title: The Birds (film)

text: It is the only Hitchcock movie to have been featured in "Mad" magazine (as "For the Birds", issue 82, October 1963, by Mort Drucker, Arnie Kogen, and Lou Silverstone). In the "Mad" spoof, it is "revealed" that the birds are controlled by Burt Lancaster as revenge for his not having won an Academy Award that year for his starring role in "Birdman of Alcatraz".


title: The Birds (film)

text: The film's first television broadcast was in Canada on CTV television on December 30, 1967. Its subsequent U.S. appearance was on NBC television on January 6, 1968, and became the most watched film on television surpassing "The Bridge on the River Kwai" with a Nielsen rating of 38.9 and an audience share of 59%. The record was beaten in 1972 by "Love Story".


title: The Birds (film)

text: With the passage of time, much like many other of Hitchcock's works, the film's standing among critics has much improved. The film has been very influential on the horror genre inspiring filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and John Carpenter. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a "Certified Fresh" 93% rating based on reviews from 59 critics, with an average rating of 8.20/10, and the website's consensus states: "Proving once again that build-up is the key to suspense, Hitchcock successfully turned birds into some of the most terrifying villains in horror history". On Metacritic it has a score of 90 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Film critic David Thomson refers to it as Hitchcock's "last unflawed film". Italian film maker Federico Fellini ranked the film among his top ten favourite films of all-time list. Akira Kurosawa ranked the film at No. 55 on his "Top 100 favourite films of all time" list. In 2000, The Guardian ranked the scene where the crows gather on the climbing frame at No. 16 on their list of "The top 100 film moments". The scenes where birds are attacking humans viciously were collectively ranked at No. 96 on Bravo's "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". In 2021, the film was ranked at No. 29 by Time Out on their list of "The 100 best horror movies".


title: The Birds (film)

text: The film was honored by the American Film Institute as the seventh greatest thriller in American Cinema.


title: The Birds (film)

text: There was controversy in relation to the nature of Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren's relationship during the filming of "The Birds". Hedren maintained that there were several incidents where Hitchcock acted inappropriately towards her. The cast and crew described his behaviour as "obsessive", and Hedren claimed that "he suddenly grabbed me and put his hands on me. It was sexual". Hedren stated that she rejected Hitchcock's advances on numerous occasions. Following the alleged rejection, Hedren was injured during the filming of the phone booth attack scene, and consequently suffered cuts to her face from a pane of glass shattering on her. Further, she insisted she was misled about the logistics of the final attack sequence, where mechanical birds were replaced with real ones at the last minute.


title: The Birds (film)

text: It has been suggested that "Hitchcock's deliberate inflicting of injury was revenge for Hedren's spurning of his advances". Hitchcock also signed Hedren to a seven-year contract, which she stated restricted her ability to work. These allegations were not brought to light until after Hitchcock's death. Although they have never been confirmed, they have widely been reported, including by Hedren's co-star, Rod Taylor.


title: The Birds (film)

text: Hedren would later claim during a 2016 interview with Larry King that "[the sexual advances] didn't happen until we were almost finished with "Marnie"", that they had not started during "The Birds", and that up until the end of "Marnie" Hitchcock had been "easy to work with", but in her memoir released around the same time, she repeated the earlier allegations, though clarified that the sexual assaults didn't begin until "Marnie".


title: The Birds (film)

text: The controversy of this relationship is explored in the 2012 HBO/BBC film "The Girl". Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffith claims that Hitchcock's abuse extended to her when he played a "prank" by gifting six-year-old Melanie with a wax figure of her mother in a miniature coffin.


title: The Birds (film)

text: Supposedly, Daphne du Maurier disliked the film, as Hitchcock had changed the location from a farm in England to a sleepy beach community in Northern California.


title: The Birds (film)

text: A poorly received television sequel, "", was released in 1994. Director Rick Rosenthal removed his name from credit and used the Hollywood pseudonym Alan Smithee. The sequel featured entirely new characters and a different setting, with Bodega Bay only mentioned once. Tippi Hedren returned in a supporting role, but not as her original character.


title: Stephen Dorff

text: Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Roland West in the third season of HBO's crime drama anthology series "True Detective", PK in "The Power of One", Stuart Sutcliffe in "Backbeat", Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere", Glen in "The Gate", and for his roles in "Cecil B. DeMented", "The Motel Life", "S.F.W.", "Space Truckers", and in "Blade" as vampire mastermind Deacon Frost.


title: Stephen Dorff

text: Dorff was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Nancy and Steve Dorff, who is a composer and music producer. His father is Jewish, and his mother was Catholic, and Dorff has stated that he was "brought up half-Jewish." Dorff's brother Andrew (1976–2016) was a country music songwriter. He was raised in Los Angeles, where his father worked, and began acting as a child, appearing in commercials for Kraft and Mattel. Dorff attended several private schools.


title: Stephen Dorff

text: Dorff started acting in the late 1980s, landing a few minor roles before being cast as the star of "The Gate" (1987), a horror film about a boy who, along with a friend, discovers a hole in his back yard that is a gateway to Hell. The film was a moderate box office success. He made guest appearances in television programs such as "Diff'rent Strokes", "Family Ties", "Blossom", "Roseanne", and "Married... with Children". He appeared in the television movies "In Love and War", "I Know My First Name is Steven" and "What a Dummy". In 1990, he landed a leading role opposite Patty Duke in the TV movie "Always Remember I Love You". In 1992, he starred in "The Power of One" opposite Sir John Gielgud, Morgan Freeman, and Daniel Craig. In 1993, director Marty Callner hired him to star alongside teen idol Alicia Silverstone in the music video Cryin' by American rock band Aerosmith. He had a leading role as the love interest of Reese Witherspoon's character in "S.F.W." (1994). In 1994, Stependorff starred in the Iain Softley film "Backbeat" as the "fifth Beatle" Stuart Sutcliffe during the early days of the Beatles' existence as a group. Dorff's performance was critically acclaimed, with Paul McCartney remarking that while he was disappointed with some aspects of the film, "I was quite taken, however, with Stephen Dorff's astonishing performance as Stu."


title: Stephen Dorff

text: In 1996, he starred in the movie "Space Truckers" and as Candy Darling in "I Shot Andy Warhol", a film about Valerie Solanas, the woman infamous for shooting pop-art icon Andy Warhol. He was one of the first actors to act in the first digitally downloadable movie, SightSound.com's "Quantum Project", also starring John Cleese. He played the protagonist, XIII, of a live action TV series of the comic/video game of "XIII". He is known for his part as the evil vampire Deacon Frost in the Marvel Comics superhero horror film, "Blade" (1998). In 1999 he starred opposite Susan Sarandon in "Earthly Possessions". He played Dale Massie in the 2003 thriller "Cold Creek Manor", alongside Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. In 2004, Dorff starred in the music video for "Everytime" by Britney Spears, playing Spears' boyfriend. He appeared in the 2009 films "Public Enemies" and "Black Water Transit".


title: Stephen Dorff

text: In 2010, he starred in the drama "Somewhere" opposite Elle Fanning, directed by Sofia Coppola. He described what landing the role meant to him after the loss of his mother as "It almost felt like a savior, this movie, because I felt like it helped me ... I was real empty inside so this was an incredible thing that made me smile."


title: Stephen Dorff

text: Dorff appeared as porn star Dick Shadow in the sex industry comedy "", a film produced by Adam Sandler, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Dorff has appeared in television and print advertisements for blu eCigs, an electronic cigarette company. Dorff also starred in "The Motel Life" opposite Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning and Kris Kristofferson and in the crime drama film "Officer Down". In 2013, he was a guest of honor on 6th Off Plus Camera In 2017, he played obsessed Texas Ranger Hal Hartman in the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" prequel "Leatherface". Dorff starred as Detective Roland West in Season 3 of HBO's series "True Detective".


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Jordin Sparks-Thomas (born December 22, 1989) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame in 2007 after winning the sixth season of "American Idol" at age 17, becoming the youngest winner in the series' history. Her self-titled debut studio album, released later that year, was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over two million copies worldwide. The album spawned the "Billboard" Hot 100 top-ten singles "Tattoo" and "No Air"; the latter, a collaboration with Chris Brown, is currently the third highest-selling single by any "American Idol" contestant, selling over three million digital copies in the United States. The song earned Sparks her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks's second studio album, "Battlefield" (2009), debuted at number 7 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. Its title single reached number 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making Sparks the only "American Idol" contestant to have her first five singles reach the top 20 in the United States. The second single, "S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)", became Sparks's first number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Throughout her career, Sparks has received numerous accolades, including an NAACP Image Award, a BET Award, an American Music Award, a People's Choice Award and two Teen Choice Awards. In 2009, "Billboard" magazine ranked her as the 91st Artist of the 2000s Decade. In 2012, Sparks was ranked at number 92 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women in Music". As of February 2012, she has sold 1.3 million albums and 10.2 million singles in the United States alone, making her one of the most successful "American Idol" contestants of all time.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Following the release of "Battlefield", Sparks ventured into acting, pursuing television and Broadway. She made her stage debut as Nina Rosario in the musical "In The Heights" (2010), and her feature film debut as the titular character in "Sparkle" (2012). Sparks has also released several perfumes, including "Because of You..." in 2010 as well as "Fascinate" and "Ambition" in 2012. After a five-year absence from music, she released a mixtape, "#ByeFelicia" (2014), under a new record deal with Louder Than Life/Red Associated Labels, a joint deal with Sony Music Entertainment. Sparks' R&B third studio album and most recent to date, "Right Here Right Now" (2015), saw smaller commercial success but received positive reviews from music critics.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks was born in Phoenix, Arizona, to Jodi Wiedmann Sparks and former professional American football player Phillippi Sparks. Jordin has a younger brother, Phillippi "PJ" Sparks Jr., who played football at Arizona Christian University. Her father is of African-American descent and her mother is of German, English, Scottish, and Norwegian descent. She grew up in the suburbs of Ridgewood, New Jersey, while her father played as a defensive back for the New York Giants. After living in New Jersey, Sparks attended Northwest Community Christian School in Phoenix through the eighth grade. Sparks attended Sandra Day O'Connor High School until 2006 when she was homeschooled by her grandmother, Pam Wiedmann, to better concentrate on her singing. Sparks is an evangelical Christian and attended Calvary Community Church in Phoenix. On her "American Idol" biography, she thanked her parents, grandparents, and God for her win. She won an award for best young artist of the year in Arizona three years in a row.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Before appearing on "American Idol", Sparks participated in and won such talent competitions as Coca-Cola's Rising Star, the Gospel Music Association Academy's Overall Spotlight Award, "America's Most Talented Kids", Colgate Country Showdown, and the "2006 Drug Free AZ Superstar Search". From the time Jordin was nine years old until her win as American Idol 2007, her maternal grandmother, Pam Wiedmann, managed her. Prior to "Idol", Sparks frequently performed the national anthem at various local sporting events, notably for the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Sparks also appeared with Alice Cooper in his 2004 Christmas show and toured with Christian contemporary singer Michael W. Smith in 2006. In 2006, Sparks was one of six winners of the Phoenix Torrid search for the "Next Plus Size Model". She was flown to California, where she was featured in Torrid ads and promotional pieces. A full-page ad for Torrid featuring Sparks ran in the December 2006 issue of "Seventeen" magazine.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In the summer of 2006, at the age of 16, Sparks auditioned twice for the sixth season of "American Idol": once in Los Angeles but failed to make it past the first round; and again in Seattle after winning "Arizona Idol", a talent competition conducted by Phoenix Fox station KSAZ-TV. The Seattle audition is the one seen in the January 17, 2007 broadcast of "American Idol", in which she earned a "gold ticket" and the right to appear in the Hollywood Round. "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson made the offhand prediction that "Curly hair will win this year." While on the show, Sparks gained a loyal fan base known as "Sparkplugs". On May 23, 2007, at the age of 17, Sparks won the sixth season of "American Idol". She remains the youngest winner in "American Idol" history. Cowell said, "Jordin was the most improved over the whole season – didn't start the best, but midway through this was the girl who suddenly got momentum." He included that "Young girl, likeable, and the singer won over the entertainer [Lewis]."


