 1865 Matterhorn fall?

A fog bow: Whymper later drew the ghostly scene, crosses and all, as the frontispiece of his book about the climb.

Which ridge is the Italian normal route to the summit?

The Lion ridge is where Carrel's Italian party was still climbing in 1865 when the British-led team reached the summit, and the Italians turned back.

By what nickname, translated from German, is the Matterhorn sometimes known?

Mountain of Mountains translates Berg der Berge, a name it carries even though neighbouring Monte Rosa stands taller.

What do the German words behind the name Matterhorn mean?

It is often translated as the peak of the meadows.

What did many villagers below the Matterhorn once believe lived on the mountain?

Evil spirits were said to live on it, and many locals believed the mountain could not and should not be climbed at all.

Which Genevan geologist first measured the Matterhorn's height in 1792?

He used a sextant and a 50-foot chain laid out on the Theodul glacier.

Roughly how many climbers are estimated to have died on the Matterhorn since its first ascent in 1865?

About 500: deaths have fallen since the 1990s, and Swiss reports credit this partly to more climbers hiring local guides.

What kind of rock makes up most of the Matterhorn's upper pyramid?

Gneiss makes up the pyramid, rock that was folded and thrust upward as Africa slowly pushed toward Europe.

What process gave the Matterhorn its pyramidal shape?

Cirque erosion by diverging glaciers carved the near-perfect pyramid behind its reputation as the world's most-photographed mountain.

Which glaciated pass just east of the Matterhorn is the main crossing between its Swiss and Italian valleys?

Theodul Pass lies under ice, so travellers crossing between the two valleys long had to hire mountain guides to get over it.

Which 1871 book by Edward Whymper tells the story of the Matterhorn's first ascent?

Scrambles Amongst the Alps ends its story with Whymper's warning: climb if you will, but courage and strength are naught without prudence.

The Matterhorn's 1865 first ascent is said to mark the end of which era in mountaineering?

The golden age of alpinism ended in tragedy: four of the seven men who reached the summit died on the descent.

Which monarch, shocked by the Matterhorn deaths of 1865, wondered whether climbing should be banned?

Queen Victoria wondered whether climbing should be outlawed, yet no ban followed and the Matterhorn became Switzerland's best-known symbol.

Which guide from Chamonix was killed in the 1865 Matterhorn disaster?

Michel Croz was placing the novice Hadow's feet on the descent when Hadow slipped and fell onto him, dragging them both down.

Which member of the 1865 party's body was never found?

Lord Francis Douglas had just climbed the nearby Ober Gabelhorn, a feat Whymper admired, and he eagerly joined the Matterhorn party.

What did Whymper find about the rope that snapped on the 1865 descent?

It was the weakest they had, an old spare rope, and an official inquiry later cleared the survivors of cutting it.

How did Whymper's party signal the losing Italian party from the summit in 1865?

By hurling rocks down at them: Whymper and his guide prised crags loose until the Italians, far below, turned and fled.

Before the 1865 race, what did the Italian backers of Carrel's party do to thwart Whymper?

Hired all the best local guides, one backer boasted in a letter, so Whymper crossed to Zermatt and joined forces with other British climbers.

Which physicist gave his name to the Matterhorn shoulder he reached with his guides in 1862?

John Tyndall turned back below the summit in 1862, but returned in 1868 to lead the first party ever to traverse over its top.

Who became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, in 1871?

Lucy Walker hurried up when she heard her American rival Meta Brevoort had arrived, and Brevoort made the first female traverse that same year.

Which climber, with Alexander Burgener, made the first ascent of the Zmutt ridge in 1879?

Albert F. Mummery died on Nanga Parbat in 1895, killed by an avalanche with two Gurkha companions while scouting a route.

What happened to Edward Whymper on a solo attempt on the Matterhorn in 1862?

He survived a 60-metre fall while climbing alone, yet three years later he led the first ascent of the mountain.

How did brothers Franz and Toni Schmid travel to their 1931 first ascent of the Matterhorn's north face?

