The mountain was first climbed on 19 August 1861 by the physicist John Tyndall, with guides J. J. Bennen and Ulrich Wenger. Their itinerary corresponds to the normal route for climbing the mountain today: the east ridge, starting from the
Weisshorn Hut.
1860 attempt In 1860 an attempt was made by
C. E. Mathews by the southern face. He came to Zermatt with
Melchior Anderegg, and engaged Johann Kronig as second guide. They slept at the huts of Schallenbergalp and started at half-past one on the morning of 1 July. Crossing the moraine, they walked until they reached a steep and rugged portion of the glacier, which hid the mountain from their view; and rounding this obstruction with some difficulty, they reached the upper portion of the glacier about five o'clock. They saw that the ridges were thickly coated over with fresh snow, and, except a little patch of rock some 700 or below the summit, the whole mass was of brilliant and dazzling whiteness. They decided to try the southern side which seemed less steep and more practicable to Melchior but an avalanche stopped them: :"For six mortal hours we toiled up the steep face of the mountain...A great many steps had to be cut, but for the most part we were able to tread out our foot-holds in the snow. About half-past nine the difficulties became much greater - ten or twelve inches of snow rested upon the ice. We could not get safe footing upon it, and my clinometer indicated an angle of 48 or 49 degrees. The necessity of clearing away the snow before the step could be cut in the ice beneath it, made Melchior's work very arduous, and the higher we got the greater the difficulties became. We had to take off veil and spectacles, and use all our eyes, the footholds were so insecure, and this, though the sun was extremely hot and there was not a cloud to be seen. Suddenly the heat of the sun loosened some snow just above us, and down came a little avalanche quite near enough to be exceedingly unpleasant." :"Sometimes it was a fair pull upwards, sometimes an oblique twist round the corner of a rock tower; sometimes it was the grip of the finger ends in a fissure and lateral shifting of the whole body in a line parallel to the crack. Many times I found myself with my feet highest and my head lowest." They reached a dangerous thin ridge of snow, little wider than a hand's breadth, with precipices on either side. The guide Bennen trod the snow down and saw that it was firm enough to cross. Tyndall and Wenger followed Bennen, but yet the summit seemed less attainable and they were all tired. However Tyndall steeled himself with patriotic thoughts: :"I thought of Englishmen in battle, of the qualities which had made them famous: it was mainly the quality of not knowing when to yield - of fighting for duty even after they had ceased to be animated by hope. Such thoughts helped to lift me over the rocks." After four hours of struggle they reached a sharp ridge of snow and finally arrived to the summit. The return was found to be not much less difficult than the ascent; and they regained Randa at 11 p.m., after about 20 hours of almost constant hard work.
Other ascents , with the
Grand Gendarme in the middle The second ascent, in 1862, was made by
Leslie Stephen. Starting with Melchior Anderegg and Franz Biener, of Zermatt. It was from a chalet below the Schallenberg Alp, nearly 2 hours lower than Tyndall's bivouac, that Stephen gained the highest point in 9.5 hours, and returned to Randa in 7.5 hours more, reaching Zermatt the same evening. In 1877, another route was opened by W. E. Davidson, J. W. Hartley and H. S. Hoare, with guides P. Rubi, J. Juan and A. Pollinger. After climbing part of the lower south-east face above the Schali Glacier, they reached the Schaligrat (south-west ridge) and continued to the summit. The complete ridge (which was considered too difficult and dangerous in its lower part) was first climbed in 1895 by J. M. Biner, A. Imboden and E. Broome. The south-east face was completely climbed in 1906 by
Geoffrey Winthrop Young and R.G. Mayor with the guide
Josef Knubel of
St. Niklaus in the canton Valais. The glaciated north-east face was first climbed in 1871 by J. H. Kitson with guides
Christian Almer and his son. Almer wanted to reach the summit by nine o'clock in the morning while Kitson's wife watched them from the
Gornergrat. In fact the difficulties were more serious than expected and they didn't reach the summit before midday. Shortly after, the ascent was repeated by
W. A. B. Coolidge and
Meta Brevoort. Both expeditions climbed the part of the face below the Grand Gendarme and continued near the north ridge. In 1909 G. W. Young and J. Knubel climbed the face by the central spur. The west face was first climbed in 1879 by G. A. Passingham with guides F. Imseng and L. Zurbrücken. Other routes on the face were opened in 1883 and 1889. The easiest passage on the east face was found in 1890 by G. W. Young, who climbed the spur under the Grand Gendarme with L. and B. Theytaz by a route known as the
Younggrat. The summit of the
Grand Gendarme on the unexplored north ridge was first reached in 1898. One month later, on 21 September 1898, H. Biehly and H. Burgener made the first complete traverse on the north ridge to the summit from the Bishorn. side In 1888 George Winkler was killed in a fall on the west face. He left
Zinal alone on 17 August, without telling others his precise route. The rescue team only found a photo and a hat near an avalanche cone. His body was not found until the summer of 1956, on the Weisshorn Glacier. John Garforth Cockin was also killed making a solo attempt on the south-east face twelve years later. In 1925
Eleonore Noll-Hasenclever, H. Pfann and H. Trier were caught in an avalanche on the north-east face when they tried to reach the east ridge after interrupting their ascent on the north ridge on account of adverse weather conditions. Pfann and Trier survived, but Hasenclever died from asphyxiation. == 1983 helicopter crash ==