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50 free The Matterhorn trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Matterhorn trivia quiz covers the mountain that straddles the Swiss–Italian border above Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia. It starts with the numbers: the height, the four faces and the ridges between them, the 500-plus climbers who have died there, and the surprising fact that its summit rocks began life on the African plate. It explains the names too, from Matte and Horn to Cervin, Mons Silvius and Servius Galba. The climbing history takes up the middle: the Carrels' Italian attempts, John Tyndall's shoulder, Edward Whymper's seven failures and the 14 July 1865 first ascent that ended with four men falling to their deaths and a broken rope, Carrel's Italian ascent three days later, Lucy Walker in a white print dress, Mummery on the Zmutt ridge, the Schmid brothers cycling from Munich to the north face, Bonatti's winter solo and Ueli Steck's speed record. The last section covers railways and cable cars, the car-free village, the Hörnli and Solvay huts, Toblerone and the Disneyland ride that copied the peak. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Switzerland and famous mountains quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On the border of which two countries does the Matterhorn stand?
Switzerland and Italy
Three of its four faces are on the Swiss side; only the south face lies in Italy.
Q 02How high is the Matterhorn's summit?
4,478 m
That is 14,692 feet, making it the sixth-highest Alpine summit with at least 300 metres of prominence.
Q 03Which Swiss town lies at the foot of the Matterhorn to the northeast?
Zermatt
It is almost entirely free of petrol and diesel vehicles and can be reached only by public transport.
Q 04Which Italian resort town sits below the Matterhorn's south face?
Breuil-Cervinia
A cable-car link between the Swiss and Italian sides finally opened in 2023.
Q 05In which Swiss canton is the Matterhorn?
Valais
It is the canton's fifth-highest summit, behind the Dom, Liskamm, Weisshorn and Monte Rosa.
Q 06How many faces does the Matterhorn have?
Four
Each roughly points to a cardinal direction, and the north and south faces are wider than the east and west.
Q 07Which ridge is the Italian normal route to the summit?
Lion
It runs between the south and west faces; the other ridges are the Hörnli, Zmutt and Furggen.
Q 08By what nickname, translated from German, is the Matterhorn sometimes known?
Mountain of Mountains
Berg der Berge is also claimed to be the most photographed mountain in the world.
Q 09What do the German words behind the name Matterhorn mean?
Meadow and horn
It is often translated as the peak of the meadows.
Q 10What is the Italian name for the Matterhorn?
Cervino
It comes via the French Cervin from the Latin Mons Silvanus, meaning forest mountain, not from cervo, deer.
Q 11Which Genevan geologist first measured the Matterhorn's height in 1792?
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure
He used a sextant and a 50-foot chain laid out on the Theodul glacier.
Q 12Roughly how many alpinists are estimated to have died on the Matterhorn?
Over 500
That makes it one of the deadliest peaks in the world.
Q 13The gneiss of the Matterhorn's summit was originally part of which continent's crust?
Africa
That is why it has been popularised as an African mountain, unlike neighbouring Monte Rosa, whose rocks stayed in Laurasia.
Q 21What did Whymper discover about the rope that broke between Douglas and the elder Taugwalder?
It was the weakest and oldest of their three ropes
Taugwalder was accused of cutting it to save himself and his son, but the inquest found no proof.
Q 22How many days after Whymper did Jean-Antoine Carrel reach the summit from the Italian side?
Three
He and Jean-Baptiste Bich proved on 17 July 1865 that the Italian ridge was not unconquerable.
Q 23By which route did Whymper's party climb the Matterhorn in 1865?
Hörnli
Whymper found it much easier than the Italian ridge, and it remains the normal route today.
Q 14What process gave the Matterhorn its pyramidal shape?
Cirque erosion by diverging glaciers
Multiple glaciers carved away at the peak from different sides over the past million years.
Q 15Which pass just east of the Matterhorn has been a trade route since Roman times?
Theodul Pass
Ski lifts now link Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia across it all year round.
Q 16Who led the party that made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865?
Edward Whymper
It was his eighth attempt; he had failed seven times, mostly from the Italian side.
Q 17On what date did the first ascent of the Matterhorn take place?
14 July 1865
It is considered the last ascent of the golden age of alpinism.
Q 18How many of the seven climbers in Whymper's party died on the descent?
Four
Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Lord Francis Douglas fell to the Matterhorn Glacier; Douglas's body was never found.
Q 19Which French guide, one of the most famous of his day, died in the 1865 Matterhorn disaster?
Michel Croz
He is buried in the Zermatt churchyard along with Hudson and Hadow.
Q 20Which member of the 1865 party's body was never found?
Lord Francis Douglas
He was a Scottish mountaineer whom Whymper had met on the way to Zermatt.
Q 24The Matterhorn's shoulder at 4,248 m was named after which physicist, who reached it as a client in 1862?
John Tyndall
The physicist got there with the guides Jean-Antoine and César Carrel and Johann Joseph Bennen.
Q 25Who became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, in 1871, wearing a white print dress?
Lucy Walker
Her rival Meta Brevoort followed a few weeks later.
Q 26Which climber, with Alexander Burgener, made the first ascent of the Zmutt ridge in 1879?
Albert F. Mummery
Guidebook writer Collomb calls the Zmutt the classic route, the longest and most disjointed ridge.
Q 27In which year was the Matterhorn's north face first climbed?
1931
It is one of the three great north faces of the Alps, known as the Trilogy with the Eiger and Grandes Jorasses.
Q 28How did the brothers Franz and Toni Schmid travel to and from their 1931 first ascent of the north face?
By bicycle from Munich
They kept their plans secret, so the ascent was a complete surprise.
Q 29Which Italian climber soloed the North Face Direct in February 1965?
Walter Bonatti
His route was not repeated solo for 29 years, until Catherine Destivelle in 1994.
Q 30How fast did Ueli Steck climb the north face by the Schmid route in 2009?
1 hour 56 minutes
Kilian Jornet took the same 1 hour 56 minutes to run from Breuil-Cervinia to the summit in 2013.