The Zinalrothorn (4,221 m) is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

in the Pennine

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Its name comes from the village of

Zinal Zinal is a village in Switzerland, located in the municipality of Anniviers in the canton of Valais. It lies at an elevation of above sea level in the Swiss Alps in the ''Val de Zinal'', a valley running from the Zinal Glacier, north of Den ...

lying on the north side and from the German word ''Rothorn'' which means ''Red Peak''. When it was first climbed in 1864 the mountain was known locally as ''Moming''.

Geography

The Zinalrothorn is one of the high summits separating the

Matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic part ...

valley on the east and the

Val d'Anniviers The Val d'Anniviers (old name in German ''Eifischtal'') is a Swiss Alpine valley, situated in the district of Sierre in Valais, which extends south of the Rhône Valley, on the northern slopes of the Pennine Alps. The valley was home to six mun ...

(or more precisely the Val de Zinal) on the west. The summit of the

Weisshorn The Weisshorn (German, lit. ''white peak/mountain'') is a major peak of Switzerland and the Alps, culminating at above sea level. It is part of the Pennine Alps and is located between the valleys of Anniviers and Zermatt in the canton of Val ...

(4,505 m) is located 5 km to the north and the

Dent Blanche The Dent Blanche is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, lying in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At -high, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps. Naming The original name was probably ''Dent d'Hérens'', the current name of the nearby D ...

7 km to the west. At the western foot of the mountain lies the large

Zinal Glacier The Zinal Glacier (french: Glacier de Zinal) is a long glacier (2005) situated in the Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. In 1973 it had an area of . The glacier gives birth to the river La Navisence, which runs through a cave ...

and, on the northern side, the

Moming Glacier The Moming Glacier (french: Glacier de Moming) is a 3 km long glacier (2005) situated in the Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. In 1973 it had an area of 6.39 km2. See also *List of glaciers in Switzerland *Swiss Alp ...

. L'Epaule (the shoulder) is a minor summit lying at the base of the northern ridge. The villages of

Täsch Täsch is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is located about north of Zermatt. The local language is Swiss German. History Täsch is first mentioned in 1302 as ''Tech''. In Latin it was known ...

and

Zermatt Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) ...

are the closest while

on the north-west is located further (9 km).

Climbing history

The first ascent was made on 22 August 1864 via the north ridge by

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellect ...

and

Florence Crauford Grove Florence Crauford Grove (12 March 1838 – 17 August 1902) was an English mountaineer and author, sometimes known as F. Crauford Grove. He led the first expedition to ascend the higher summit of Mount Elbrus and was at one time president o ...

with guides Jakob Anderegg and

Melchior Anderegg Melchior Anderegg (28 March 1828 – 8 December 1914), from Zaun, Meiringen, was a Swiss mountain guide and the first ascensionist of many prominent mountains in the western Alps during the golden and silver ages of alpinism. His clients were m ...

(AD). They left Zinal at 1 a.m. and ascended the Zinal Glacier. They reached the shoulder from the ridge connecting the

Blanc de Moming The Blanc de Moming is a mountain of the Pennine Alps, located south of Zinal in the canton of Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languag ...

at the base of the northern ridge at 9 a.m. The traverse of the ridge to the summit took them 2 hours, Stephen wrote later that it was 'the nastiest piece of climbing I have ever accomplished'.Helmut Dumler,Willi P. Burkhardt, ''Les 4000 des Alpes'', The slightly less difficult normal route, the south-east ridge, was first climbed by the combined parties of

Clinton Thomas Dent Clinton Thomas Dent FRCS (7 December 1850 – 26 August 1912) was an English surgeon, author and mountaineer. Early life The fourth surviving son of Thomas Dent, he was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. Alpinism Along ...

with guide Alexander Burgener, and George Augustus Passingham, with guides Ferdinand Imseng and Franz Andermatten on 5 September 1872. The first winter and ski ascent was by Marcel Kurz and T. Theytaz on 7 February 1914. In the 1880s Mrs Aubrey Le Blond, the first president of the

Ladies' Alpine Club The Ladies' Alpine Club was founded in London in 1907 and was the first mountaineering club for women. It merged with the Alpine Club of Great Britain in 1975. History In December 1907 a group of ladies who were climbers in the Alps met in Lon ...

, left her detachable skirt by mistake up the Zinalrothorn. To preserve her modesty, she made the decision to climb the mountain a second time to retrieve it rather than return to Zermatt in trousers.

References

Bibliography

* Dumler, Helmut and Willi P. Burkhardt, ''The High Mountains of the Alps'', London: Diadem, 1994 * Collomb, Robin G., (ed.), ''Pennine Alps Central'', London: Alpine Club, 1975

External links

The Zinalrothorn on SummitPost

The Zinalrothorn on MountWiki

The Zinalrothorn on Hikr
{{Authority control Alpine four-thousanders Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Valais Pennine Alps Mountains of Switzerland Four-thousanders of Switzerland