Matterhorn (Switzerland and Italy); Mountaineering
The situations of the principal summits can be perceived at a glance on
the accompanying map, which is a reproduction of a portion of sheet 189.
The main ridge of the chain runs, at this part, nearly north and south.
Roche Faurio, at the northern extreme, is 3716 mètres, or 12,192 feet,
above the level of the sea. The lowest point between that mountain and the
Ecrins (the Col des Ecrins) is 11,000 feet. The ridge again rises, and
passes 13,000 feet in the neighbourhood of the Ecrins. The highest summit
of that mountain (13,462 feet) is, however, placed a little to the east of
and off the main ridge. It then again falls, and in the vicinity of the
Col de la Tempe it is, perhaps, below 11,000 feet; but immediately to the
south of the summit of that pass, there is upon the ridge a point which
has been determined by the French surveyors to be 12,323 feet. This peak
is without a name. The ridge continues to gain height as we come to the
south, and culminates in the mountain which the French surveyors have
called Sommet de l’Aile Froide. On the spot it is called, very commonly,
the Aléfroide.
There is some uncertainty respecting the elevation of this mountain. The
Frenchmen give 3925 mètres (12,878) as its highest point, but Mr. Tuckett,
who took a good theodolite to the top of Mont Pelvoux (which he agreed
with his predecessors had an elevation of 12,973 feet), found that the
summit of the Aléfroide was elevated above his station 4′; and as the
distance between the two points was 12,467 feet, this would represent a
difference in altitude of 5 mètres in favour of the Aléfroide. I saw this
mountain from the summit of Mont Pelvoux in 1861, and was in doubt as to
which of the two was the higher, and in 1864, from the summit of the
Pointe des Ecrins (as will presently be related), it looked actually
higher than Mont Pelvoux. I have therefore little doubt but that Mr.
Tuckett is right in believing the Aléfroide to have an elevation of about
13,000 feet, instead of 12,878, as determined by the French surveyors.
Mont Pelvoux is to the east of the Aléfroide and off the main ridge, and
the Pic Sans Nom (12,845 feet) is placed between these two mountains. The
latter is one of the grandest of the Dauphiné peaks, but it is shut in by
the other mountains, and is seldom seen except from a distance, and then
is usually confounded with the neighbouring summits. Its name has been
accidentally omitted on the map, but its situation is represented by the
large patch of rocks, nearly surrounded by glaciers, that is seen between
the words Ailefroide and Mt. Pelvoux.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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