Biner_Leseprobe

On August 13 of 1792, natural scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure
climbed the Klein Matterhorn (3,883m) for scientific purposes, together
with mountain guide Joseph-Marie Couttet from Chamonix and 6 other
guides. He measured the height of the Matterhorn with surprising accuracy:
4,501m – exceeding today’s official measurement only by 23m.
De Saussure explored the Alps in their entirety. He recorded barometric
measurements, humidity and the intensity of the blue sky. In 1787, he undertook
the first scientific ascent of the Mont Blanc, only one year after
its first ascent. On the Italian side of the Monte Rosa, there were also
scientists going about their investigations, among them topographer Joseph
Zumstein and physician Friedrich Parrot.
Back in those days, the clergy house was the only accommodation available
in Zermatt. As of 1812, the pastor kept a visitors’ log. He recorded
about 10 people a year. It was only after the Britons began exploring the
Alps that the athletic aspect was added to alpinism, namely in the 1830s.
Apparently, mountain guides started professionalising in Zermatt around
1830, as well. In 1832, a certain Johann Biner called himself “the first
botanical mountain guide of Zermatt”, whatever that meant. Peter Taugwalder
Senior, who in 1865 (at the age of 45) belonged to the group of
mountaineers who first ascended the Matterhorn, took up his profession in
1840. By 1865, he had already climbed the Monte Rosa about 90 times.
In 1838, ‘barber surgeon’ Joseph Lauber let three beds in his private
house and quickly named the house Hotel Cervi. His hotel sign carried
the inscription “Hotel Mont Cervi, bon loge à cheval et à pied” (French for
‘good lodging for riders and pedestrians’). In 1852, Joseph Anton Clemenz
of Visp, a member of the cantonal government, founded the first ‘real’
Hotel in Zermatt, the precursor of the Hotel Mont Cervin. In its first year,
the hotel registered 12 guest-nights. Lauber was not able to keep up with
this kind of competition, so he sold his house to Alexander Seiler in 1854,
who then changed its name to Hotel Monte Rosa. He refurbished and expanded
the house, which then counted 28 beds. In 1867, Alexander Seiler
also bought the Hotel Mont Cervin. In the early days of alpinism, the Seiler
family contributed significantly to the boost in tourism in Zermatt.
The conquest of the Zermatt Mountains
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