The Cervino is 4,478 m, first climbed in 1865

The Cervino, the mountain English speakers call the Matterhorn, is 4,478¹ m high and stands on the border between Italy and Switzerland above the Valtournenche, in the Aosta Valley; it was first climbed on July 14, 1865².

4,478 m, and whose number that is

The height of 4,478¹ m comes from the Aosta Valley regional authority, and it's the figure this site uses. Rock doesn't move the way a volcano does, so the number is stable from one decade to the next.

What hasn't been done here is a check against the national geodetic surveys of Italy and Switzerland. They publish values in the same range, not always to the same meter, and a height quoted without its source is the most common error in writing about this mountain.

Two ridges, two first ascents, 1865

Edward Whymper's party reached the summit first, on July 14, 1865², climbing from the Swiss side. A party led by Jean-Antoine Carrel reached it from the Italian side shortly afterwards.

That order is why the mountain has two histories. In Switzerland the story starts with Whymper; on the Italian side the name that matters is Carrel's, and the ridge he climbed rises from the valley you'd be staying in.

The Italian side is the Valtournenche

The Valtournenche is the Italian valley below the Cervino, inside the Aosta Valley, and it's where any trip to the Italian face begins.

Lift lines, timetables and prices on the Italian side are not among the facts verified for this site, so none are quoted here. Check them with the operators in the valley before you plan a day around a cable car, and treat any season you read elsewhere as provisional until the operator confirms it.

Lower than Monte Rosa, and just as shared

At 4,478¹ m the Cervino is lower than the Punta Dufour of Monte Rosa, which reaches 4,634³ m and ranks second in the whole Alpine chain.

The Dufour sits on a border too, where the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and the Swiss canton of Valais meet. Both of these summits are on the line with Switzerland, which is worth knowing when you read a map, choose a hut or work out which rescue service answers. See Monte Rosa.

Before you go higher than the lifts

In Italy the emergency number is 112⁴, and the European health card, EHIC, does not pay for mountain rescue.

The card is not travel insurance. Private providers outside the national health service, planned treatment and repatriation fall outside it too, which is why a climbing trip needs a policy that names mountain rescue in writing.

A 112⁴ call goes to a first level answering center, which passes it to the police, the carabinieri, the fire service, the coast guard or the medical service. More at emergency numbers, health cover and the Aosta Valley.

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