Intro:

Swiss mountaineer Dani Arnold breaks the record for the quickest ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn mountain in the Alps in April.

Script:

Straddling the border between Italy and Switzerland, the Matterhorn mountain is one of the highest summits in the Alps.

It overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt to the north-east and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia to the south.

The 1,100 metre-high North face of the Matterhorn takes good mountain climbers between 8 and 10 hours to reach the summit.

Dani Arnold, a 31-year-old from Switzerland, reached the top in just one hour and 46 minutes.

He broke the previous record set by Ueli Steck in 2009 by a staggering 10 minutes.

Arnold said that while the start of the climb proved difficult, that he found his rhythm the higher he went as he closed in on Steck's record.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dani Arnold:

"For such a project like this, you don't need a special kind of training. You have to be in the mountains all the time and only so you can be so fast and so safe like now."

SOUNDBITE (English) Dani Arnold:

"At the start, I wasn't so lucky because it was really hard to get in my pace. But afterwards, higher up, I found the rhythm and then I felt more comfortable. I think the upper part, I'm quite happy about the speed and the time."

Arnold also broke the speed record for the Eiger North face mountain of the Bernese Alps in 2011, a time which still remains intact today.