History

The first known tourist visited Zermatt in the summer of 1758 in search of unique alpine herbs. Until 1820 however very few tourists, apart from a few botanists and mineralogists, traveled to Zermatt. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that Zermatt developed into the centre of alpinism. The mountains around Zermatt lost their myth as the dwelling place of demons and were climbed for the first time one after the other. The first hotels were built and more and more guests visited Zermatt during the summer to admire nature or to climb one of the numerous four-thousand-metre peaks. Zermatt's summer tourism received a further boost when the railway from Visp to Zermatt started operating in 1891 and the Gornergrat railway opened in 1898. Winter tourism did not appear until the beginning of the 20th century.

He grew up in the mountain village of Zermatt, which was characterised by sun, storm and snow. He was full of joie de vivre and was a talented craftsman. The mountains as his home, a happy environment, his dry sense of humour and his own achievements shaped his personality. His vocation, however, was mountaineering.

He stood on the summit of the Matterhorn more than 150 times, climbed the Eiger North Face as second and traversed the Matterhorn North Face as fourth. In addition to these prestigious ascents, Alexander Taugwalder undertook countless extremely challenging and unique tours with his guests or fellow mountain guides. He also had a keen sense of observation, so he discovered various veins of lazulith and was a talented nature photographer. He was often invited to hotels to exhibit his photos. On June 26th 1952, Alexander Taugwalder died together with his friend Adolf Schmutz while descending the east face of the Monte Rosa massif. He was killed by falling chunks of ice.

Why the otherwise so careful and thoughtful mountain guide descended at the dangerous time of noon, what caused a delay, remains one of the many mysteries of the mountains.

The old "Penison Fluhalp" was opened in 1890. It is located 100 metres behind the current Fluhalp and is still visible. It consisted of a wooden main building and two small stone outbuildings. The reason for building this hut was the emerging alpinism. The Fluhalp was considered the starting point for the ascent of several four-thousand-metre peaks, including the Rimpfischhorn and Strahlhorn. In 1938 the Taugwalder family and two other families built the present Fluhalp. The old hut no longer met the needs of the guests, so the owners decided to build a new hut. The current location was chosen as the construction site so that the Matterhorn could be admired and the hut could be better connected to the ski slope. It was built entirely of wood because one of the families involved owned a sawmill in the village. The wood was transported from Zermatt to the Fluhalp with mules. In the last 15 years, Hans Taugwalder bought the shares of the other owner families, so that today he is the sole owner of the Fluhalp.