Named in 1863 by the Swiss Federal Council after Guillaume-Henri Dufour (1787–1875), the engineer and general who produced the first accurate national topographic map of Switzerland (the Dufourkarte, 1845–1864). The local Walser name for the summit was previously Höchste Spitze ('highest peak'), unimaginative but unambiguous.
Highest summit of the Monte Rosa massif and of Switzerland.
The highest summit of the Monte Rosa massif — and of Switzerland — was reached on 1 August 1855 by an Anglo-Swiss party of eight via the west flank from Zermatt. It was named in honour of the Swiss general and cartographer Guillaume-Henri Dufour. The Reverend Charles Hudson, leader of the 1855 party, would die ten years later in the Matterhorn descent. The mountain's east face, more than 2000 metres tall above the Macugnaga glacier in Italy, was first climbed in 1872 and is the largest mountain wall in the Alps.
Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.
