Finsteraarhorn
Encyclopedia
The Finsteraarhorn is the highest mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 in the Bernese
Bernese Alps
The Bernese Alps are a group of mountain ranges in the western part of the Alps, in Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Lucerne, Obwalden, Fribourg and...

 Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....

 and the highest mountain in the canton of Berne
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...

. It is also the highest summit in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 lying outside the main chain
Main chain of the Alps
The Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the water divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range; the Alps are something of an unusual case in that several significant groups of...

, or watershed. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth highest and third most prominent peak in the Alps. Since 2001 the whole massif and surrounding glaciers are part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch
Bernese Alps
The Bernese Alps are a group of mountain ranges in the western part of the Alps, in Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Lucerne, Obwalden, Fribourg and...

 World Heritage Site.

Geography

Despite being the highest mountain of the Bernese Alps, the summit of the Finsteraarhorn is less frequented than those of the nearby Jungfrau
Jungfrau
The Jungfrau is one of the main summits in the Bernese Alps, situated between the cantons of Valais and Bern in Switzerland...

 and Eiger
Eiger
The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...

. This is due to its location in one of the most remote areas in the Alps, completely surrounded by un-inhabited glacial valleys.

To its west lies the Fiescher Glacier
Fiescher Glacier
The Fiescher Glacier is a valley glacier on the south side of the Bernese Alps in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. in length, it is the second longest glacier in the Alps...

, the third largest in the Alps, and to the east lie the Great Aar Glaciers
Aar Glaciers
The Aar Glaciers are glaciers located at the sources of the Aar River in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland. They are constituted by two distinct glacier systems:...

. The smaller Lower Grindelwald Glacier
Lower Grindelwald Glacier
The Lower Grindelwald Glacier is the western one and the largest of the two Grindelwald Glaciers in the Bernese Alps, south of Grindelwald, the other being the Upper Grindelwald Glacier.The Lower Grindelwald Glacier covers an area of ....

 lies north of the massif. The Finsteraarhorn is surrounded by the summits of the Schreckhorn
Schreckhorn
The Schreckhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps. It is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Berne. The Schreckhorn is the northernmost Alpine four-thousander and the northernmost summit rising above 4,000 metres in Europe....

 and Lauteraarhorn
Lauteraarhorn
The Lauteraarhorn is a peak of the Aarmassif in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It lies close to the Schreckhorn and the Finsteraarhorn...

 to the north, the Gross Fiescherhorn, Grünhorn
Grünhorn
The Grünhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps range of the Swiss Alps. It is located on the ridge between the two largest glaciers of the Alps: the Aletsch Glacier to the west and the Fiescher Glacier to the east...

 and Gross Wannenhorn
Gross Wannenhorn
The Gross Wannenhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps. It is located in the canton of Valais near the village of Fiesch. The mountain separates the Aletsch Glacier from the Fiescher Glacier....

 to the west and the Oberaarhorn
Oberaarhorn
The Oberaarhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps. It is located between the valleys of the Unteraar and Oberaar Glacier.-External links:*...

 to the east.

The summit lies on the border between the canton of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...

 and Berne
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...

, which is also the watershed between the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...

 (Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

) and Rhine (North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

) rivers. The Finsteraarhorn is the culminating point of the Rhine drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

.

Geology

The Finsteraarhorn is the culminating point of the Aarmassif
Aarmassif
The Aarmassif or Aaremassif is a geologic massif in the Swiss Alps. It contains a number of large mountain chains and parts of mountain chains.-Geography:...

, a geologic crystalline massif which crops out in the eastern Bernese Alps and Urner Alps
Urner Alps
The Urner Alps are a mountain range in central Switzerland in the western part of the Alps. They extend into the cantons of Obwalden, Valais, Lucerne, Bern, Uri and Nidwalden and are bordered by the Bernese Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south and the Glarus Alps to the east.The Urner...

. The massif belongs to the Helvetic zone and consists of rocks from the European continent, mainly granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

s and gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...

es. The summit itself is composed of amphibolite
Amphibolite
Amphibolite is the name given to a rock consisting mainly of hornblende amphibole, the use of the term being restricted, however, to metamorphic rocks. The modern terminology for a holocrystalline plutonic igneous rocks composed primarily of hornblende amphibole is a hornblendite, which are...

s.

The tectonic uplift
Tectonic uplift
Tectonic uplift is a geological process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation. Uplift may be orogenic or isostatic.-Orogenic uplift:...

 of the massif occurred 6 million years ago. The inelastic deformation of rocks led to many fractures and formation of hydrothermal crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...

s by the deposition of the saturated water flowing inside.

