Zinalrothorn
'Red horn of Zinal' — rot is Swiss-German for 'red' (referring to the reddish gneiss of the upper rocks), and Zinal is the village in the Val d'Anniviers from which the peak is most prominent.
Sharp rock summit between the Ober Gabelhorn and Weisshorn. Classic mixed alpine climb; standard route is the south-east (Rothorngrat) ridge from the Rothorn Hut.
Climbed on 22 August 1864 by Leslie Stephen — Cambridge don and one of the founding presidents of the Alpine Club — with the Grindelwald guides Melchior and Jakob Anderegg, by the long south ridge. The peak is granite rather than the gneiss of its neighbours, and its upper ridge is split by a series of celebrated gendarmes (notably the Bosse, a smooth granite hump that gives the crux of the modern voie normale). Stephen's account in 'The Playground of Europe' is one of the classic 19th-century alpine essays.
Summit · huts that serve as bases for routes on this peak
- Rothornhütte3,198 m