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Four selected songs Sparks had performed on "American Idol", including the season's coronation song, "This Is My Now", were made available on her self-titled EP, released on May 22, 2007, the day before the grand finale. The coronation song "This Is My Now" peaked at number fifteen on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Sparks's first top-fifteen hit on the chart. The following summer, Sparks took part in the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2007 from July 6 to September 23, 2007, along with other contestants in the top ten.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Since her win in 2007, Sparks has returned to "Idol" six times. She performed twice on the seventh season of "American Idol", once on the Idol Gives Back results show singing "No Air" with Chris Brown and again with "One Step at a Time" on May 21, 2008, for the finale. She performed "Battlefield" on the May 13, 2009 episode of "American Idol".


title: Jordin Sparks

text: The following year, on May 26, 2010, Sparks took part in a tribute to Simon Cowell with other former contestants at the ninth season finale. During the tenth season, Sparks performed her new song "I Am Woman" on the Top 4 results show. She appeared on the finale of the eleventh season singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" alongside that year's fourth-place contestant Hollie Cavanagh. Sparks was the most recent female to win the competition until the twelfth season. In a comedic clip on the finale, "We Were Sabotaged", the boys of the twelfth season realize that she was the "mastermind" behind the girls' sabotage because it was five years since a girl had won.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: After winning "American Idol" in 2007, Sparks signed to 19 Recordings/Jive Records, becoming the first Idol winner to join the label. On August 27, she released her debut single, "Tattoo", which peaked at number eight on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Sparks's first top-ten hit on the chart. The song certified platinum in the United States and Australia. To date, "Tattoo" has sold over two million copies in the U.S.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks released her self-titled debut studio album on November 20, 2007, which debuted at number ten on the "Billboard" 200. To date, it has sold over a million copies in the U.S and was certified platinum by the RIAA. "No Air", a duet with Chris Brown, was released as the second single from the album in February 2008. In the United States, the song peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 becoming Sparks's best-charting single to date. It was also her first song to appear on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it reached number four. To date, the song has sold over three million copies in the U.S, making Sparks the first "American Idol" contestant to reach the three million mark. It also became Brown's first song to hit three million. "No Air" also charted in Australia and New Zealand, where it reached number one, receiving platinum certifications in both countries.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On February 3, 2008, Sparks sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLII. She performed in a tribute to Aretha Franklin at the NAACP Awards in February, as well. She had previously performed in a tribute to Diana Ross in December 2007.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In support of the album, Sparks opened for Alicia Keys on the North America leg of her As I Am Tour, starting on April 19, 2008. Before the tour, a career-threatening throat injury forced Sparks to cancel a few weeks of the shows. Officials revealed she was suffering an acute vocal cord hemorrhage and was ordered strict vocal rest until the condition improved. Sparks was back on the road by April 30, 2008, and remained on the tour until June 18, 2008. Sparks later joined Keys for the tour leg in Australia and New Zealand in December 2008.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: The album's third single, "One Step at a Time", was released in June 2008. It peaked at number seventeen on the "Billboard" Hot 100, giving Sparks her fourth top twenty hit on the chart. This makes Sparks the only "American Idol" contestant to have her first four singles reach the top twenty of the Hot 100. It also charted in the top twenty in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In New Zealand, the song reached number two and was certified gold by the RIANZ. In August 2008, Sparks co-headlined the Jesse & Jordin LIVE Tour with Jesse McCartney in the United States and Canada.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks received two MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Female Video for "No Air" and Best New Artist at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. While at the award show, Sparks caused controversy by responding to a joke made by host Russell Brand during his opening monologue, in which he held up a silver ring, claiming to have relieved one of the Jonas Brothers of their virginity, saying he would "take them more seriously if they wore it (the ring) around their genitals". Sparks, who was also wearing a promise ring, began her introduction of T.I. and Rihanna by saying "It's not bad to wear a promise ring because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut." In response to the controversy over her "slut" remark, Sparks told "Entertainment Weekly" that she does not regret the remark, commenting that "I wish I would've worded it differently – that somebody who doesn't wear a promise ring isn't necessarily a slut – but I can't take it back now." At the 2008 American Music Awards, Sparks won the award for Favorite Artist in the Adult Contemporary Category.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On January 20, 2009, Sparks performed "Faith" at the Commander-in-Chief's Inaugural Ball hosted by President Barack Obama during the First inauguration of Barack Obama. Her second studio album, "Battlefield" was released in the United States on July 21. The album's title track was released as the lead single on May 25, 2009, and reached number ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song peaked in the top five in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In the United States, "Battlefield" debuted at number seven on the "Billboard" 200, peaking higher than her debut album's position of number ten. However, the album was notably unsuccessful compared to her debut, only selling 177,000 copies in the U.S and having failed to earn any chart certificates.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In support of the album, Sparks opened for The Jonas Brothers on the North America leg of the Jonas Brothers World Tour 2009, starting on June 20, 2009. She also opened for Britney Spears on the second leg of her Circus Tour in North America, beginning on August 24, 2009. Sparks served as a replacement for Ciara. She opened with Kristinia DeBarge, Girlicious, and One Call.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: "S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)", was released as the second single from "Battlefield" on September 15, 2009. The song topped the U.S Hot Dance Club Songs chart, becoming Sparks's first number one on the chart and peaked in the top fifteen in the United Kingdom. During this time, Sparks also recorded the duet, "Art of Love", with Australian artist Guy Sebastian for his fifth studio album, "Like It Like That". The song reached the top ten in Australia and New Zealand and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The third single from "Battlefield", "Don't Let It Go to Your Head", was released in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2010.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In May 2010, Sparks embarked on her first headlining tour in the United States, the Battlefield Tour. It began on May 1, and ended on July 18, 2010, stopping in over 35 major cities in the United States. In support of the DVD/Blu-ray re-release of the Disney animated film, "Beauty and the Beast", Sparks recorded a cover of the film's title track for the soundtrack. A music video for the song was released on October 18, 2010.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In 2010, she was also featured on the Big Time Rush song "Count on You", and the show with the same name, "Big Time Sparks" which aired on June 18. In an October 2010 interview, Sparks revealed she had begun working on her third studio album. During an interview with "Good Day New York" in November 2010, Sparks confirmed she would be recording the album in New York and Arizona. In January 2011, it was reported that Sparks and John Legend were working on songs in the studio together.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In March 2011, Sparks recorded a music video for a song called "The World I Knew" for the film, "African Cats", released on April 22. On May 5, 2011, it was revealed that Sparks would release a non-album single, "I Am Woman". To support her new single, Sparks served as an opening act for the NKOTBSB summer tour. On May 12, Sparks performed "I Am Woman" on the "American Idol" Top 4 results show. It debuted on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number eighty-two with 33,000 downloads sold. It also debuted on the US "Billboard" Digital Songs at number fifty-seven. Sparks performed "I Am Woman" on "Regis and Kelly" on June 14.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On June 16, 2011, Sparks had her first-ever bikini shoot for the cover of "People"'s Most Amazing Bodies issue. When speaking about her weight loss and diet to "Access Hollywood", Sparks said, "My diet has pretty much remained the same, like if I want a piece of bread, I'm gonna have a piece of bread, but I'm making healthier decisions like instead of a bag of chips for a snack, I'll see if I can find an apple. I've also upped my intake of vegetables and I'm drinking a lot more water."


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks stated in an August 2011 interview there was no scheduled release date for her third album which was still in production. A song, "You Gotta Want It", was to be part of an NFL compilation album, "Official Gameday Music of the NFL Vol. 2". According to reports, the song would be available to download on iTunes and Amazon on September 27. The song was co-written by Chris Weaver and Matthew J. Rogers while being produced by Cash Money Records' Cool & Dre.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On October 7, 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Sparks (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) would release her future material (including her upcoming third studio album) on the RCA Records brand. On November 14, 2011, it was announced that Sparks had recorded an original song called "Angels Are Singing" as a part of ABC Family's "12 Dates of Christmas".


