Twenty-four year old Matthias Taugwalder achieved one of those once-in-a-lifetime dream moments we all aspire to when he scaled the summit of the Matterhorn (4478 m/14691 ft) this September. But the Zermatt resident went one better and shot six panoramas of the event, beginning with a breathtaking sunrise pano atop the Matterhorn’s summit ridge - barely wide enough to envelop a man’s stance - with incredible sight lines extending 150 km to Mont Blanc.
Matterhorn Summit Ridge Sunrise
Taugwalder and his fellow climbers departed the Hörnli hut (3260m/10695 ft) at 2 am and ascended in darkness in order to catch their exclusive summit sunrise at 6:30 am. “The first sunbeams color the summit of the Matterhorn red. The weather is on its best behavior. Behind us you can see the Italian Summit (4476m/14685 ft) and the summit cross,” he reported.
Taugwalder shot two panos at the summit and another four during his descent, including one at the ‘shoulder ridge’, where fixed ropes are visible and one can peer down the Matterhorn’s enormous North Face, and another at Solvay hut, the refuge built in 1916 as an emergency shelter.
The achievement had added significance for Taugwalder, who is a direct descendent of two guides who took part in the first ascent in July 1865. Most of the 4,000m peaks in the Alps had been climbed by the end of the 1850's but there was still one sought after prize - the picturesque Matterhorn - and Edward Whymper, son of an English wood-engraver, became the most famous mountaineer from the Victorian era when he made the first ascent in July 1865.
Whymper had never seen a mountain before his first glimpse of the Matterhorn in 1861, but he immediately tried to scale the summit, a feat considered impossible by the best mountaineers of the time. Although that attempt and subsequent ones ended in defeat, Whymper reached his goal in 1865. His triumph was dampened when four of his six companions plunged down an abyss to their deaths during their descent, an event that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Taugwalder says he first conceived the idea of shooting panos atop the Matterhorn a couple years ago, but lacked climbing experience, so the first part of his adventure began with intensive physical training. He made his first attempt in the summer of 2004: “After some training climbs around Zermatt we climbed the Matterhorn, but the weather suddenly changed and we had to turn around. The weather was too bad to shoot good pictures, so the summer of 2004 was over,” he recalls. He continued his physical training throughout the fall and winter and climbed the Dufourspitze, part of the Monte Rosa chain, in mid-August. A sudden change in weather delayed ascent of the Matterhorn until the beginning of September.
Most Matterhorn climbs start around 4 or 5 am and take about five hours to reach the summit, with the treacherous descent taking just as long. “Our aim was to shoot the first daylight sunrise, so we started our climb exceptionally early at 2 am from the Hörnli hut, making the whole climb by night,” he says.
Ascent of the Hoernli Ridge
Shooting panoramas while standing on a ridge not much wider than your feet definitely leaves an impression. “On the left side you would fall 2500m to Switzerland, on the right side 2500m to Italy. You could at least decide which country you prefer,” he jokes.
His last step was making the website, which is based on a content management system (Typo3) that provides small and fullscreen panos and a choice of viewing options: Java, QuickTime, Zoomify and SPi-V. One final question remains: How did he shoot the panos in such extreme conditions? Taugwalder normally uses a Nikon D70 and the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye, but he wanted to use a monopod for this shoot. As a backup plan, he rented a Seitz Roundshot panoramic camera, before realizing that he didn’t want to worry (understandably) about keeping his monopod leveled while at the summit. So he revised his equipment list and shot with a lightweight spherical panoramic head that caught his attention – the Seitz VR-Drive. Other equipment, weighing 8 kg and split between his mountain guide Gianni Mazzone (another direct descendent of the original climbers) and himself included: Nikon D70, 10.5mm Fisheye, a very light Gitzo mountaineer tripod, and a Seitz Roundshot camera.
Kudos to you Matthias, for achieving one of your dreams and sharing it with the rest of us!
About Concept360
Matthias Taugwalder has been involved with developing Internet sites in the tourism sector since 1996. His company, Concept360, provides the following services: building websites, digital and panorama photography and also includes different Internet platforms like www.holidaynet.ch or www.zermatt360.ch.
