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Pennine Alps

Mountain range in the western Alps within Italy and Switzerland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pennine Alps
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The Pennine Alps (French: Alpes Pennines, German: Walliser Alpen, Italian: Alpi Pennine, Latin: Alpes Poeninae), sometimes referred to as the Valais Alps (which are just the Northern Swiss part of the Pennine Alps), are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. They are located in Italy (the Aosta Valley and Piedmont) and Switzerland (Valais).

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The Pennine Alps are amongst the three highest major subranges of the Alps, together with the Bernese Alps and the Graian Alps that include the Mont Blanc massif.[1]

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Geography

The Italian side is drained by the rivers Dora Baltea, Sesia and Toce, tributaries of the Po. The Swiss side is drained by the Rhône.

The Great St Bernard Tunnel, under the Great St Bernard Pass, leads from Martigny, Switzerland to Aosta.

Morphology

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2002 Satellite image of the Pennine Alps in summer. Part of the Mont Blanc massif is visible on the west. Its boundaries are the Aosta Valley on the south, Ossola valley on the east and Rhone valley on the north. It is separated from the Mont Blanc Massif by the Val Ferret, and the Lepontine Alps by the Simplon Pass. The black line demarks the Swiss-Italian and Swiss-French borders.

The main chain (watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea) runs from west to east on the border between Italy (south) and Switzerland (north). From Mont Vélan, the first high summit east of St Bernard Pass, the chain rarely goes below 3000 metres and contains many four-thousanders such as Matterhorn or Monte Rosa. The valleys are quite similar on both side of the border, being generally oriented perpendicular to the main chain and descending progressively into the Rhône Valley on the north and the Aosta Valley on the south. Unlike many other mountain ranges, the higher peaks are often located outside the main chain and found themselves between the northern valleys (Grand Combin, Weisshorn, Mischabel, Weissmies).

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Peaks

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The chief peaks of the Pennine Alps are:

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Glaciers

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Weissmies
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Grand Combin

Main glaciers:

Passes

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Great St Bernard pass

The chief passes of the Pennine Alps are:[2]

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Nature conservation

Some regional nature parks, like the Parco Naturale Alta Valsesia (6,511 ha - Piedmont, IT),[4] the Mont Mars Nature Reserve (390 ha - Aosta Valley, IT) [5] and the Regional park of Binn valley (15,891 ha - Valais, CH),[6] have been established on both sides of the main water divide.

Maps

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SwissTopo map of the Western Alps, centred on the Pennine Alps. The Mont Blanc Massif is visible in the west with the Bernese Alps to the north and Lepontine Alps to the north-east. The Ossola, Aosta, Ferret and Rhone valleys form its eastern, southern, western and northern boundaries. The Col Ferret and separates it from the Mont Blanc Massif, as does the Simplon Pass from the Lepontine Alps. At its centre is the Mattertal with its highest point, Dufourspitze, slightly southeast at the border with Italy. The thick red line demarks the French-Swiss and Swiss-Italian borders.
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See also

Maps

References

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