Dent Blanche
| Dent Blanche | |
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The northern ridge of Dent Blanche
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 4,357 m (14,295 ft) |
| Prominence | 900 m ↓ Col d'Hérens |
| Isolation | 7.2 km → Matterhorn |
| Parent peak | Matterhorn |
| Coordinates | 46°02′03″N 7°36′43″E / 46.03417°N 7.61194°ECoordinates: 46°02′03″N 7°36′43″E / 46.03417°N 7.61194°E |
| Geography | |
 Dent Blanche
Location in Switzerland
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| Location | Valais, Switzerland |
| Parent range | Pennine Alps |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 1862 |
| Easiest route | rock/snow/ice climb |
The Dent Blanche is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, lying in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. With its 4,357 metres (14,295 ft)-high summit, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps.
The original name was probably Dent d'Hérens, the actual name of the nearby Dent d'Hérens which does not overlook the Val d'Hérens. The nearby north face of the Dent d'Hérens is glaciated while the Dent Blanche holds much less snow, it was even called Dent Noire (Black Tooth) on the Woerl Atlas of 1842. In fact on older maps, in the area where lie both summits, only the name Weisszahnhorn (from German: White Tooth Peak) was indicated, the French name (Dent Blanche) appearing in 1820 only. Because cartographers usually made their observations far away from the mountainous remote areas and also because the Dent d'Hérens is sometime hidden behind the Dent Blanche thus less visible, the latter received the name. The inhabitants of the lower Val d'Hérens called the actual Dent d'Hérens, Dent Blanche, but the ones of the upper Val d'Hérens called the mountain, Dent de Rong or Dent d'Erins, contributing to the general confusion. The actual names are official since the completion of the Dufour map in 1862.
The summit of Dent Blanche is an important geographic place as it is the converging point of three ridges. The three valleys separated by them are the Val d'Hérens, Val d'Anniviers and Mattertal. The respective villages of Evolène, Zinal and Zermatt lie approximatively at the same distance of the mountain.
The Dent Blanche has four steep faces rising over four glaciers: The north-east face (also called north face) rises above the Grand Cornier Glacier (part of the Zinal Glacier), the south-east face rises above the Schönbiel Glacier (part of the Zmutt Glacier), the south-west face rises above the Manzettes Glacier (part of the Ferpècle Glacier) and, finally, the north-west face of Dent Blanche rises above the homonym glacier.
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Wikipedia