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On February 29, 2012, Sparks's boyfriend Jason Derulo took to Twitter announcing the official remix of his single "It Girl" featuring Sparks. There was a video released with the remix, which showed home videos, of Derulo and Sparks together as well as pictures.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On September 12, 2011, it was announced that Sparks would be making her feature film debut playing the lead role in the music-themed pic "Sparkle", a remake of the 1976 film inspired by the story of The Supremes. The remake was set in 1968 Detroit, during the rise of Motown. The story focused on the youngest sister, a music prodigy named Sparkle Williams (Sparks), and her struggle to become a star while overcoming issues that were tearing her family apart. R&B singer Aaliyah was originally tapped to star as Sparkle; however, following her death in a 2001 plane crash, production on the film, which was scheduled for 2002, had been derailed. "Sparkle" was filmed in the fall of 2011 over a two-month period. The movie, starring both Sparks and Houston, was released on August 17, 2012 in the United States. On May 21, 2012, "Celebrate", the last song Whitney Houston recorded with Sparks, premiered at RyanSeacrest.com. It was made available for digital download on iTunes on June 5. The song was featured on the "" album as the first official single. The accompanying music video for Celebrate was filmed on May 30, 2012. The video was shot over 2 days and was released on June 27. A sneak peek of the video premiered on entertainment tonight on June 4, 2012.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On July 24, 2012, it was officially announced that Sparks would star in her second film, an indie drama titled "'The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete'". Produced by Street State Pictures, the George Tillman Jr-directed film stars Jennifer Hudson, Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, and Anthony Mackie. Alicia Keys is the film's executive producer. Michael Starrbury wrote the script, which follows two inner-city youths left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities. Production on the film began on July 23, 2012, in Brooklyn.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On August 9, 2012, Sparks stated in an interview with "Billboard", that she had about seven songs set so far for her third album. Sparks stated "It's going to be different from what my fans have heard before. With (2009's) 'Battlefield' it was pop/rock and a little bit of pop/R&B, but I'm going for more of the R&B side now, so it's like R&B/pop instead of pop/R&B." In an interview with MTV, Sparks confirmed she had recorded a duet with Jason Derulo and it would be on the album and could serve as a potential single. Sparks performed on "VH1 Divas 2012" with fellow singers Miley Cyrus, Kelly Rowland and Ciara. The show premiered on December 16, 2012. Sparks joined singers Ledisi and Melanie Fiona in a tribute to Whitney Houston.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In May 2013, Sparks took to Twitter announcing that she and RCA Records had finally come to an agreement about releasing new material. Sparks asked her fans to email her their opinions and frustrations regarding the delay in the release of her third studio album. Sparks later announced that her new music would be released in the fall of 2013.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On July 22, 2013, it was announced that the first promotional track from her upcoming third studio album would be released in August. The song "Skipping a Beat" was officially released on August 1, 2013. The buzz single became available for download on August 13. Sparks was featured on "Vertigo" from Jason Derulo's third studio album, "Tattoos", which was released on September 24. It was announced that Sparks's third album had officially been completed and was awaiting release. However, it was later announced that new music from Sparks would not be released until early 2014 due to timing issues with acting projects as well as placement issues within her label RCA.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On August 9, 2013, it was announced that Sparks had signed on to join the cast of the action science fiction-thriller film "Left Behind". It was then revealed that Sparks's character was named Shasta, but for the most part, her role was kept under wraps. One of the film's producers Paul Lalonde said that "She will be a passenger on a plane that the film's main character Captain Rayford Steele is piloting". It was later announced that Sparks would co-star alongside Nicolas Cage as Captain Rayford Steele, Chad Michael Murray as Cameron "Buck" Williams and Nicky Whelan as Hattie Durham. Scheduled for release on October 3, 2014, the film's shooting began on August 9, 2013, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On October 7, 2013, it was announced that Sparks would guest star in an upcoming episode in the of . Sparks played Alison Stone, a high school teacher who somehow found herself scared and covered in blood in a hotel room crime scene. The season episode, "Check In & Check Out" was set to air on November 20, 2013.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On December 9, 2013, Sparks partnered with Glade and the Young People's Chorus of New York City to release a brand new Christmas holiday anthem "This Is My Wish". From December 9 until December 31, 2013, the song was made available for free download through Glade's official website. Sparks made her first televised performance of the song on the same day on "The Today Show".


title: Jordin Sparks

text: After experiencing multiple delays in the release of Sparks's third album due to RCA refusing to put her in their roster, citing that her acting projects had prevented them from reaching a deal, Sparks was released from her contract with RCA records and eventually signed to Salaam Remi's new label imprint 'Louder than Life', a subsidiary of Sony Music. Remi had previously worked with Sparks on the "Sparkle" film soundtrack. As a result of the new deal, all the material Sparks had previously recorded for her third album under RCA had subsequently been scrapped and she had been re-recording and writing new material for her third album since January 2014. An official announcement of Sparks's signing to the new label had only been released a year later in August 2014.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On May 8, 2014, it was announced that Sparks would be hosting the 2014 Billboard Music Awards 'Samsung Red Carpet', alongside Lance Bass and Ted Stryker. Sparks was also listed to present. In an interview with AOL Radio News on May 30, Sparks announced that the first official single off her upcoming third studio album would have a summer 2014 release, with a fall 2014 album release. The album and single were expected to be released through RCA Records.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On August 15, 2014, Salaam Remi took to Instagram to preview the logo for his new label, Louder than Life, a subsidiary of Sony Music. Remi also announced that Sparks was now a part of the Louder than Life roster. In an article with "Music Connection", Remi also announced he would be producing Sparks's upcoming album. During a promotional tour for the movie, "Left Behind", Sparks announced that she was in the finishing stages of her new album. Sparks also confirmed that she was no longer with her previous label, RCA Records, and stated that her single was due by the end of the year, with an album release in 2015. Sparks then mentioned that she and her label were picking the first single, first look, and deciding on the album name.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On September 30, 2014, Sparks's label released a promotional single for "Left Behind," titled "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", which became available on music outlets the same day. On October 23, Remi hosted a music showcase featuring Sparks. Sparks showcased three songs, two of which were performed live. Sparks announced this was the first time she performed new music for people outside of the industry. On November 4, Sparks announced that the first single off her upcoming third album would be released in a two-week time frame. Sparks's announcement to Lance Bass brought speculation that the single would be released on November 18, 2014. On November 23, Sparks announced during an interview at the American Music Awards that new music would be released on November 25, 2014. Following that announcement, Sparks posted a clip of a song, "How Bout Now", a remix of Drake's song. On November 24, Sparks followed up with the official release of "How Bout Now", which debuted on the 'LALeakers' SoundCloud page and website. Sparks also stated that the official release of her mixtape, "#ByeFelicia," would be released the following day at 11:11 PST.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On November 25, it was announced that Sparks would release her third studio album, "Right Here Right Now, " in early 2015, under "Louder Than Life/Red Associated Labels", subsidiaries of Sony Music Entertainment, in conjunction with 19 Recordings.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On December 2, the song "It Ain't You" from Sparks's mixtape "#ByeFelicia", became available for pre-order on major music markets and was also uploaded to Sparks's Vevo YouTube page. The single was released on December 15, 2014, as a promotional single and first off from Sparks's third album. On December 16, "Right Here Right Now" became available for pre-order on Sparks's official website. On February 11, 2015, "Double Tap", the first single for Sparks's album became available for pre-order. The single featuring 2Chainz was released on March 2, followed by the music video on March 10, with the album's release date officially set for August 21, 2015. That year, Sparks performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 2015 Indianapolis 500.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In May 2016, Sparks was cast in the feature film "God Bless the Broken Road", based on the song of the same name. While originally scheduled for release in 2016, as of June 2018 it has yet to find a distributor and has not been released.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On October 2, 2016, Food Network aired "Keep it Simple, Sparks", a pilot episode of Sparks's potential series "Sugar and Sparks," focusing on her dream to own her own bakery and mastering the baking industry with the help of Duff Goldman. However, the show was not picked up for a full season.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On February 12, 2018, Sparks stated in an interview with "OK" magazine that she was recording her fourth album. Sparks, who is currently unsigned, said she had finished five to six songs for the album, drawing inspiration from her new marriage and son.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In May 2018, Sparks and her husband Dana began production on their reality show. She said "they [will] get to see just Jordin. Drop the Sparks and you just get to see Jordin, and you get to see Dana, and you get to see both of us together and how we interact". She continued, saying "I'm super excited for people to see it. It's been a little exhausting. I'm not used to cameras all in my face all the time, but I think it's really going to show a good side of us." In August 2018, KIN Network released a web series, "Heart of Batter with Jordin Sparks," focused on Sparks's love for baking. On August 28, it was announced that the pilot for Sparks' special "Jordin Sparks: A Baby Story" would air September 6 on Lifetime. In 2019, Sparks released "1990 Forever", a joint EP with R&B singer Elijah Blake. That same year, Sparks was cast as a Broadway replacement for Jenna Hunterson in "Waitress", from September 16 to November 24.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On June 2, 2020, after over five years of not releasing any solo music, Sparks returned with the single "Unknown". On July 31, she released another new single, "Red Sangria". In 2021, Sparks competed on "The Masked Dancer" as "Exotic Bird" and finished in fifth place. On September 8, 2022, Sparks was announced as a contestant on season 31 of "Dancing with the Stars". She is partnered with Brandon Armstrong.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In April 2008, Sparks suffered acute vocal cord hemorrhaging due to overusing her vocal cords. Doctors ordered vocal rest, forcing Sparks to cancel appearances, including scheduled cameos on Alicia Keys's tour. Doctors cleared Sparks a month later, letting her rejoin the tour.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On July 17, 2017, Sparks married Dana Isaiah (born: Dana Isaiah Thomas), a fitness model, in Hawaii. In November 2017, "People" magazine published news of her pregnancy. On May 2, 2018, Sparks gave birth to her first child, a son.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In April 2008, it was announced that Sparks would team up with cosmetics company, Avon, to become a spokesperson for the teen-focused line "Mark". In November 2008, Sparks teamed up with Wet Seal to create her own clothing line 'Sparks', The line launched on November 19, 2008, featuring sizes XS to XL. Sparks said, "I am so excited that Wet Seal and I have been able to create a line of clothing that will appeal to more girls than ever before."


