Description of the route


Its highest peak, “Point of Dufour” (4,634 meters), is the second highest peak in the Alps.
Thirty peaks with elevations over four thousand meters rise around it with the largest glaciers in the Alps like the “Gomer”, more than twelve kilometers long.
There are several smaller glaciers on the southern and western slopes. Overall, the massif’s glaciers cover 220 square kilometers.
The “Castor” and “Pollux” peaks which, seen from the north, equally covered by a thick ice cap, look alike and are known as the “twins”. From the south, on the other hand, the two peaks greatly differ: the first is more like Lyskamm and the high Rosa peaks, rising over four thousand meters and projecting an impressive 600 meter rock wall on the south-west face. The second is smaller: its elevation barely exceeds four thousand meters and the gentle face, seen from the south, blends it into the Breithorn range.
The massif includes a long segment of the Italian-Swiss border ridge between Colle del Teodulo, at the head of Baltourmenche, and the Mount Moro pass, in the upper Anzasca valley. It is the border between Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont and the Vallese Canton that meet at the 4,341 meter “Ludwigshöhe” peak to the south-east of Colle del Lys.
There are seven main valleys carved between the range’s peaks: Valtournenche, Val d’Ayas and Valle di Gressoney in Valle d’Aosta; Valsesia and Valle Anzasca in Piedmont, Zermatt and Saas valleys in Switzerland.

From Colle del Teodulo, moving east, the massif’s long series of “4,000” peaks is the following:
. “The Breithorn range” - “flat horn” that culminates in the 4,165 meters of the western Breithorn;
. “The Pollux twins” 4,092 meters, and “Castor” 4,228 meters;
. “The Lyskamm” 4,527 meters, famous snowcap (the highest Rosa peak in Valle d’Aosta)
. “Colle del Lys” 4,153 meters, the most spectacular mountain pass in the Alps.
Beyond Colle del Lys, outside of Valle d’Aosta, Monte Rosa’s four main peaks rise on the ridge between Piedmont and Vallese:
.“The Point of Gnifetti” 4,554 meters, where the highest hut in Europe, the Queen Margaret hut, is located;
. “Zumstein” 4,563 meters;
. “Dufour” 4,634 meters;
. “Nordend” 4612 meters.