Monte Rosa: Punta Dufour is 4,634 m high

Monte Rosa's highest point, the Punta Dufour, is 4,634¹ meters, the second highest summit of the whole Alpine chain, on a massif shared by the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and the Swiss canton of Valais.

Second in the Alps, behind Mont Blanc

The Punta Dufour reaches 4,634¹ meters and ranks second in the Alps, behind Mont Blanc, which Italian sources put at 4,808.72³ meters.

The Dufour stands on the Italian and Swiss border, so the top of the massif is shared with Switzerland. Which Monte Rosa summit is the highest one lying entirely in Italy hasn't been verified for this page.

The ranking is settled; the decimals are the Italian sources' reading.

A massif of 30 summits and 220 km2 of ice

Monte Rosa counts around 30 summits above 4,000² meters and around 220² square kilometers of glaciers.

The glacier figure is the one to distrust. It shrinks as the ice retreats, and it needs rechecking against current surveys rather than repeating from one guide to the next. The Gorner glacier on the massif runs for 12 kilometers.

A hut at 4,554 meters

The Capanna Regina Margherita stands on the Punta Gnifetti at 4,554² meters and is the highest mountain hut in Europe.

It's a destination for climbers with glacier experience, not a lift day. Its opening season, booking system and prices are not among the facts here, so ask the hut's operator before you plan around a night up there.

A three-way border

The massif marks a three-way border: the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and the Swiss canton of Valais.

On the Italian side, the Aosta Valley is the smallest region in the country, 3,260.9³ square kilometers with 74 comuni and no provinces. Its ground runs from 345³ meters to the top of Mont Blanc, which gives you the scale of the climb from the valley floor.

Plan the Italian approach region by region. The massif is one mountain on the map and two regional administrations on the ground, each with its own valleys, lifts and rules.

Monte Rosa and the Cervino

The Cervino, the other famous border peak of the Aosta Valley, is lower at 4,478⁴ meters.

In the data they are different kinds of mountain: one summit and one height for the Cervino, and for Monte Rosa a whole massif of summits and glaciers. See the Cervino, the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and mountains in Italy.

What isn't on this page

No lift timetable is published for the Italian valleys in the sources used here, and no ski pass price either.

The access routes from Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, and the season of the huts, are logged as gaps for the next round of research.

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