Solvay Hut on the Matterhorn: The 4,003 m Emergency Shelter

Look closely at the Hörnli Ridge of the Matterhorn and you can spot a tiny wooden box clinging to the rock at 4,003 metres. This is the Solvay Hut, or Solvaybiwak, the highest hut owned by the Swiss Alpine Club and one of the most dramatically placed buildings in the Alps.

It is not a place to book a bed. The Solvay Hut is an emergency bivouac, and the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) states that it must only be used in real emergencies, such as a sudden change in the weather during the descent.

Where the Solvay Hut sits on the Matterhorn

The Matterhorn rises to 4,478 metres on the border between Switzerland and Italy, above Zermatt in Valais and Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley. Its north-east ridge, the Hörnli Ridge or Hörnligrat, is the normal route from the Swiss side. Climbers usually start from the Hörnli Hut at 3,260 metres, and the Solvay Hut stands some 740 metres higher on the same ridge, well over halfway to the summit.

The SAC grades the Hörnli Ridge AD+ and gives about four to five hours from the Hörnli Hut to the bivouac area. Fixed ropes protect parts of the route, and on busy summer days up to 150 climbers set out for the summit. Many roped parties pause on the hut's narrow terrace on the way up.

Ernest Solvay and the building of the hut

The shelter is named after Ernest Solvay, the Belgian chemist and industrialist who made his fortune with the Solvay process for producing soda ash. He donated 20,000 Swiss francs for an emergency refuge on the Matterhorn's ridge.

Building it was a feat in itself. Material transport began in the summer of 1915. Mountain guides and porters carried the materials up from the valley, and a small cableway moved them in seven stages from the Hörnli Hut up to the site. The architect was Philippe de Kalbermatten. The bivouac was dedicated on 8 August 1917, 52 years after the first ascent of the Matterhorn; Solvay himself could not attend because of the First World War.

The hut was rebuilt in 1966, and an emergency telephone was installed in 1976. Today it is equipped with a radiotelephone and has room for about ten people. It belongs to the SAC's Bern Central Section, the only hut that section owns, and it celebrated its centenary in 2017.

A ridge with a long history

The Hörnli Ridge was the route of the first ascent on 14 July 1865, when Edward Whymper's party of seven reached the summit. On the descent four of them, Michel Croz, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas and Douglas Hadow, fell to their deaths; Douglas's body was never found. The tragedy made the Matterhorn famous and set the tone for its reputation.

That reputation is earned. The Matterhorn has claimed more than 500 lives since 1865, and storms can build quickly around the summit. The Solvay Hut exists for exactly those moments: when a party is caught by bad weather, exhaustion or injury high on the ridge, a solid roof and a radio can make the difference.

Visiting Zermatt and climbing the Hörnli Ridge

Most visitors will only ever know the Solvay Hut from photographs like these, taken by climbers on the ridge. Zermatt, at the foot of the mountain, is the base for any visit, and the Hörnli Hut is the starting point for the climb itself. Climbers who want to go higher should go with a certified mountain guide in summer: the Hörnli Ridge is a long, serious alpine route, and a local guide knows its rock, its fixed ropes and its weather.

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