Eastern Alps

Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley up to the Splügen Pass at the Alpine divide and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the south. The peaks and mountain passes are lower than the Western Alps, while the range itself is broader and less arched. The Eastern Alps include the eastern parts of Switzerland (mainly Graubünden), all of Liechtenstein, and most of Austria from Vorarlberg to the east, as well as parts of extreme Southern Germany (Upper Bavaria), northwestern Italy (Lombardy), northeastern Italy (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and a good portion of northern Slovenia (Upper Carniola and Lower Styria). In the south the range is bound by the Italian Padan Plain; in the north the valley of the Danube River separates it from the Bohemian Massif. The easternmost spur is formed by the Vienna Woods range, with the Leopoldsberg overlooking the Danube and the Vienna basin, which is the transition zone to the arch of the Carpathian Mountains. The highest mountain in the Eastern Alps is Piz Bernina at in the Bernina Group of the Western Rhaetian Alps in Switzerland. The sole four-thousander of the range, its name is taken from the Bernina Pass and was given in 1850 by Johann Coaz, who also made the first ascent. The rocks composing Piz Bernina are diorites and gabbros, while the massif in general is composed of granites (Piz Corvatsch, Piz Palü). Excepting other peaks in the Bernina range, the next highest is the Ortler at in Italian South Tyrol and third the Großglockner, which stands on the border of Carinthia & East Tyrol in Austria, at , the highest mountain of Austria. The region around the Großglockner and the adjacent Pasterze Glacier has been a special protection area within the High Tauern National Park since 1986. Other high Tyrolian mountains include Königspitze (3,851 m), Monte Cevedale (3,769 m), and Wildspitze (3,768 m).