By bicycle from Munich: the Schmid brothers kept their plans secret, and after the climb they rode all the way home again.

Which Italian climber soloed the North Face Direct in February 1965?

His route was not repeated solo for 29 years, until Catherine Destivelle in 1994.

Which Swiss climber raced up the Matterhorn's north face in under two hours in 2009?

Ueli Steck later died in a fall on Nuptse, near Everest, in April 2017, while preparing for an Everest climb.

Which trail-running star set a Matterhorn up-and-down speed record in 2013?

Kilian Jornet set off in mid-afternoon, while climbers on the mountain usually start before dawn.

From which lake above Zermatt do climbers hike up to the Matterhorn's Hörnli Hut?

Schwarzsee is where Whymper's party stored their tent, blankets and ropes in a little chapel before the 1865 first ascent.

The Solvay Hut, high on the Matterhorn's Hörnli ridge, may be used only for what?

Emergencies: Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay made the shelter possible by donating 20,000 francs for its construction.

Which famous panoramic train has linked Zermatt, below the Matterhorn, with St. Moritz since 1930?

Glacier Express became possible in 1930, when Zermatt's railway was extended to Brig and joined by unbroken metre-gauge track to St. Moritz.

Which viewpoint facing the Matterhorn have cog trains climbed from Zermatt since 1898?

Gornergrat trains began running as visitors poured into Zermatt after the 1865 first ascent, and the summit looks straight at the Matterhorn's east face.

How did Jean-Antoine Carrel, Whymper's great Matterhorn rival, die in 1890?

Of exhaustion: he collapsed on the Matterhorn after leading his clients to safety through a snowstorm.

What linked the Swiss and Italian resorts below the Matterhorn directly in 2023?

The Matterhorn Alpine Crossing cable car links the two resorts over the glaciers, where travellers once had to hire guides to cross on foot.

What did Whymper's party find on the Hörnli ridge in 1865?

It was easier than it looked: Whymper had worked out that the mountain's sheer look from Zermatt was an optical illusion.

According to Theodor Tobler's sons, Toblerone's shape came not from the Matterhorn but from dancers at which Paris venue?

The Folies Bergère story came from Tobler's sons, and the bar later lent its name to Switzerland's triangular anti-tank blocks, the Toblerone line.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds ride at Disneyland was the first permanent example of what?

A tubular steel track roller coaster: its cylindrical rails and urethane wheels have since become standard on roller coasters worldwide.

In 1868, what did an Italian engineer carry to the Matterhorn's summit to measure its height?

A mercury barometer: Felice Giordano took it up in 1868, three years after backing Carrel in his losing race for the first ascent.

Which honour did brothers Franz and Toni Schmid receive in 1932 for the first ascent of the Matterhorn's north face?

Olympic gold medals went to both brothers, though Toni had already died in a climbing accident on the Wiesbachhorn that May.

How did Imagineers make Disneyland's 147-foot Matterhorn look taller than it really is?

Smaller trees higher up trick the eye, and the ride's 1959 debut helped launch Disneyland's new top-tier E ticket.

What happened to climbing on the Matterhorn on 14 July 2015, 150 years after its first ascent?

It was closed to climbers for the day, out of respect for those who have died on the mountain since 1865.

What job first brought Edward Whymper to the Matterhorn region in the summer of 1860?

Sketching mountains for a publisher suited a trained wood engraver, and that first trip grew into his obsession with the unclimbed Matterhorn.

Walt Disney's idea for a Matterhorn ride grew from a Swiss vacation while filming which movie?

Third Man on the Mountain was shot around Zermatt, and Walt reportedly mailed Imagineer Vic Greene a postcard of the peak saying 'Vic, build this!'

Which Ecuadorian volcano did Whymper make the first ascent of in 1880?

Chimborazo had turned back Alexander von Humboldt in 1802, and in 1880 Whymper reached its summit twice.

What did Whymper's party fly as a flag on the Matterhorn's summit in 1865?

A shirt on a pole flew over the summit for about an hour, before the descent on which four of the party were killed.