The Matterhorn

In the summer of 1860, Edward Whymper, an athletic, twenty-year old English artist, visited the Alps for the first time. He had been hired by a London publisher to make sketches and engravings of the scenic mountains along the border of Switzerland and Italy.  He was soon interested in mountaineering and decided to attempt the yet unconquered Matterhorn.  

In the years 1861 - 1865, Whymper and an Italian guide, Jean-Antoine Carrel, made several attempts without success.

The first ascent of the Matterhorn was made by Edward Whymper, Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz and two Zermatt guides, Peter Taugwalder and his son of the same name, on 14 July 1865. 

Sadly, Douglas Hadow slipped and pulled three other men with him and they fell to their death. Edward Whymper and the Taugwalder guides were the only ones to reach the summit.
I saw this broken, very thin, rope in the Zermatt museum. I found it incredibly flimsy looking by today's standards.

The Matterhorn is 4.478 meters (14.692 ft). Most of the Alpine four-thousanders are located around Zermatt or in the neighbouring valleys.

The population of Zermatt in 2018 is 6.629. So that is not big at all! 

Extra collage:
Mostly of the Matterhorn at different times of the early morning, in the daytime and the evening. 
Look at the photo on the lower left, which I took from my balcony, to see the 80-100 Chinese tourists who, every morning during my stay, used to line themselves on the bridge crossing the River Visp to catch the sunrise on the great mountain!