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Grand Hotel Zermatterhof (5 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 255
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Mont Cervin Palace (5 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 260
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Alex (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 210
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Antares (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 166
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Hotel Alpenhof (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 368
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Hotel Ambassador (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 172
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Hotel Apartement La Perle (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 115
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Hotel Astoria (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 155
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Hotel Beau Rivage (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 150
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Hotel La Ginabelle (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 160
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Hotel Matterhorn Focus (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 240
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Hotel Metropol & Spa Zermatt (4 Stars)
Zermatt
Rooms starting at CHF 140
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Switzerland > Famous Mountains > Matterhorn
The Matterhorn is Switzerland's most famous mountain seen on advertisements all around the world. Located in Switzerland's south on the Italian border, it is 4478 meters (14,693 feet) high and towers over Zermatt like a lithe four-faced pyramid.
Owing to its very steep faces, it took several attempts by various groups until a team of seven mainly English mountaineers finally reached the summit on July 14, 1865. Their names were Edward Whymper, Lord Francis Douglas, Reverend Charles Hudson, and Douglas R. Hadow, with Michel A. Croz and father and son Peter Taugwalder as guides.
Only three of them lived to celebrate their victory. Four of them lost their lives on the descent, shattering their bones on the Matterhorn glacier far below.
The accident was caused by Hadow, a boy in the care of Reverend Hudson. Whymper had not really wanted him on the team, but the reverend had insisted in the educational value of the climb.
Whymper's concerns proved all too true. Already during the ascent, Hadow was too weak to keep up. On the descent, things worsened. Having reached the ice-shield of the North face, Hadow's last strength gave and Croz, who climbed first, had to guide the boy's feet from hold to hold.
At one point, when Croz turned to prepare the next holds, Hadow slipped and although father Taugwalder going last managed to stablize the group for some precious moments, the rope between Douglas and Whymper broke and Croz, Hadow, Hudson and Douglas fell to their death.
Douglas' body was never found. The other team members are buried in Zermatt's cemetery and a visit to their graves should feature on the itinerary of every visitor.
As a consequence of the team's disaster-victory, Zermatt became a prime tourist attraction. The "Hörnli-Route" was firmly established as a technical but easy way to the Matterhorn's summit, and mountaineers abandoned the practice of tying themselves together in one large group.
Whymper reclimbed the Matterhorn nine years later, teaming with his great competitor Carrel, whom he had beat by mere hours on that fateful July 14, 1865.