Zermatt is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of one of the most beautiful mountains in the world — the Matterhorn. That climb also marked the official beginning of tourism in the area, and Switzerland in particular. But it all began with a tragedy.
Edward Whymper was a young artist, an Englishman who first visited the Alps in 1860 on commission from a London publisher to make sketches and engravings of Alpine scenery. These mountains were growing into a national obsession with the nouveau riche Victorian middle class at the time, so artistic representations were in great demand. Whymper combined in himself a very English ideal of the aesthete and the athlete, and soon became obsessed with climbing the delicate yet exposed spire of Matterhorn.
After years of attempts, Whymper got together a crack team of Alpinists for another climb in 1865. Consisting of members of the British aristocracy (the climber Lord Francis Douglas) as well as experienced Alpine porters and a Chamonix guide, the team started off from Zermatt, and on 14 July, successfully ascended the peak following the Hörnligrat shoulder and then the north wall. Whymper was the first to reach the top. However, on the way down, tragedy struck when one of the ropes broke and four of the party fell to their death from the top of the north wall.
This created a huge sensation, including an order from Queen Victoria that English royal blood shouldn’t be spilt on climbing mountains. Although this marked the end of the Golden Age of alpinism, it also marked the surge in popularity of the Alps among the vacationing English. This was aided by Whymper’s book Scrambles Amongst the Alps 1860-1869 which contained his engravings. Gustave Doré’s 1865 engravings of the disaster whetted the appetites of a vicariously thrill-seeking public. Everyone now wanted to come to Zermatt to see the beautiful and deadly Matterhorn. Thomas Cook & Sons was, as early as 1863, conducting ‘leisure excursions’ of the Alps. This trend grew into a giant tourism industry, and the rest was history.