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The Matterhorn is the very symbol of mountaineering - a symbol of the freedom and adventure of it

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The Matterhorn is the very symbol of mountaineering - a symbol of the freedom and adventure of it. Respect for the mountains and their pristine state is being sacrificed for purely commercial reasons."Symbolism and hypocrisy surround the Matterhorn. "Murder of a tremendous route," says Roger Payne, general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council. "Appalling," says Ian McNaught-Davis, president of the UIAA, in effect the United Nations of mountaineering clubs.

So double bolt anchors have been placed on difficult rocks above a section known as The Teeth and next summer, when the weather allows, bolts or stanchions will be placed on the West Face and the gallery. Herr Mazzone told me the equipment would be perhaps 30m apart, which certainly allows scope for a little nervous perspiration "It is our profession to take people up the mountain. If we make the bolts 2m apart do you think clients would ask for a mountain guide again?" No, this may be another step in the "dumbing down" of mountaineering but the Zermatters are not that dumb.Thankfully, equipping the Zmutt has not gone unnoticed by the great panjandrums of mountaineering. This 24-berth cabin has been erected immediately below the Zmutt ridge at about 3,000 metres.

But it would probably stand empty most of the season unless the route was made more customer friendly. Traffic problems, as well as more conventional hazards, make even the Hornli potentially dangerous and each year about seven people are killed on the route.Spreading the load on to another ridge must have seemed an attractive idea when the guides were offered a new bivouac hut by the Swiss chemical giant Lonza AG. Tempers fray and occasionally there are fights when a descending party meets another coming up and neither will give way. Meanwhile scores of climbers and their guides were jostling for a grip of the ropes and chains on the "tourist" route up the mountain, the Hornli ridge On a summer's day, up to 250 people climb the Hornli.

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