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In October 2010, Sparks released her debut fragrance, Because of You... This fragrance was exclusively distributed at first by " Dots Department Stores", but by November was made available to other retail stores. Sparks wanted this product to be affordable for her fans, yet still high end. "When I was starting this project, I really wanted it to be affordable. I looked at some other celebrity fragrances, and they were like $80. Even now, I look at a fragrance that's $80, and I can't bring myself to spend that much." In March 2012, due to the success of her first fragrance, Sparks released her second fragrance, Fascinate, exclusively with Dots Fashions as a sister scent to her first. On October 22, 2012, it was announced that Sparks was releasing her third fragrance Ambition. In an interview Sparks said; "Right now, I feel like I can take on the world. Ambition is the perfect word for where I am in my life right now". Her new scent was made


title: Jordin Sparks

text: available in retail stores such as Bon-Ton. It was released in stores and online on November 8, 2012, before Sparks presented the fragrance at an official launch party in Milwaukee on December 1, 2012.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In 2009, Sparks made her acting debut on Disney's "The Suite Life on Deck", guest starring as herself in the "Crossing Jordin" episode, which aired on October 23. She also guest starred on the hit Nickelodeon show, "Big Time Rush", on June 18, 2010.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On May 3, 2010, it was announced that Sparks would join the cast of the Broadway show "In the Heights" as Nina Rosario. She took part in the production from August 19 through November 14 for a consecutive 12 weeks. In addition, Sparks did a voice over on "Team Umizoomi" as the Blue Mermaid. The episode aired on May 13, 2011.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: The following year, Sparks made her film debut in "Sparkle." Following the release of Sparkle in 2012, Sparks began auditioning for several television and film roles while also receiving scripts from companies interested in having her a part of their projects. First of which was an indie drama film, "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete," which follows two inner-city youths left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities. Sparks plays Alice, a neighbor and friend of the character Mister. Playing Nicole Lovely, the preacher's daughter, Sparks would also be in the film, "The Grace of Jake," which follows ex-inmate and wandering musician Jake who travels to a small town in Arkansas intent on exacting revenge from his father, but begins to unravel a complicated family history as he befriends the locals. The film was in post production and set for release on October 3, 2014.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In 2013, Sparks played the part of Abby in "Dear Secret Santa," a Lifetime Television romantic Christmas film that premiered on November 30. Sparks also guest starred on , playing Alison Stone, a high school teacher who somehow finds herself scared and covered in blood in a hotel room crime scene. The season episode, "" aired on November 20. Sparks played Shasta Carvell in "Left Behind", an apocalyptic thriller, based on the novel series of the same name. The film is a reboot of "", which is based on the idea of a pre-tribulation Rapture.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In 2007, Sparks was asked by a relative who works for SOS Children's Villages in Florida to design a denim jacket festooned with Swarovski Crystal to support orphans. In February 2008, Sparks traveled to Ghana. She was part of the delegation of (then presidential couple) George and Laura Bush to help with Malaria No More, an organization with a goal to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. Sparks joined Laura Bush at the Maamobi Polyclinic, where the Bush donated a number of treated bed nets to local female traders in order to help combat the scourge of malaria in Ghana. While there, Sparks sang "Amazing Grace" to the durbar of chieftains who had gathered at the venue to give audience to Laura Bush. Sparks said, "Traveling to Ghana with Malaria No More gives me the incredible opportunity to see for myself what a difference a simple mosquito net can make in the life of a child."


title: Jordin Sparks

text: In 2008, Sparks supported Dosomething.org's Do Something 101 campaign by filming a public service announcement explaining the nationwide school supplies drive project. She further supported the campaign by helping out at the Do Something 101 School Supply Volunteer Event held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On May 20, 2009, Sparks became an endorser for the Got Milk? campaign, an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk. On September 17, Sparks took part in the VH1 Divas special, a concert created to support the channel's Save The Music Foundation. The concert was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York where Sparks performed the second single from her Battlefield album, S.O.S. (Let the Music Play), as well as "A Broken Wing" with Martina McBride. In February 2010, Sparks was one of the many artists who contributed to "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", a charity single for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Sparks teamed up with Pennyroyal Silver creator and designer, Tim Foster, to create her very own necklace design for the company's signature collection. Proceeds of the necklace funded medical units in Haiti.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: On July 28, 2011, Sparks performed a live surprise concert in Times Square. Sparks was named the "VH1 Save The Music Foundation Ambassador" in 2011. On November 9, it was announced that Sparks would be a 'Vh1 Save the Music Ambassador' again for 2012. Sparks was joined by fellow "American Idol" contestant Chris Daughtry, Lupe Fiasco, Katy Perry and others. During Sparks segment as ambassador she hosted a surprise concert series in Times Square. Sparks and VH1 gave fans the opportunity to submit an essay on 'What Music Means to you?'. The winner of the essay contest won a trip for two, to New York City to stand alongside of Sparks at her pop-up concert. The winner chosen was Deavan Ebersole, from Hagerstown, Maryland.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Sparks has also shown support for Little Kids Rock, a national non-profit that works to restore and revitalize music education in disadvantaged US public schools, by donating items for auction to raise money for the organization.


title: Jordin Sparks

text: Initiated by Sparks and her younger brother P.J. in 2008, the I'm M.A.D. Are You? campaign cultivates community advocacy and volunteerism among teens and young adults. M.A.D. stands for Making A Difference. On February 3, 2010, Sparks and David Archuleta performed at the "Jordin Sparks Experience", held at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. All proceeds raised by the event went to a number of charities, including the Miami Children's Hospital Foundation. Since 2008, Sparks and the campaign travels to the Super Bowls designated city to host a week of charitable events, to raise money for several charities. In June 2010, the "Thumbs Up to X the TXT" pledge campaign, established by Allstate, made its way to Sparks's Battlefield Tour, presented by Mike & Ike to encourage teens and their families not to text while driving. Fans at Sparks's concerts made a pledge not to text and drive by adding their thumbprint to a traveling banner at each of her shows. The campaign began at Sparks's Battlefield Tour on June 3, 2010, and ended on July 18, 2010. Sparks is the main spokesperson for the "I'm M.A.D., Are You?" campaign. She also supports Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which helps to raise money for children with cancer. Sparks traveled to Louisiana in June 2010 to visit the Gulf Coast oil spill with the Audubon Society to view the effects of the oil spill on the wildlife and marshes. Since 2008, the campaign has raised over $500,000.


title: Matterhorn

text: The (, ; , ; , ; ) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the "Hörnli", "Furggen", "Leone"/"Lion", and "Zmutt" ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, to the northeast; and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides, which has been a trade route since the Roman Era.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the late eighteenth century, who was followed by other renowned naturalists and artists, such as John Ruskin, in the 19th century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained and became the subject of an international competition for the summit. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper, but during the descent, a sudden fall claimed the lives of four of the seven climbers. This disaster, later portrayed in several films, marked the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is among the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as "The Trilogy". The west face, the highest of the Matterhorn's four faces, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn is mainly composed of gneisses (originally fragments of the African Plate before the Alpine orogeny) from the Dent Blanche nappe, lying over ophiolites and sedimentary rocks of the Penninic nappes. The mountain's current shape is the result of cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face. Sometimes referred to as the "Mountain of Mountains" (), it has become an iconic emblem of the Alps in general. Since the end of the 19th century, when railways were built in the area, the mountain has attracted increasing numbers of visitors and climbers. Each year, numerous mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn from the Hörnli Hut via the northeast Hörnli ridge, the most popular route to the summit. Many trekkers also undertake the 10-day-long circuit around the mountain. The Matterhorn has been part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of Natural Monuments since 1983.


title: Matterhorn

text: The name "Matterhorn" derives from the German words "Matte" ("meadow") and "Horn" ("horn"), and is often translated as "the peak of the meadows".


title: Matterhorn

text: In the , printed by Sebastian Münster in 1545, the valley is labelled "Mattertal", but the mountain has the Latin name "Mons Silvius" as well as the German name "Augstalberg", in concord with the Aosta Valley (German "Augstal"). The by Johannes Stumpf gives only "Mons Silvius".


title: Matterhorn

text: The French name "Cervin", from which the Italian term "Cervino" derives, stems from the Latin (or "Mons Sylvanus"), where "silva" means "forest"; this was corrupted to "Selvin" and then "Servin". The change of the first letter "s" to "c" is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who thought the word was related to "deer" (French: "cerf" and Italian: "cervo").


title: Matterhorn

text: Josias Simler hypothesized in "De Alpibus Commentarius" (1574) that the name Mons Silvius was readopted by T. G. Farinetti: "Silvius was probably a Roman leader who sojourned with his legions in the land of the Salassi and the Seduni, and perhaps crossed the Theodul Pass between these two places. This Silvius may have been that same Servius Galba whom Caesar charged with the opening up of the Alpine passes, which from that time onward traders have been wanting to cross with great danger and grave difficulty. Servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesar's orders, came with his legions from Allobroges (Savoy) to Octodurum (Martigny) in the Valais, and pitched his camp there. The passes which he had orders to open from there could be no other than the St. Bernard, the Simplon, the Theodul, and the Moro; it therefore seems likely that the name of Servius, whence Silvius and later Servin, or Cervin, was given in his honour to the famous pyramid." It is unknown when the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, from which it seems to be derived.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn is also named "Gran Bècca" ("big mountain") by the Valdôtains and "Horu" by the local Walliser German speaking people.


