Earth and Environment Atlas

How The Planet Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Geological Formations

Matterhorn Glacier

Erosional and Karst Formations

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Matterhorn Glacier is a cirque glacier of the Pennine Alps in the Valais region of Switzerland, lying at the base of the Matterhorn's north face south of Zermatt. It reaches a maximum width of about 2.5 kilometers within the Zmutt Glacier basin and descends to a minimum elevation of 2,800 meters, well below the 4,478 meter summit above it. The glacier holds a grim place in mountaineering history: after the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 ended in a fatal fall during the descent, three of the four victims' bodies were recovered here, though the remains of Lord Francis Douglas were never found.

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.