4,478 metres, four faces, and the last great Alpine first ascent
Why it looks the way it does
The Matterhorn's near-perfect pyramid shape comes from four steep faces — north, south, east, and west — each carved by a different glacier working on a different side of the same rock mass. That symmetry is also what makes it visible, and recognisable, from an unusually wide arc of the valley: from Zermatt's main street, from Gornergrat across the valley, from the Riffelsee's famous reflection pool, and from the Italian side above Cervinia.
The 1865 first ascent
By the 1860s, most of the Alps' major peaks had already been climbed, but the Matterhorn had turned back every attempt — its steep, loose faces made it look unclimbable rather than merely difficult. Edward Whymper, an English illustrator turned mountaineer, had already tried and failed several times from the Italian side before switching to the Swiss (Hörnli) ridge.
On 14 July 1865, Whymper's party of seven — Whymper himself, Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, guide Michel Croz, and two Zermatt mountain guides both named Peter Taugwalder (father and son) — reached the summit by the Hörnli ridge, beating an Italian party climbing the harder south-west ridge by hours.
The descent went wrong almost immediately. Roped together, the party was descending the same ridge when Hadow — the least experienced climber — slipped. He pulled Croz, Hudson, and Douglas down with him; all four fell roughly 1,200 m down the North Face and died. The rope between the falling men and the three survivors — Whymper and the two Taugwalders — snapped. A formal inquiry later found no evidence that the rope had been deliberately cut, and cleared the survivors, though the accusation followed Whymper for years.
The tragedy made international headlines and, paradoxically, helped launch Zermatt as a destination — climbers and sightseers alike wanted to see the mountain that had claimed four lives in one afternoon. Within a generation the village had its railway, its grand hotels, and the beginnings of the tourism economy that still defines it.
How tall is it, really?
The Matterhorn's summit sits at 4,478 m — high, but not actually the tallest peak visible from Zermatt. That distinction belongs to the Dufourspitze (4,634 m), part of the Monte Rosa massif on the opposite side of the valley. The Matterhorn's fame rests entirely on its shape and isolation, not on being the region's highest point.
Where to actually see it
The Riffelsee is the single most photographed viewpoint in the valley: a small alpine lake about an hour's walk below Gornergrat that mirrors the peak on still mornings, best reached at first light before wind breaks the water's surface. Gornergrat itself gives the widest panoramic context — 29 named 4,000 m peaks visible from one platform — while Matterhorn Glacier Paradise puts you closer to the mountain's actual rock than any other lift in the valley.