Two-thousanders are

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s that have a height of at least 2,000

metres above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

, but less than 3,000 metres. The term is used in Alpine circles, especially in Europe (e.g. German: ''Zweitausender''). The two photographs show two typical two-thousanders in the Alps that illustrate different types of mountain. The Säuling (top) is a prominent, individual peak, whereas the Schneeberg (bottom) is an elongated limestone massif. In ranges like the

Allgäu Alps The Allgäu Alps () are a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps, located on the Austria–Germany border, which covers parts of the Germany, German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and the Austrian states of Tyrol (state), Tyrol an ...

, the Gesäuse or the Styrian-Lower Austrian Limestone Alps the mountain tour descriptions for

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

s or hikers commonly include the two-thousanders, especially in areas where only a few summits exceed this level. Examples from these regions of the

Eastern Alps The Eastern Alps are usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley, up to the Splügen Pass at the Main chain of the Alps, Alpine divide, and down the Liro (Como), Liro River to Lake Como in the south. ...

are: * the striking Nebelhorn (2,224 m) near Oberstdorf or the Säuling (2,047 m) near Neuschwanstein, * the Admonter Reichenstein (2,251 m), Eisenerzer Reichenstein (2,165 m), Großer Pyhrgas (2,244 m) or Hochtor (2,369 m), * the

Hochschwab The Hochschwab in the Upper Styria is a mountain, , and the highest summit in the eponymous mountain range. Location The summit of the Hochschwab is a flat, rock and grass-covered dome, that may easily be climbed from the Schiestlhaus () to ...

(2,277 m) and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

's local mountains, the Schneeberg (2,076 m) and the Rax (2,007 m). The last-mentioned two are also the easternmost two-thousanders in the Alps, before their foothills descend to the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

and into the

Pannonian Plain The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...

. Analogous examples may also be found in the

Western Alps The Western Alps are the western part of the Alps, Alpine Range including the southeastern part of France (e.g. Savoie), the whole of Monaco, the northwestern part of Italy (i.e. Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) and the southwestern part of Switzer ...

, but are rarer as the peaks are generally higher. In the

, two-thousanders dominate large regions of highland, for example in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

(including mountains in the

High Tatra The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains (; ; ,'' Vysoki Tatry''; ; ), are a mountain range along the border of northern Slovakia in the Prešov Region, and southern Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. They are a range of the Tatra Mountains ...

Beskids The Beskids or Beskid Mountains (, , , (), ()) are a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west along the border of Poland with Slovakia up to Ukraine in the east. The highest mountain in the Be ...

and

Low Tatra The Low Tatras or Low Tatra (; ) is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia. It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Váh and Poprad rivers (the Liptov-Spiš ...

). There are no mountains in the UK that reach 2,000 metres. However the term is sometimes used there to refer to mountains over 2,000 ''feet'' in height.Nuttall, John and Nuttall, Anne (2009). ''The Mountains of England and Wales: Vol 1 Wales'', 3rd ed., Cicerone, p. 98. .

References

{{Reflist Mountains by height Oronyms

See also

References