title: Matterhorn

text: Because of its recognizable shape, many other similar mountains around the world were named or nicknamed the 'Matterhorn' of their respective countries or mountain ranges.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn has two distinct summits, situated at either end of a exposed rocky crest which forms the Italian/Swiss border. In August 1792, the Genevan geologist and explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first measurement of the Matterhorn's height, using a sextant and a chain spread out on the Theodul glacier. He calculated its height as . In 1868 the Italian engineer Felice Giordano measured a height of by means of a mercury barometer, which he had taken to the summit. The Dufour map, which was afterwards followed by the Italian surveyors, gave as the height of the Swiss summit.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1999, the summit height was precisely determined to be at above sea level by using Global Positioning System technology as part of the TOWER Project (Top of the World Elevations Remeasurement) and to an accuracy of less than one centimetre, which allows future changes to be tracked.


title: Matterhorn

text: The topographic prominence of the Matterhorn is as the ridge connecting it with a higher summit (in this case the Weisshorn, which is the culminating point of the range west of the Mattertal valley) sinks to a height of at the Col Durand, a saddle between the Pointe de Zinal and the Mont Durand. The topographic isolation is , as the nearest point of higher elevation is the higher Western Liskamm.


title: Matterhorn

text: Considering mountains with a topographic prominence of at least , the Matterhorn is the sixth-highest summit in the Alps and Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains. It is the fifth-highest summit of Valais and Switzerland and the third highest summit of the Aosta Valley and Italy. Locally, it is the third-highest summit in the municipality of Zermatt and the highest summit in the municipality of Valtournenche. On the official International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation list of Alpine four-thousanders, which also includes subsidiary summits of higher mountains such as the nearby Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn is the 12th highest summit in the Alps.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn has a pyramidal shape with four faces nearly facing the four compass points. Three of them (north, east and west) are on the Swiss side of the border and watershed (Mattertal valley) and one of them (south) is on the Italian side of the border (Valtournenche valley). The north face overlooks the Ober Gabelhorn (7 km away) across the Zmutt Glacier and valley (above Zermatt), the east face overlooks the Gorner Glacier system between the Gornergrat and Monte Rosa (respectively 10 and 17 km away) across the Theodul Pass, the west face overlooks the upper basin of the Zmutt Glacier between the Dent Blanche and the Dent d'Hérens (respectively 7 and 4 km away) and the south face fronts the resort town of Breuil-Cervinia and overlooks a good portion of the Valtournenche. The Matterhorn does not form a perfect square pyramid, as the north and south faces are wider than the west and east faces. Moreover, the latter faces do not actually meet on the summit but are connected by a 100-metre-long horizontal west–east ridge between the north and south faces.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn's faces are steep, and only small patches of snow and ice cling to them; regular avalanches send the snow down to accumulate on the glaciers at the base of each face, the largest of which are the Tiefmattengletscher to the west, part of the Zmutt Glacier, and the Matterhorn Glacier to the north. Smaller glaciers lie at the base of the south face (the Lower Matterhorn Glacier) and the east face (unnamed). In this area, the border between Switzerland and Italy coincides with the main Alpine watershed, separating the drainage basin of the Rhone on the north (Mediterranean Sea) and that of the Po on the south (Adriatic Sea). The north side is drained by the Zmuttbach (west and north faces) and the Gornera through the Furggbach (east face), tributaries of the Rhone through the (Matter) Vispa. The south side and face is drained by the Marmore torrent, a tributary of the Po through the Dora Baltea (or "Doire baltée"). The Theodul Pass, located on the watershed between the Matterhorn and the Breithorn, at 3,295 metres, is the easiest passage between the two valleys and countries (the slightly lower Furggjoch not being used as a pass). The pass was used as a crossover and trade route for the Romans and the Romanised Celtic population "Salassi" between 100 BCE and 400 CE. The area is now heavily glaciated and covered on the north side by the Theodul Glacier.


title: Matterhorn

text: Well-known faces are the east and north, visible from the area of Zermatt, although mostly hidden from the Mattertal by the chain of the Weisshorn. The east face is 1,000 metres high and, because it is "a long, monotonous slope of rotten rocks", presents a high risk of rockfall, making its ascent dangerous. The north face is 1,200 metres high and is one of the most dangerous north faces in the Alps, in particular for its risk of rockfall and storms. The south face, well visible from the Valtournenche, is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. The west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest ascent routes and lies in a more remote area than the other faces.


title: Matterhorn

text: The four main ridges separating the four faces are the main climbing routes. The least difficult technical climb and the usual climbing route, the Hörnli ridge ("Hörnligrat"), lies between the east and north faces and is aligned towards the Oberrothorn above Zermatt. To its west lies the Zmutt ridge ("Zmuttgrat"), between the north and west faces and aligned towards the Wandfluehorn; this is, according to Collomb, "the classic route up the mountain, its longest ridge, also the most disjointed." The "Lion" ridge ("Cresta del Leone" / "Arête du lion"), lying between the south and west faces and aligned towards the Dent d'Hérens is the Italian normal route and goes across Pic Tyndall; Collomb comments, "A superb rock ridge, the shortest on the mountain, now draped with many fixed ropes, but a far superior climb compared with the Hörnli." Finally the south side is separated from the east side by the Furggen ridge ("Furggengrat"), which is aligned towards the Klein Matterhorn. It is, according to Collomb, "the hardest of the ridges [...] the ridge still has an awesome reputation but is not too difficult in good conditions by the indirect finish".


title: Matterhorn

text: While the Matterhorn is the culminating point of the Valtournenche on the south, it is only one of the many 4000 metres summits of the Mattertal valley on the north. Its height is exceeded by four major summits: the Weisshorn (4,505 m), the Dom (4,545 m), the Liskamm (4,527 m) and the second-highest in the Alps, Monte Rosa (4,634 m). This section of the Pennine Alps, including the Matterhorn, the Zinalrothorn, the Dent Blanche, the Dent d'Hérens, the Breithorn, the Strahlhorn, the Rimpfischhorn and the Alphubel, concentrates most of western Europe's highest mountains and forms a crown of peaks around Zermatt. The deeply glaciated region between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa (named "Dent Blanche-Matterhorn-Monte Rosa") is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments since 1983.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn is an isolated mountain. Because of its position on the main Alpine watershed and its great height, the Matterhorn is exposed to rapid weather changes. In addition, the steep faces of the mountain and its isolated location make it prone to banner clouds formation, with the air flowing around the mountain producing condensation of the air on the lee side and also creating vortices.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn's pyramid is composed of Paleozoic rocks, which were thrusted over the Matterhorn's Mesozoic base during the Cenozoic. Quaternary glaciation and weathering give the mountain its current shape.


title: Matterhorn

text: Apart from the base of the mountain, the Matterhorn is composed of gneiss belonging to the Dent Blanche klippe, an isolated part of the Austroalpine nappes, lying over the Penninic nappes. The Austroalpine nappes are part of the Apulian plate, a small continent that broke up from Africa before the Alpine orogeny. For this reason, the Matterhorn has been popularized as an African mountain. The Austroalpine nappes are mostly common in the Eastern Alps.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Swiss explorer and geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, inspired by the view of the Matterhorn, anticipated modern theories of geology:


title: Matterhorn

text: The formation of the Matterhorn (and the whole Alpine range) started with the break-up of the Pangaea continent 200 million years ago into Laurasia (containing Europe) and Gondwana (containing Africa). While the rocks constituting the nearby Monte Rosa remained in Laurasia, the rocks constituting the Matterhorn found themselves in Gondwana, separated by the newly formed Tethys Ocean.


title: Matterhorn

text: 100 million years ago the extension of the Tethys Ocean stopped and the Apulian plate broke from Gondwana and moved toward the European continent. This resulted in the closure of the western Tethys by subduction under the Apulian plate (with the Piemont-Liguria Ocean first and Valais Ocean later). The subduction of the oceanic crust left traces still visible today at the base of the Matterhorn (accretionary prism). The orogeny itself began after the end of the oceanic subduction when the European continental crust collided with the Apulian continent, resulting in the formation of nappes.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn acquired its characteristic pyramidal shape in much more recent times as it was caused by natural erosion over the past million years. At the beginning of alpine orogeny, the Matterhorn was only a rounded mountain like a hill. Because its height is above the snowline, its flanks are covered by ice, resulting from the accumulation and compaction of snow. During the warmer period of summer, part of the ice melts and seeps into the bedrock. When it freezes again, it fractures pieces of rock because of its dilatation (freeze-thaw), forming a cirque. Four cirques led to the shape of the mountain.


title: Matterhorn

text: Most of the base of the mountain lies in the Tsaté nappe, a remnant of the Piedmont-Liguria oceanic crust (ophiolites) and its sedimentary rocks. Up to 3,400 metres the mountain is composed of successive layers of ophiolites and sedimentary rocks. From 3,400 metres to the top, the rocks are gneisses from the Dent Blanche nappe (Austroalpine nappes). They are divided into the Arolla series (below 4,200 m) and the Valpelline zone (the summit). Other mountains in the region (Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Dent Blanche, Mont Collon) also belong to the Dent Blanche nappe.


title: Matterhorn

text: Since the eighteenth century, the Alps have attracted more and more people and fascinated generations of explorers and climbers. The Matterhorn remained relatively little known until 1865, but the successful ascent followed by the tragic accident of the expedition led by Edward Whymper caused a rush on the mountains surrounding Zermatt.


title: Matterhorn

text: The construction of the railway linking the village of Zermatt from the town of Visp started in 1888. The first train reached Zermatt on 18 July 1891 and the entire line was electrified in 1930. Since 1930 the village is directly connected to St. Moritz by the Glacier Express panoramic train. However, there is no connection with the village of Breuil-Cervinia on the Italian side. Travellers have to hire mountain guides to cross the 3,300-metre-high glaciated Theodul Pass, separating the two resorts. The town of Zermatt remains almost completely free of internal combustion vehicles and can be reached by train only. (Apart from the local police service which uses a Volkswagen car, only electric vehicles are used locally).


