No climbers were allowed on Switzerland's Matterhorn mountain Tuesday, as authorities declared a daylong "silence" on the 150th anniversary of the first ascent to honor more than 500 climbers who have died trying to reach the top.
A group of seven mountaineers led by Briton Edward Whymper were the first to reach the top on July 14, 1865. Four members of the team never made it back down, according to The Daily Beast.
The silence on the Matterhorn, with a 5,000 Swiss franc ($5,285) fine if violated, was part of a series of events commemorating the anniversary, which also included a light display along the route of the original ascent, according to Yahoo! News.
Authorities also re-opened the Hoernlihuette base camp refuge where the amount of beds in the camp were reduced from 170 to 140 in an attempt to reduce the number of mountaineers trying to reach 4,478-meter (14,692-foot) Alpine peak, ABC News reports.
An anniversary ascent by a team of climbers from Britain, France, Italy and Switzerland - a mirror of the nationalities on the first ascent - is planned for Friday.