The controversial first ascent

The identity of the first ascentionists was long a controversial matter. Although Johann Rudolf Meyer claimed to have reached the summit on an attempt in 1812 with guides Arnold Abbühl, Joseph Bortes and Aloys Volker, it is now accepted—after the research of John Percy Farrar
John Percy Farrar
Captain John Percy Farrar DSO , also known as Percy Farrar and as J. P. Farrar, was an English soldier and mountaineer. He was President of the Alpine Club from 1917 to 1919 and a member of the Mount Everest Committee.-Family:...

 in the Alpine Journal
Alpine Journal
The Alpine Journal is the yearly publication of the Alpine Club of London. It is the oldest mountaineering journal in the world.-History:The journal was first published on 2 March 1863 by the publishing house of Longmans in London, with Hereford Brooke George as its first editor...

—that Jakob Leuthold and Johann Währen (guides to Franz Joseph Hugi) were the first to reach the summit via the north-west ridge on 10 August 1829 (Hugi and others remained just below the top). Hugi, with A. Abbühl, A Dändler, C. Lauener and J. Währenhad reached the saddle below the summit (the Hugisattel) on 19 August 1828 but had to retreat because of bad weather. As mentioned in Hugi's notes (Naturhistorische Alpenreise), Hugi and Dändler risked their lives on that day

The first attempt (and claimed ascent) made on 16 August 1812 by Rudolph Meyer and his guides took place on the south-east ridge, which is a more difficult and longer route than the normal route. One of the guides, Arnold Abbühl, was questioned by Franz Joseph Hugi later in 1828 about the ascent, but he didn't convince Hugi about the success of the ascent. Hugi also noted in 1829 that no traces of a previous ascent were found.

One year later, on 10 August 1829, Hugi again attempted to climb the mountain with Leuthold and Währen. Unfortunately if the ascent was this time successful, Hugi had to wait on the saddle while the other reached the summit. He was in fact lightly injured and could not go any higher.

Other ascents

The fifth ascent took place on August 13, 1857. It was the first British ascent, made by John Frederick Hardy, William Mathews
William Mathews
William Mathews was an English mountaineer, land agent and surveyor, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club of London in 1857.-Founding of the Alpine Club:...

, Benjamin St John Attwood-Mathews, J.C.W. Ellis and Edward Shirley Kennedy
Edward Shirley Kennedy
Edward Shirley Kennedy was an English mountaineer and author, and a founding member of the Alpine Club.-Early life:...

, accompanied by the guides Auguste Simond and Jean Baptiste Croz from Chamonix, Johann Jaun the Elder from Meiringen, Aloys Bortis from Fiesch and the porter Alexander Guntern from Biel in Goms. They left Konkordiaplatz
Konkordiaplatz
The Konkordiaplatz or Concordia , is a large flat area of snow and ice lying just to the south of the Jungfrau in the Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais. Its notable feature is that it is the junction of four large glaciers coming down from the Aletschfirn, the Jungfraufirn, the...

 at 2:30 pm, reaching the summit at exactly 11:53 pm. Before ascending the mountain, Mathews already mentioned his idea of a club for alpinists. On the summit of the Finsteraarhorn the climbers decided to found such an association, which would be named the Alpine Club
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...

.

The most difficult route to the summit, the north-east face, was opened on 16 July 1904 by G. Hasler and his guide F. Amatter. The ascent marked the beginning of the épopée of the great north faces in the Bernese Alps. In fact the north-east face of the Finsteraarhorn was climbed only 11 times between 1904 and 1977. A third ascent was made on 3 September 1930 by Miriam O'Brien Underhill
Miriam O'Brien Underhill
Miriam O'Brien Underhill was an American mountaineer, environmentalist and feminist, best known for the concept of "manless climbing" - organizing all-women's ascents of challenging climbs, mostly in the Alps.- Early life :...

 with guides A. and F. Rubi. She relates this dangerous ascent in her book Give me the Hills.

Climbing routes

The normal route starts at the Finsteraarhorn Hut
Finsteraarhorn Hut
The Finsteraarhorn Hut is a mountain hut located south of the Finsteraarhorn. It is situaded at 3,046 m above sea level, north of the Fiescher Glacier, in a remote area of the Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais...

 (3,046 m) and goes over the south-west flank of the mountain up to the Hugisattel, then follows the north-west rocky ridge to the summit.
Routes Start Time of ascent Difficulty
Grade (climbing)
In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

Normal route Finsteraarhorn Hut
Finsteraarhorn Hut
The Finsteraarhorn Hut is a mountain hut located south of the Finsteraarhorn. It is situaded at 3,046 m above sea level, north of the Fiescher Glacier, in a remote area of the Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais...

4–5 hours PD
North-west ridge (Agassiz ridge) Finsteraarhorn Hut
Finsteraarhorn Hut
The Finsteraarhorn Hut is a mountain hut located south of the Finsteraarhorn. It is situaded at 3,046 m above sea level, north of the Fiescher Glacier, in a remote area of the Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais...

3–4 hours from the Agassizjoch AD
South-east ridge Oberaar Hut 14–15 hours D
East face Oberaar Hut 8–10 hours from the Studerjoch TD



Panorama

External links

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