title: Matterhorn

text: Rail and cable-car facilities have been built to make some of the summits in the area more accessible. The Gornergrat railway, reaching a record altitude of 3,100 metres, was inaugurated in 1898. Areas served by cable car are the Unterrothorn and the Klein Matterhorn ("Little Matterhorn") (3,883 m, highest transportation system in Europe). The Hörnli Hut (3,260 m), which is the start of the normal route via the Hörnli ridge, is easily accessible from Schwarzsee (2,600 m) and is also frequented by hikers. The Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia resorts function as separate ski resort all year round and are connected by skilifts over the Theodul Pass. In 2015 it was expected that there would be constructed a cable car link between Testa Grigia (or "Tête grise") and Klein Matterhorn. It will finally provide a link between the Swiss and Italian side of the Matterhorn.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn Museum (Zermatt) relates the general history of the region from alpinism to tourism. In the museum, which is in the form of a reconstituted mountain village, the visitors can relive the first and tragic ascent of the Matterhorn and see the objects that belonged to the protagonists.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Tour of the Matterhorn can be effected by trekkers in about 10 days. Considered by some as one of the most beautiful treks in the Alps, it follows many ancient trails that have linked the Swiss and Italian valleys for centuries. The circuit includes alpine meadows, balcony trails, larch forests and glacial crossings. It connects six valleys embracing three different cultures: the German-speaking high Valais, the French-speaking central Valais and the bilingual French/Italian-speaking Aosta Valley. Good conditions are necessary to circumnavigate the peak. After reaching Zinal from Zermatt by the Augstbord and Meiden passes, the trekker crosses the Col de Sorebois and the Col de Torrent before arriving at Arolla. Then the Arolla Glacier and the Col Collon must be crossed on the way to Prarayer, followed by the Col de Valcournera to Breuil-Cervinia. In the last and highest section, the Theodul Pass must be crossed before returning to Zermatt. In total, seven passes between 2,800 and 3,300 metres must be crossed on relatively difficult terrain.


title: Matterhorn

text: As of 2015, almost two million visitors arrive at Zermatt annually. An average of around twelve people per year have died on Matterhorn in the ten years from 2005 to 2015.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn was one of the last of the main Alpine mountains to be ascended, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. The first serious attempts were all from the Italian side, although, despite appearances, the southern routes are technically harder. The main figures were Jean-Antoine Carrel and his uncle Jean-Jacques Carrel, from the Valtournenche area, who made the first attempts in 1857 and 1858, reaching on the latter occasion. In July 1860, three brothers from Liverpool attempted the mountain, Alfred, Charles and Sandbach Parker, but they turned back at about . In August of the same year, Jean-Jacques Carrel returned to guide, with , Vaughan Hawkins and John Tyndall to about before turning back. In 1861 the Carrels managed to reach the "Crête du Coq" at . In July 1862, Jean-Antoine, together with César Carrel, accompanied as porters (sic) John Tyndall, Anton Walters and J.J. Bennen to Matterhorn's "Shoulder" at , which was subsequently named Pic Tyndall in honor of the client.


title: Matterhorn

text: Edward Whymper joined the efforts in August 1861, but in his first 7 attempts with a variety of companions could only reach a maximum height of . However, on 14 July 1865, in what is considered the last ascent of the golden age of alpinism, he was able to reach the summit by an ascent of the Hörnli ridge in Switzerland, guided by the famed French mountaineer Michel Croz and the Swiss father and son Peter Taugwalder Sr. and Jr., and accompanied by the British gentlemen Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow. Upon descent, Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Douglas fell to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier, and all but Douglas (whose body was never found) are buried in the Zermatt churchyard.


title: Matterhorn

text: Just three days later, on 17 July 1865, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich reached the summit from the Italian side.


title: Matterhorn

text: In the summer of 1860, Edward Whymper came across the Matterhorn for the first time. He was an English artist and engraver who had been hired by a London publisher to make sketches of the mountains in the region of Zermatt. Although the unclimbed Matterhorn had a mixed reputation among British mountaineers, it fascinated Whymper. Whymper's first attempt was in August 1861, from the village of Breuil on the south side. In Châtillon he hired a Swiss guide, who remained anonymous in his accounts, and in Valtournanche he almost hired Jean-Antoine Carrel as well, but, disliking the looks of Carrel's uncle, he changed his mind. The Carrels decided to give Matterhorn a try by themselves again, and caught up with Whymper at nightfall. Whymper now had "a strong inclination to engage the pair; but, finally, decided against it" and the Carrels went alone to reach a new high on Matterhorn of the next day. Whymper and his guide camped one more night on the "Col du lion" (= Col Tournanche) and were forced to turn around only an hour above this pass the day after.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1862 Whymper made further attempts, still from the south side, on the Lion ridge (or Italian ridge), where the route seemed easier than the Hörnli ridge (the normal route today). On his own, he reached above 4,000 metres, but was injured on his way down to Breuil. In July John Tyndall with Johann Joseph Bennen and another guide overcame most of the difficulties of the ridge that seemed so formidable from below and successfully reached the main shoulder; but at a point not very far below the summit they were stopped by a deep cleft that defied their utmost efforts. The Matterhorn remained unclimbed.


title: Matterhorn

text: Whymper returned to Breuil in 1863, persuading Carrel to join forces with him and try the mountain once more via the Italian ridge. On this attempt, however, a storm soon developed and they were stuck halfway to the summit. They remained there for 26 hours in their tent before giving up. Whymper did not make another attempt for two years.


title: Matterhorn

text: In the decisive year 1865, Whymper returned with new plans, deciding to attack the Matterhorn via its south face instead of the Italian ridge. On 21 June, Whymper began his ascent with Swiss guides, but halfway up they experienced severe rockfall; although nobody was injured, they decided to give up the ascent. This was Whymper's seventh attempt.


title: Matterhorn

text: During the following weeks, Whymper spent his time climbing other mountains in the area with his guides, before going back to Breuil on 7 July. Meanwhile, the Italian Alpine Club was founded and its leaders, Felice Giordano and Quintino Sella, established plans to conquer the Matterhorn before any non-Italian could succeed. Felice Giordano hired Carrel as a guide. He feared the arrival of Whymper, now a rival, and wrote to Quintino Sella:


title: Matterhorn

text: Just as he did two years before, Whymper asked Carrel to be his guide, but Carrel declined; Whymper was also unsuccessful in hiring other local guides from Breuil. When Whymper discovered Giordano and Carrel's plan, he left Breuil and crossed the Theodul Pass to Zermatt to hire local guides. He encountered Lord Francis Douglas, a Scottish mountaineer, who also wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They arrived later in Zermatt in the Monte Rosa Hotel, where they met two other British climbers — the Reverend Charles Hudson and his young and inexperienced companion, Douglas Robert Hadow — who had hired the French guide Michel Croz to try to make the first ascent. These two groups decided to join forces and try the ascent of the Hörnli ridge. They hired another two local guides, a father and son, both named Peter Taugwalder.


title: Matterhorn

text: Whymper and party left Zermatt early in the morning of 13 July 1865, heading to the foot of the Hörnli ridge, which they reached 6 hours later (approximately where the Hörnli Hut is situated today). Meanwhile, Carrel and six other Italian guides also began their ascent of the Italian ridge.


title: Matterhorn

text: Despite its appearance, Whymper wrote that the Hörnli ridge was much easier to climb than the Italian ridge:


title: Matterhorn

text: When the party came close to the summit, they had to leave the ridge for the north face because "[the ridge] was usually more rotten and steep, and always more difficult than the face". At this point of the ascent Whymper wrote that the less experienced Hadow "required continual assistance". Having overcome these difficulties the group finally arrived in the summit area, with Croz and Whymper reaching the top first.


title: Matterhorn

text: Precisely at this moment, Carrel and party were approximatively 400 metres below, still dealing with the most difficult parts of the Italian ridge. When seeing his rival on the summit, Carrel and party gave up on their attempt and went back to Breuil.


title: Matterhorn

text: After building a cairn, Whymper and party stayed an hour on the summit. Then they began their descent of the Hörnli ridge. Croz descended first, then Hadow, Hudson and Douglas, the elder Taugwalder, Whymper, with the younger Taugwalder coming last. They climbed down with great care, only one man moving at a time. Whymper wrote:


title: Matterhorn

text: The weight of the falling men pulled Hudson and Douglas from their holds and dragged them down the north face. The Taugwalders and Whymper were left alive when the rope linking Douglas to the elder Taugwalder broke. They were stunned by the accident and for a time could not move until the younger Taugwalder descended to enable them to advance. When they were together Whymper asked to see the broken rope and saw that it had been employed by mistake as it was the weakest and oldest of the three ropes they had brought. They frantically looked, but in vain, for traces of their fallen companions. They continued their descent, including an hour in the dark, until 9.30 p.m. when a resting place was found. The descent was resumed at daybreak and the group finally reached Zermatt, where a search of the victims was quickly organized. The bodies of Croz, Hadow and Hudson were found on the Matterhorn Glacier, but the body of Douglas was never found. Although the elder Taugwalder was accused of cutting the rope to save himself and his son, the official inquest found no proof of this.


title: Matterhorn

text: On 16 July, two days after the first ascent and the catastrophe, Jean-Antoine Carrel set out to crown Whymper's victory by proving that the Italian side was not unconquerable. He was accompanied by Amé Gorret, a priest who had shared with him the first attempt on the mountain back in 1857. Jean-Baptiste Bich and Jean-Augustin Meynet completed the party. Giordano would have joined them, but Carrel refused absolutely to take him with them; he said he would not have the strength to guide a traveller, and could neither answer for the result nor for any one's life. After hearing Sunday mass at the chapel of Breuil, the party started. Amé Gorret has described this ascent with enthusiasm: "At last we crossed the Col du Lion and set foot upon the pyramid of the Matterhorn!" On the following day, the 17th, they continued the ascent and reached Tyndall's flagstaff. "We were about to enter unknown country," wrote Gorret, "for no man had gone beyond this point." Here opinions were divided; Gorret suggested ascending by the ridge and scaling the last tower straight up. Carrel was inclined to traverse to the west of the peak, and thence go up on the Zmutt side. Naturally the wish of Carrel prevailed, for he was the leader and had not lost the habit of command, notwithstanding his recent defeat.


