The Schesaplana () is the highest

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 ...

in the

Rätikon The Rätikon is a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps, located at the border between Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein and Canton of Grisons, Graubünden. It is the geological border between the Eastern Alps, Eastern and Western Alps and stretch ...

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

at the border between

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and Graubünden,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of . On the north side of the Schesaplana is a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

called '' Brandner Gletscher''. To the east is the

Lünersee Lüner Lake (German language, German ''Lünersee'') is a large lake near the town of Bludenz in Vorarlberg, Austria. The lake's depth was raised by 72 metres by the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 1958. The dam supplies water to four local ...

. It is possible to reach the summit on various routes during a hike, making it useful for a multiday trek between the mountain huts in the area. A more horizontal trek is following the whole of the Rätikon chain along its southern face, called "

Prättigau The Prättigau is a geographical region in the canton of Grisons, Switzerland. It consists of the main valley of the river Landquart and the valleys of its side-rivers and creeks. Landquart River, which drains into the Alpine Rhine in the town ...

er Höhenweg". File:360° vom Schesaplana-Massiv.jpg, Panoramic view over the massif of the Schesaplana

In literature

The Schesaplana is one of two mountains named in

Johanna Spyri Spyri (; ; 12 June 1827 – 7 July 1901) was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories. She wrote the popular book ''Heidi''. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zürich, as a child she spent several summers near Chur i ...

's 1881 novel ''

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published between 1880 and 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' () and ''Heidi: How She Used What She Learned'' ( ...

''. The title character describes them to her grandfather after having seen them both from the meadow where the goats are taken daily to graze, and he tells her their names. The other mountain is the Falknis, some 11 km away to the west.

Paleontology

Between 1976 and 1990 a team of scientists mapping the Kössen Formation of Canton Grisons excavated a series of fossil remains on the Schesaplana's southern slope. In April 2022 researchers announced that the fragments represent three

ichthyosaurs Ichthyosauria is an taxonomy (biology), order of large extinction, extinct marine reptiles sometimes referred to as "ichthyosaurs", although the term is also used for wider clades in which the order resides. Ichthyosaurians thrived during much of ...

. The discovery also included the largest ichthyosaur tooth ever found.

References

External links

Schesaplana on Summitpost

Schesaplana on kamdoalp.cz - Hike description, Photos, GPX file to download (en)

Schesaplana on kamdoalp.cz - Peak, Photo, Map, Position, Nearest other peaks (en)
Mountains of Vorarlberg Mountains of Graubünden Mountains of the Alps Austria–Switzerland border International mountains of Europe Mountains of Switzerland Two-thousanders of Switzerland Seewis im Prättigau {{Graubünden-mountain-stub

In literature

Paleontology

See also

References

External links