Dufourspitze

The highest summit of Monte Rosa, an ice-covered mountain massif in the Alps, is the Dufourspitze. Dufourspitze is the highest mountain peak in both Switzerland and the Pennine Alps, as well as the Alps' and Western Europe's second-highest peak after Mont Blanc. It lies between Switzerland (Valais Canton) and Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley).

Monte Rosa's summit, then known as Höchste Spitze (English: Highest Peak), was first reached in 1855 from Zermatt by a party of eight climbers led by three guides: Matthäus and Johannes Zumtaugwald, Ulrich Lauener, Christopher and James Smyth, Charles Hudson, John Birkbeck, and Edward Stephenson, after a long series of attempts dating back to the early nineteenth century.

The route to the peak for alpinists normally begins at a low height near Monte Rosa hut, which implies that the climb and descent take a long time. The toughest obstacles on the climb to the summit are crevasses and icy ridges.

Elevation: 4,634 m
Location: Valais, Switzerland
Parent peak: Punta Nordend