title: Matterhorn

text: They made the passage of the "enjambée", and traversed the west face to reach the Zmutt ridge. A false step made by one of the party and a fall of icicles from above warned them to return to the direct line of ascent, and the traverse back to the Lion ridge was one of the greatest difficulty. A falling stone injured Gorret in the arm.


title: Matterhorn

text: At last they reached the base of the final tower. "We stood," wrote Gorret, "in a place that was almost comfortable. Although it was not more than two yards wide, and the slope was one of 75 percent, we gave it all kinds of pleasant names : the corridor, the gallery, the railroad, &c., &c." They imagined all difficulties were at an end; but a rock couloir, which they had hitherto not observed, lay between them and the final bit of ridge, where progress would be perfectly easy. It would have been unwise for all four to descend into the couloir, because they did not know where to fix the rope that would be needed on their return. Time pressed: it was necessary to reduce the numbers of the party; Gorret sacrificed himself, and Meynet stopped with him. Very soon afterwards Carrel and Bich were finally on the top. Meanwhile, Giordano at Breuil was writing in his diary as follows: "Splendid weather; at 9.30 saw Carrel and his men on the Shoulder, after that saw nothing more of them. Then much mist about the summit. Lifted a bit about 3.30, and we saw our flag on the western summit of the Matterhorn."


title: Matterhorn

text: The first direct ascent of the Italian (south-west) ridge as it is climbed today was by J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz on 13 September 1867. Julius Elliott made the second ascent via the Hörnli (north-east) ridge in 1868, and later that year the party of John Tyndall, J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz was the first to traverse the summit by way of the Hörnli and Italian ridges. On 22 August 1871, while wearing a white print dress, Lucy Walker became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, followed a few weeks later by her rival Meta Brevoort. The first winter ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by Vittorio Sella with guides J. A. Carrel, J. B. Carrel and L. Carrel on 17 March 1882, and its first solo ascent was made by W. Paulcke in 1898. The first winter solo ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by G. Gervasutti in 1936.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Zmutt (north-west) ridge was first climbed by Albert F. Mummery, Alexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta on 3 September 1879. Its first solo ascent was made by Hans Pfann in 1906, and the first winter ascent was made by H. Masson and E. Petrig on 25 March 1948.


title: Matterhorn

text: The last of the Matterhorn's four ridges to be ascended was the Furggen (south-east) ridge. M. Piacenza with guides J. J. Carrel and J. Gaspard on 9 September 1911, climbed most of the ridge but bypassed the overhangs near the top to the south. Not until 23 September 1942, during the Second World War, did Alfredo Perino, along with guides Louis Carrel (nicknamed "The Little Carrel") and Giacomo Chiara, climb the complete ridge and the overhangs directly.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1966, René Arnold and Joseph Graven made the first solo enchainement of the four Matterhorn ridges in 19.5 hours. Beginning at the 3,300m Bossi Bivouac hut, the pair followed the normal route up the Furggen Ridge and then descended the Hornli Ridge. After crossing the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face, they ascended the Zmutt Ridge and then descended the Italian (Lion) Ridge to the village of Breuil. In 1985, Marco Barmasse repeated their achievement, but this time his route included the first solo ascent of the Furggen overhangs. He completed the enchainement, reaching the Abruzzi Hut after 15 hours.


title: Matterhorn

text: On 20 August 1992, Italian alpinist Hans Kammerlander and Swiss alpine guide Diego Wellig climbed the Matterhorn four times in just 23 hours and 26 minutes. The route they followed was: Zmutt ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Furggen ridge–summit–Lion ridge (descent)–Lion ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Hörnli ridge–summit–Hörnli Hut (descent). However the Italian route (Lion Ridge), was not climbed from Duca degli Abruzzi Refuge at 2802 m, but from Carrel Hut, at 3830 m, both uphill and downhill.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1995, Bruno Brunod climbed Matterhorn from the village Breuil-Cervinia in 2 h 10 min. and from Breuil-Cervinia to Matterhorn and back, in 3:14:44


title: Matterhorn

text: On 21 August 2013, the Spanish mountain runner Kilian Jornet broke Brunod's record as it took him 1 hour, 56 min to the top from Breuil-Cervinia - a round-trip time of 2 hours 52 minutes to return to his starting point.


title: Matterhorn

text: William Penhall and guides made the first (partial) ascent of the west face, the Matterhorn's most hidden and unknown, one hour after Mummery and party's first ascent of the Zmutt ridge on 3 September 1879. It was not until 1962 that the west face was completely climbed. The ascent was made on 13 August by Renato Daguin and Giovanni Ottin. In January 1978 seven Italian alpine guides made a successful winter climb of Daguin and Ottin's highly direct, and previously unrepeated, 1962 route. But a storm came during their ascent, bringing two metres of snow to Breuil-Cervinia and Zermatt, and their accomplishment turned bitter when one of the climbers died during the descent.


title: Matterhorn

text: The north face, before it was climbed in 1931, was one of the last great big wall problems in the Alps. To succeed on the north face, good climbing and ice-climbing technique and route-finding ability were required. Unexpectedly it was first climbed by the brothers Franz and Toni Schmid on 31 July – 1 August 1931. They reached the summit at the end of the second day, after a night of bivouac. Because they had kept their plans secret, their ascent was a complete surprise. In addition, the two brothers had travelled by bicycle from Munich and after their successful ascent they cycled back home again. The first winter ascent of the north face was made by Hilti von Allmen and Paul Etter on 3-4 February 1962. Its first solo ascent was made in five hours by Dieter Marchart on 22 July 1959. Walter Bonatti climbed the "North Face Direct" solo on 18-22 February 1965. The same year, Yvette Vaucher became the first woman to climb the north face. Bonatti's direct route was not repeated solo until 29 years later, in winter 1994 by Catherine Destivelle.


title: Matterhorn

text: Ueli Steck set the record time in climbing the north face (Schmid route) of Matterhorn in 2009 with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes.


title: Matterhorn

text: After Bonatti's climb, the best alpinists were still preoccupied with one last great problem: the "Zmutt Nose", an overhang lying on the right-hand side of the north face. In July 1969 two Italians, Alessandro Gogna and Leo Cerruti, attempted to solve the problem. It took them four days to figure out the unusual overhangs, avoiding however its steepest part. In July 1981 the Swiss Michel Piola and Pierre-Alain Steiner surmounted the Zmutt Nose by following a direct route, the Piola-Steiner.


title: Matterhorn

text: The first ascent of the south face was made by Enzo Benedetti with guides Louis Carrel and Maurice Bich on 15 October 1931, and the first complete ascent of the east face was made by Enzo Benedetti and G. Mazzotti with guides Louis and Lucien Carrel, Maurice Bich and Antoine Gaspard on 18-19 September 1932.


title: Matterhorn

text: The four men lost in 1865 have not been the only fatalities on the Matterhorn. In fact, several climbers die each year due to a number of factors including the scale of the climb and its inherent dangers, inexperience, falling rocks, and overcrowded routes. The Matterhorn is thus amongst the deadliest mountains in the world. By the late 1980s, it was estimated that over 500 people have died whilst attempting its summit since the 1865 ascent, with an average of about 12 deaths each year.


title: Matterhorn

text: In the 2000s, there was a trend of fewer people dying each year on the mountain. This has been attributed partly to a greater awareness of the risks, and also due to the fact that a majority of climbers now use local guides. However, in the summer of 2018, at least ten people died on the mountain.


title: Matterhorn

text: The first ascent of the Matterhorn changed mountain culture. Whymper’s book about his first ascent, "Scrambles Amongst the Alps", published in 1871, was a worldwide bestseller. Tourists began to visit Switzerland in the summer to see the Alps and often hired locals as guides. With the beginning of alpine skiing in the early 20th century, tourists began traveling to Switzerland in winter also. Mountaineering, in part, helped transform Switzerland’s mountain regions from poor rural areas to tourist destinations. This combination of mountain climbing, skiing and tourism, was used in the western United States, creating Sun Valley, Vail, Jackson Hole, and other mountain towns around the world.


title: Matterhorn

text: Today, all ridges and faces of the Matterhorn have been ascended in all seasons, and mountain guides take a large number of people up the northeast Hörnli route each summer. In total, up to 150 climbers attempt the Matterhorn each day during summer. By modern standards, the climb is fairly difficult (AD Difficulty rating), but not hard for skilled mountaineers according to French climbing grades. There are fixed ropes on parts of the route to help. Still, it should be remembered that several climbers may die on the mountain each year.


title: Matterhorn

text: The usual pattern of ascent is to take the Schwarzsee cable car up from Zermatt, hike up to the Hörnli Hut elev. , a large stone building at the base of the main ridge, and spend the night. The next day, climbers rise at 3:30 am so as to reach the summit and descend before the regular afternoon clouds and storms come in. The Solvay Hut located on the ridge at can be used only in a case of emergency.


title: Matterhorn

text: Other popular routes on the mountain include the Italian (Lion) ridge (AD+ Difficulty rating) and the Zmutt ridge (D Difficulty rating). The four faces, as well as the Furggen ridge, constitute the most challenging routes to the summit. The north face is amongst the six most difficult faces of the Alps, as well as ‘The Trilogy’, the three hardest of the six, along with the north faces of the Eiger and the Grandes Jorasses (TD+ Difficulty rating).


title: Matterhorn

text: Overcrowding on the several routes have become an issue and guides and local authorities have struggled with how to regulate the numbers. In 2015 the Hörnli hut became the first mountain shelter in Europe to limit beds.


