Stauning Alps

Stauning Alps
Stauning Alper
One of the massive ranges at the southern end of the Stauning Alps viewed from the Nordvestfjord
Highest point
Peak	Dansketinden
Elevation	2,842 m (9,324 ft)
Dimensions
Length	120 km (75 mi) N/S
Width	50 km (31 mi) E/W
Area	6,000 km²
Geography
Country	Greenland
Range coordinates	72°N 25°W / 72°N 25°W / 72; -25Coordinates: 72°N 25°W / 72°N 25°W / 72; -25
Geology
Type of rock	Metamorphic rock

The Stauning Alps (Danish: Stauning Alper) are a large system of mountain ranges in Scoresby Land, King Christian X Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively the Stauning Alps are part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone.

This mountainous area was named after Danish politician Thorvald Stauning (1873–1942) who had helped to finance expeditions to east Greenland planned and carried out by Danish explorers.

The Stauning Alps had been partly mapped earlier and named Rink Bjerge by Lauge Koch’s 1926–27 expeditions, being referred to as a "wild and jagged range of mountains." The range thus described obviously corresponded to the eastern end of the Stauning Alps and the adjacent Werner Range, but the name was not approved owing to the lack of detailed maps. Finally the range was thoroughly surveyed and mapped in 1932 by Koch during aerial surveys made during the 1931–34 Three-year Expedition to East Greenland.

There is almost full documentation of climbing in the Stauning Alps by the successive expeditions having visited the mountain system. Most of the available climbing reports have either been published or deposited in the archives of the Danish Polar Center (DPC), the Royal Geographical Society of London (RGS) or the British Mountaineering Council (BMC).

Dansketinden, the highest point of the Stauning Alps was first climbed by Swiss mountaineers John Haller (1927–1984), Wolfgang Diehl (1908–1990) and Fritz Schwarzenbach on 5 August 1954. The second ascent was made by a 1964 Italian expedition led by Guido Monzino (1928 – 1988).

The Stauning Alps are bound to the north by the King Oscar Fjord and its Segelsällskapets branch, to the east by the Skel Valley, the Schuchert Flod river and the Holger Danske Briller lakes, to the west by the Alpefjord —a branch of the Segelsällskapets— and the Borgbjerg Glacier, and to the south by a part of the Nordvestfjord, the NW branch of the Scoresby Sound.