The Matterhorn up close
A vast rock wall instead of the distant pyramid.
Björn S... — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Björn S... — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Björn S. — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tiia Monto — CC BY-SA 3.0
On 14 July 1865 the Englishman Edward Whymper and six companions reached the summit for the first time after years of attempts — but on the descent the rope broke and four of them fell to their deaths. The accident shook Europe and made the Matterhorn a legend, and the victims' graves lie in **Zermatt's cemetery** beside the church. The Matterhorn Museum in the village displays the broken rope itself.
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Schwarzsee is a small dark lake at 2,552 metres, and **the closest point an ordinary visitor can get to the foot of the Matterhorn itself**: from its shore the mountain rises before you as a vast, very near wall, at a completely different angle from the distant Gornergrat views — here you do not see the elegant pyramid but the huge rock mass up close. On its shore stands a small white chapel (Maria zum Schnee, "Mary of the Snow") built in 1741 in fulfilment of a vow, and it makes one of Zermatt's best-loved images: a little chapel, a still lake and the Matterhorn behind them. From here begins the **Hörnli trail**, which climbs to the Hörnli hut (3,260 m) — the base for climbing the Matterhorn and the starting point of the first ascent in 1865. The walk to the hut is about two hours up, hard but feasible for the reasonably fit, or you can walk down to Furi and Zermatt instead.
A vast rock wall instead of the distant pyramid.
A 1741 shrine on the dark lake's shore.
The route to the Matterhorn climbing base.
Schwarzsee, 3920 Zermatt