Yorkshire’s Matterhorn

A rushed snap as I pedalled home along Easby Lane.

I don’t know who first compared Roseberry Topping with the Matterhorn. I traced one reference to 1890 but suspect it was already well in use¹‘THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE MIDDLESBROUGH MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS’ (1890) Northern Echo, 19 Mar, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/BA3200219563/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=0cd938bf [accessed 14 Jul 2021]..

It is likely that the comparison dates from a few decades earlier following the first ascent of the ‘real’ Matterhorn in the Alps.  On this day, 14 July 1865 Edward Whymper led the first team of climbers to reach the summit. However, disaster and controversy followed. Just as they began their descent, Douglas Hadow, aged 19, slipped and dragged Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, and Michel Croz with him. Whymper and two local guides from Zermatt, Peter Taugwalder and his son of the same name, managed to secure themselves for the shock of a taut rope. But the rope snapped, and the four climbers plunged to their deaths down the 4,000 ft precipice to the glacier below.

Later, Whymper and the two guides, who all survived, were accused of having cut the rope to ensure that they were not dragged down with the others, but the subsequent inquiry found no evidence of this²‘Alpine Adventure’ (1865) Boston Daily Advertiser, 25 Aug, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/GT3006407456/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=feb3e38f [accessed 14 Jul 2021].³Contributors to Wikimedia projects (2010). First ascent of the Matterhorn. [online] Wikipedia.org. Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_ascent_of_the_Matterhorn [Accessed 14 Jul. 2021]. ‌.

• 1
  ‘THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE MIDDLESBROUGH MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS’ (1890) Northern Echo, 19 Mar, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/BA3200219563/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=0cd938bf [accessed 14 Jul 2021].
• 2
  ‘Alpine Adventure’ (1865) Boston Daily Advertiser, 25 Aug, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/GT3006407456/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=feb3e38f [accessed 14 Jul 2021].
• 3
  Contributors to Wikimedia projects (2010). First ascent of the Matterhorn. [online] Wikipedia.org. Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_ascent_of_the_Matterhorn [Accessed 14 Jul. 2021]. ‌