Monte Rosa
massif in Switzerland and Italy
Monte Rosa is a mountain massif in the eastern part of the Pennine Alps, on the border between Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley) and Switzerland (Valais). The highest peak of the massif, amongst several peaks of over 4,000 m (13,000 ft), is the Dufourspitze (4,634 m, 15,203 ft), the second highest mountain in the Alps and western Europe, after Mont Blanc.
The group is on the watershed between the Rhône and Po basins and has a topographic prominence of 2,165 metres (7,103 ft), which is ranked fifth in the Alps.
The Monte Rosa massif has four faces: the Liskamm heading above the Val de Gressoney; the Valsesian face above Alagna Valsesia at the upper part of the Valle della Sesia; the east wall above Macugnaga in the Valle Anzasca; and the north-western flowing towards the Mattertal with Zermatt, which has one of the largest Alpine glaciers.
Its main summit, named Dufourspitze in honor of the surveyor Guillaume-Henri Dufour and wholly located in Switzerland, culminates at 4,634 m (15,203 ft) and is followed by the five nearly equally high subsidiary summits of Dunantspitze, Grenzgipfel, Nordend, Zumsteinspitze, and Signalkuppe. Some other peaks over 4,000 m (13,000 ft), such as Piramide Vincent, Punta Giordani, and Corno Nero, are wholly in Italy. Monte Rosa is the highest mountain in both Switzerland and the Pennine Alps and is also the second-highest mountain in the Alps and in Europe outside of the Caucasus.
The north-west side of the central Monte Rosa massif, with its enormous ice slopes and seracs, constitutes the boundary and upper basin of the large Gorner Glacier, which descends towards Zermatt and merges with its nowadays much larger tributary, the Grenzgletscher (lit. 'Border Glacier'), right below the Monte Rosa Hut on the lower end of the visible western wing. The Grenzgletscher is an impressive glacier formation between the western wing of the mountain and Liskamm, a ridge on its southwestern side on the Swiss-Italian border.
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