title: Matterhorn

text: Aegidius Tschudi, one of the earliest Alpine topographers and historians, was the first to mention the region around the Matterhorn in his work, "De Prisca ac Vera Alpina Raethi", published in Basel in 1538. He approached the Matterhorn as a student when in his Alpine travels he reached the summit of the Theodul Pass but he does not seem to have paid any particular attention to the mountain itself.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn remained unstudied for more than two centuries, until a geologist from Geneva, Horace Benedict de Saussure, travelled to the mountain, which filled him with admiration. However, de Saussure was not moved to climb the mountain, and had no hope of measuring its altitude by taking a barometer to its summit. "Its precipitous sides," he wrote, "which give no hold to the very snows, are such as to afford no means of access." Yet his scientific interest was kindled by "the proud peak which rises to so vast an altitude, like a triangular obelisk, that seems to be carved by a chisel." His mind intuitively grasped the causes which gave the peak its present precipitous form: the Matterhorn was not like a perfected crystal; the centuries had laboured to destroy a great part of an ancient and much larger mountain. On his first journey de Saussure had come from Ayas to the Col des Cimes Blanches, from where the Matterhorn first comes into view; descending to Breuil, he ascended to the Theodul Pass. On his second journey, in 1792, he came to the Valtournanche, studying and describing it; he ascended to the Theodul Pass, where he spent three days, analysing the structure of the Matterhorn, whose height he was the first to measure, and collecting stones, plants and insects. He made careful observations, from the sparse lichen that clung to the rocks to the tiny but vigorous glacier fly that fluttered over the snows and whose existence at such heights was mysterious. At night he took refuge under the tent erected near the ruins of an old fort at the top of the pass. During these days he climbed the Klein Matterhorn (3,883 metres), which he named the "Cime Brune du Breithorn".


title: Matterhorn

text: The first inquirers began to come to the Matterhorn. There is a record of a party of Englishmen who in the summer of 1800 crossed the Great St. Bernard Pass, a few months after the passage of Bonaparte; they came to Aosta and thence to Valtournenche, slept at the chalets of Breuil, and traversed the Theodul Pass, which they called "Monte Rosa". The Matterhorn was to them an object of the most intense and continuous admiration.


title: Matterhorn

text: The Matterhorn is mentioned in a guide-book to Switzerland by Johann Gottfried Ebel, which was published in Zürich towards the end of the eighteenth century, and translated into English in 1818. The mountain appeared in it under the three names of "Silvius", "Matterhorn", and "Mont Cervin", and was briefly described as one of the most splendid and wonderful obelisks in the Alps. On Zermatt there was a note: "A place which may, perhaps, interest the tourist is the valley of Praborgne (Zermatt); it is bounded by huge glaciers which come right down into the valley; the village of Praborgne is fairly high, and stands at a great height above the glaciers; its climate is almost as warm as that of Italy, and plants belonging to hot countries are to be found there at considerable altitudes, above the ice."


title: Matterhorn

text: William Brockedon, who came to the region in 1825, considered the crossing of the Theodul Pass from Breuil to Zermatt a difficult undertaking. He gave, however, expression to his enthusiasm on the summit. When he arrived exhausted on the top of the pass, he gazed "on the beautiful pyramid of the Cervin, more wonderful than aught else in sight, rising from its bed of ice to a height of 5,000 feet, a spectacle of indescribable grandeur." In this "immense natural amphitheatre, enclosed from time immemorial by snow-clad mountains and glaciers ever white, in the presence of these grand walls the mind is overwhelmed, not indeed that it is unable to contemplate the scene, but it staggers under the immensity of those objects which it contemplates."


title: Matterhorn

text: Those who made their way up through the Valtournanche to the foot of the mountain were few in number. W. A. B. Coolidge, a diligent collector of old and new stories of the Alps, mentions that during those years, besides Brockedon, only Hirzel-Escher of Zürich, who crossed the Theodul Pass in 1822, starting from Breuil, accompanied by a local guide. The greater number came from the Valais up the Visp valley to Zermatt. In 1813, a Frenchman, Henri Maynard, climbed to the Theodul Pass and made the first ascent of the Breithorn; he was accompanied by numerous guides, among them J. M. Couttet of Chamonix, the same man who had gone with de Saussure to the top of the Klein Matterhorn in 1792.


title: Matterhorn

text: The writings of these pioneers make much mention of the Matterhorn; the bare and inert rock is gradually quickened into life by men's enthusiasm. "Stronger minds," remarked Edward Whymper, "felt the influence of the wonderful form, and men who ordinarily spoke or wrote like rational beings, when they came under its power seemed to quit their senses, and ranted and rhapsodised, losing for a time all common forms of speech."


title: Matterhorn

text: Among the poets of the Matterhorn during these years (1834 to 1840) were Elie de Beaumont, a famous French geologist; Pierre Jean Édouard Desor, a naturalist of Neuchâtel, who went up there with a party of friends, two of whom were Louis Agassiz and Bernhard Studer. Christian Moritz Engelhardt, who was so filled with admiration for Zermatt and its neighbourhood that he returned there at least ten times (from 1835 to 1855), described these places in two valuable volumes, drew panoramas and maps, and collected the most minute notes on the mineralogy and botany of the region. Zermatt was at that time a quiet little village, and travellers found hospitality at the parish priest's, or at the village doctor's.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1841 James David Forbes, professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, came to see the Matterhorn. A philosopher and geologist, and an observant traveller, he continued the work of De Saussure in his journeys and his writings. He was full of admiration for the Matterhorn, calling it the most wonderful peak in the Alps, unsealed and unscalable. These words, pronounced by a man noted among all his contemporaries for his thorough knowledge of mountains, show what men's feelings then were towards the Matterhorn, and how at a time when the idea of Alpine exploration was gaining ground in their minds, the Matterhorn stood by itself as a mountain apart, of whose conquest it was vain even to dream. And such it remained till long after this; as such it was described by John Ball twenty years later in his celebrated guide-book. Forbes ascended the Theodul Pass in 1842, climbed the Breithorn, and came down to Breuil; as he descended from the savage scenery of the Matterhorn, the Italian landscapes of the Valtournanche seemed to him like paradise. Meanwhile, Gottlieb Samuel Studer, the geographer, together with Melchior Ulrich, was describing and mapping the topographical features of the Zermatt peaks.


title: Matterhorn

text: Rodolphe Töpffer, who first accompanied and guided youth to the Alps for purposes of education and amusement, began his journeys in 1832, but it is only in 1840 that he mentions the Matterhorn. Two years later Töpffer and his pupils came to Zermatt. He has described this journey of his in a chapter entitled "Voyage autour du Mont Blanc jusqu'à Zermatt", here he sings a hymn of praise to the Matterhorn, comparing its form with a "huge crystal of a hundred facets, flashing varied hues, that softly reflects the light, unshaded, from the uttermost depths of the heavens". Töpffer's book was illustrated by Alexandre Calame, his master and friend, with drawings of the Matterhorn, executed in the romantic style of the period. It is an artificial mountain, a picture corresponding rather with the exaggerated effect it produces on the astonished mind of the artist, than with the real form of the mountain.


title: Matterhorn

text: About this time there came a man who studied the Matterhorn in its structure and form, and who sketched it and described it in all its parts with the curiosity of the artist and the insight of the scientist. This was John Ruskin, a new and original type of philosopher and geologist, painter and poet, whom England was enabled to create during that period of radical intellectual reforms, which led the way for the highest development of her civilisation. Ruskin was the Matterhorn's poet par excellence. He went to Zermatt in 1844, and it is to be noticed as a curious fact, that the first time he saw the Matterhorn it did not please him. The mountain on its lofty pedestal in the very heart of the Alps was, perhaps, too far removed from the ideal he had formed of the mountains; but he returned, studied and dreamt for long at its feet, and at length he pronounced it "the most noble cliff in Europe." Ruskin was no mountaineer, nor a great friend to mountaineering; he drew sketches of the mountains merely as an illustration of his teaching of the beauty of natural forms, which was the object of his whole life. In his work on Modern Painters he makes continual use of the mountains as an example of beauty and an incentive to morality. The publication of Ruskin's work certainly produced a great impression at the time on educated people in England, and a widespread desire to see the mountains.


title: Matterhorn

text: Other men of high attainments followed, but in the years 1850 scientists and artists were about to be succeeded by real climbers and the passes and peaks around Zermatt were explored little by little. In the preface to the first volume of the "Alpine Journal", which appeared in 1863, the editor Hereford Brooke George wrote that: "While even if all other objects of interest in Switzerland should be exhausted, the Matterhorn remains (who shall say for how long?) unconquered and apparently invincible." Whymper successfully reached the summit in 1865, but four men perished on the descent. The English papers discussed it with bitter words of blame; a German newspaper published an article in which Whymper was accused of cutting the rope between Douglas and Taugwalder, at the critical moment, to save his own life.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 1890 the Federal Government was asked simultaneously by the same contractor for a concession for the Zermatt-Gornergrat railway, and for a Zermatt-Matterhorn one. The Gornergrat railway was constructed in 1896-1898 and has been working since August 1898, but there has been no more talk of the other. The project essentially consisted of a line which went up to the Hörnli, and continued thence in a rectilinear tunnel about two kilometres long, built under the ridge, and issuing near the summit on the Zmutt side. Sixty years later in 1950, Italian engineer Count Dino Lora Totino planned a cable car on the Italian side from Breuil-Cervinia to the summit. But the Alpine Museum of Zermatt sent a protest letter with 90,000 signatures to the Italian government. The latter declared the Matterhorn a natural wonder worthy of protection and refused the concession to the engineer.


title: Matterhorn

text: 2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the first ascent. Events and festivities were held throughout the year. A completely renewed Hörnli Hut opened the same year in the month of July.


title: Matterhorn

text: In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, light artist Gerry Hofstetter started projecting country flags and messages of endurance onto the mountain peak as part of a nightly series designed to show support and spread hope for everyone suffering and those fighting the pandemic.


title: Matterhorn

text: Hundreds of other mountains have been compared with the Matterhorn, either for their resemblance to it or because of their apparent inaccessibility.


title: Matterhorn

text: During the 20th century, the Matterhorn and the story of the first ascent in particular, inspired various artists and film producers such as Luis Trenker and Walt Disney. Large-scale replicas can be found at Disneyland and Window of the World. In 2021, a Matterhorn-related attraction opened in the Swiss Museum of Transport, enabling visitors to climb it virtually from the Solvay Hut to the summit.