The Faces of the Matterhorn

Today has been a perfect Swiss Summer day. Warm, blue skies, no wind and a magical walk to the  Schönbiel Hut.  The Schönbiel Hut lies at the end of a long valley that runs to the North side of the Matterhorn. A round trip of about 15miles and a minimum of six hours walking into an area that has stunning scenery and because it is not provided with ‘uplifts’ is the province of the hardened walker.

There are many things that are special about this walk but tonight I will concentrate on just the one. A fact common to all mountains is that they all present different ‘faces’ depending on where you stand. Except with this walk, the mountain is the Matterhorn and its face changes with every stride as you walk from the ‘classic’ face that the mountain presents to the Zermatt valley, to views of the North Face with the Hornli ridge in profile, to views of the Zmutt ridge and the discovery that when seen from Zermatt the Matterhorn hides another stunning mountain from view – the Dent d’Herens. Do click on the images to enlarge them – they will benefit from being seen larger.

The Matterhorn – the classic view from Zermatt at sunset

The Matterhorn from Stafelalp – Hornli ridge Lt profile, North Face Rt side

Half an hour after previous image. Hornli ridge Lt profile, North Face seen head on

Matterhorn from the Schonbiel Hut – a different ‘face’ – the Zmutt ridge now bisect the mountain, the North face is on the Left

The Dent d’Herens to the Rt of the Matterhorn – a graceful mountain in its own right, totally obscured from all other points in the Zermatt valley.