Its name comes from the village of Zinal lying on the north side and from the German word Rothorn which means Red Peak.

The villages of Täsch and Zermatt are the closest while Zinal on the north-west is located further away at a distance of 9 km (5.6 mi).

The traverse of the ridge to the summit took them 2 hours, Stephen wrote later that it was 'the nastiest piece of climbing I have ever accomplished'.

In the 1880s Mrs Aubrey Le Blond, the first president of the Ladies' Alpine Club, left her detachable skirt by mistake up the Zinalrothorn.

To preserve her modesty, she made the decision to climb the mountain a second time to retrieve it rather than return to Zermatt in trousers.