Alps

The Alps are the dominant range of Europe and one of the top five mountain areas of the world in mountain scenery and climbing challenge. Although only containing about fifty major peaks over 4000m (13,123'), the Alps rise very steeply from low bases and feature extensive glaciation on thousands of their summits. Americans used to the mountains of the western United States will be amazed at the rugged, snowy and steep faces of the Alps, which put the Rockies to shame. It has even been said that high Alpine peaks rise as high above the snowline as ones in the Himalaya and the Andes.

The Alps are a wide and convoluted crescent of ranges and peaks arcing to the north of the Italian Peninsula, from the Julian Alps of Slovenia (once part of Yugoslavia) on the east to the Maritime Alps of the South of France on the west. Within this huge area are many sub-ranges: the Dolomites of northern Italy; the Hohe Tauern of Austria; the Bavarian Alps; the Cottian Alps, and countless others. The three highest, which together contain almost all of the 4000m giants, are the Pennine Alps on the Switzerland-Italy border, the Berner Oberland of central Switzerland, and the Mont Blanc Massif, where France, Switzerland and Italy meet.

The sport of mountaineering was invented in the Alps, and the variety of peaks and routes that can be climbed is staggering, ranging from easy walk-ups to some of the hardest routes on earth. As a range in the heart of a densely settled and advanced continent, access to the Alps is good, perhaps too good: roads, trains, tunnels, cableways, and ski lifts honeycomb the range and often take casual tourists high up towards the peaks. An extensive network of huts in the Alps make backpacking in the American tradition almost unheard of.

Note: Range borders shown on map are an approximation and are not authoritative.
Click Here for a Full Screen Map