[5] The Dom is the main summit of the Mischabel group (German: Mischabelhörner), which is the highest massif lying entirely in Switzerland.

[6]: 114 Although Dom is a German cognate for 'dome', it can also mean 'cathedral' and the mountain is named after Canon Berchtold of Sitten cathedral, the first person to survey the vicinity.

[7] The former name Mischabel comes from an ancient German dialect term for pitchfork, as the highest peaks of the massif stand close to each other.

The first complete ascent on the entire western ridge was made later in 1882 by Paul Güssfeldt and guides Alexander Burgener and Benedict Venetz.

[7]: 73 The 1000-metre-high east face above Saas-Fee was climbed in 1875 by Johann Petrus, along with his clients Alfred and Walter Puckle, and a local hunter, Lorenz Noti.

[7]: 74 A route on the south face was first made in August 1906 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young and R. G. Major, with the guides Josef Knubel and Gabriel Lochmatter of St. Niklaus in the canton Valais.

[12]: 140 [6]: 114  The only mechanical means of access is located in the Saas-Fee area, on the east side of the mountain, from which all the routes to the Dom are much harder.

[6]: 116  This route (via the south ridge or Domgrat), first requires an ascent of the adjacent Täschhorn - most easily attained from the Mischabel Bivouac Hut perched on Mishabeljoch.

[6]: 16–19 In the late 1970s, mountain guide brothers Pierre and Grégoire Nicollier discovered a Two-flowered Stonecrop (Saxifraga biflora) about a hundred meters below the summit, on the southern ridge of the Dom.

However, in subsequent climbs of the southerly Taeschhorn-Dom-Ridge, the plant could no longer be located, but a new record holder was found: an opposite-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), which thrived and bloomed on the same ridge, about 40 meters below the summit.

Mountain guide Jürg Anderegg documented this with pictures in 2011, and botanist Christian Körner from the University of Basel published it in the specialist journal Alpine Botany.

As part of an art project, Swiss artist Sandro Steudler, together with mountain guide Alexander Kleinheinz and alpine photographer Caroline Fink, set out in July 2023 to search for the plant.

Despite challenging conditions and snow on the ridge, Alexander Kleinheinz succeeded in finding the plant and placing a temperature sensor beneath it, which had been given to them beforehand by Christian Körner; Caroline Fink documented the location photographically.