Peaks and passes of the Alps

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Lists of peaks and passes

\n*Western Alps\n**Maritime Alps\n**Cottian Alps\n**Dauphine Alps\n**Graian Alps\n**Pennine Alps\n*Central Alps\n**Bernese Oberland\n**Lepontine Alps\n**Todi Range\n**Swiss Alps\n**Bernina Alps\n**Albula Range\n**Silvretta and Rhatikon Ranges\n*Eastern Alps\n**The Alps of Bavaria, the Vorarlberg, and Salzburg\n**Tirolean Alps\n**Ortler, Oetzthal and Stubai Ranges\n**Lombard Alps\n**Dolomites\n**South-Eastern Alps\n

The Alps form a great mountain range, consisting of a main chain, with \nramifications, and of several parallel minor chains. They thus \nform a single connected whole as contrasted with the plains \nat their base, and nature has made no breaks therein, save at \nthe spots where they sink to comparatively low depressions or \npasses. But for the sake of practical convenience it has \nlong been usual to select certain of the best marked of \nthese passes to serve as limits within the range, whether to \ndistinguish several great divisions from each other, or to \nfurther break up each of these great divisions into smaller \ngroups. As these divisions, great or small, are so to speak \nartificial, several systems have been proposed according \nto which the Alps may be divided. We give below that which seems to us to be the most satisfactory (based very largely \non personal acquaintance with most parts of the range), \nconsidering, as in the case of the limits of the chain, \nonly its topographical aspect, as it exists at the present \nday, while leaving it to geologists, botanists and zoologists \nto elaborate special divisions as required by these various \nsciences. Our selected divisions relate only to the High Alps \nbetween the Col de Tenda and the route over the Radstadter \nTauern, while in each of the 18 subdivisions the less \nelevated outlying peaks are regarded as appendages of the \nhigher group within the topographical limits of which they \nrise. We do not attempt to give a complete catalogue of the peaks and passes of the Alps, while in the case of the peaks the culminating point of a lower \nhalf-detached group has been included rather than the loftier \nspurs of the higher and main group; in the case of the passes, \nthe villages or valleys they connect have been indicated, \nand also the general character of the route over each pass. As regards the main divisions, three are generally distinguished; \nthe Western Alps (chiefly French and Italian, with a small \nportion of the Swiss Valais (Canton Wallis)) being held to extend from the Col de Tenda to the Simplon Pass, the Central Alps (all but wholly \nSwiss and Italian) thence to the Reschen Scheideck Pass, \nand the Eastern Alps (wholly Austrian and Italian, save the \nsmall Bavarian portion at the northwest angle) thence to the \nRadstadter Tauern route, with a bend outwards towards the \nsouth-east, as explained under (2) in order to include the \nhigher summits of the Southeastern Alps. Strictly speaking, \nwe should follow the Reschen Scheideck route down the \nAdige Valley, but as this would include in the Central Alps the \nOrtler and some other of the highest Tirolese summits, it is \nbest (remembering the artificial character of the division) \nto draw a line from Mals southwards either over the Umbrail \nPass (the old historical pass) or the Stelvio (well known \nonly since the carriage road was built over it in the first \nquarter of the 19th century) to the head of the Valtellina, \nand then over the Aprica Pass (as the Bergamasque Alps properly \nbelong to the Central Alps) to the Oglio valley or the Val \nCamonica, and down that valley to the Lake of Iseo and Brescid. Assuming these three main divisions, we can consider in detail the 18 sub-divisions which we distinguish; the first five forming the Western Alps, the next seven the Central Alps, and the rest the Eastern Alps, the heights throughout being given in English feet and representing the latest measurements. Category:Alps