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Bernese Alps

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Also known as Berner Alpen

part of the Alps mountain range in Switzerland

Key facts

Peak
Finsteraarhorn
Elevation
4,274 m (14,022 ft)
Listing
Mountains of the Alps over 4000 m
Coordinates
46°32′19″N 8°07′38″E / 46.53861°N 8.12722°E / 46.53861; 8.12722
Native name
German : Berner Alpen French : Alpes bernoises
Country
Switzerland
Cantons
Bern Vaud Fribourg Valais
Parent range
Western Alps
Borders on
Chablais Alps Pennine Alps Lepontine Alps Uri Alps Emmental Alps
Topo map
Swiss Federal Office of Topography swisstopo

via Wikipedia infobox

~8 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps located in western Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Fribourg and Vaud, the latter being usually named Fribourg Alps and Vaud Alps respectively. The highest mountain in the range, the Finsteraarhorn, is also the highest point in the canton of Bern.

The Rhône valley separates them from the Chablais Alps in the west and from the Pennine Alps in the south; the upper Rhône valley separates them from the Lepontine Alps to the southeast; the Grimsel Pass and the Aare valley separates them from the Uri Alps in the east, and from the Emmental Alps in the north; their northwestern edge is not well defined, describing a line roughly from Lake Geneva to Lake Thun. The Bernese Alps are drained by the river Aare and its tributary the Saane in the north, the Rhône in the south, and the Reuss in the east.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Bernese Alps” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

2 mapped locations