I have no interest in mountain climbing but it really is incredible what some of them can do.
I think I read that Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to climb the Matterhorn.
The Matterhorn was first climbed by brit climber Edward Whymper, July 1865. He climbed from the Swiss side on the ridge in the center of the often photographed side of the mountain. I have climbed that route as high as the “Shoulder” near the top where you have to cross onto the face because the shoulder goes overhanging. I was there in July also, but the snow conditions were too avalanche prone. We knew we would turn back there at the shoulder, if we could even get there because we talked to the guides service and found no one had been above there yet that year. I think it was 1991.
We would have liked to climb the Matterhorn, but just went to the Shoulder as a warm up for the Eiger which we successfully climbed later in July. We checked with the guides service and found no one had climbed the Eiger that year either so we were the first in bad snow and ice conditions.