The Alpine Clubs divide the Eastern Alps into four regions which, in turn, are subdivided into mountain groups. The four regions are the Northern, Central, Southern, and Western (Eastern) Alps. With 27 groups each the Northern and Central regions of the Eastern Alps form the greater part of the Eastern Alps. There are 15 groups in the Southern Eastern Alps and six in the Western Eastern Alps.
The Eastern Alps lie on the territories of six countries: Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia. Austria has the largest share with 57 mountain groups within its borders. It is followed by Italy with 23 and Switzerland with ten. There are 7 mountain groups In Germany and 4 in Slovenia. Liechtenstein share part of one group.
The only four-thousander and highest mountain of the Eastern Alps is the Piz Bernina at 4,049m. The Bernina Group is thus the highest of all the Eastern Alpine groups. Next come the Ortler Alps with the Ortler (3,905m) as the highest peak in South Tyrol. The third-highest group is the Glockner Group with the highest summit in Austria: the Großglockner (3,798m). Another 22 groups reach a height of over 3,000 metres. The only group in the Northern Eastern Alps with a three thousander is the Lechtal Alps with its Parseierspitze (3,036m). Another 39 groups are over 2,000 metres high. Several of the groups exceed 1,000 metres and only one lies below this level: the Vienna Woods. Its highest mountain, the Schöpfl, is only 893m high.
Legend
AVE No.: the numbering of the group based on the Alpine Club classification (AVE). Numbers suffixed with lower case letters are groups that were further subdivided in 1984. These groups were part of a single unit before 1984.
Name: name of the mountain group. Where names comprise two groups and where there are 2 articles in Wikipedia, both are shown.
Map: Location map of the group in the Eastern Alps
Location: the region within with the group falls
Country: the country or countries within whose territory the mountain group lies. The country listed first is the one that contains the largest area of the mountain group.
Highest mountain: name of the highest mountain in the group. If a group comprises two subgroups, the highest peak of both groups are named. The higher mountain is listed first.
1 In 1984, counted as part of the Dolomites (52) and the Southern Carnic Alps (57b).
2 Regions that do not describe the Eastern Alps. The AVE number was used by the German and Austrian Alpine Clubs in the sorting key of their hut guides.
Literature
Franz Graßler: Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps (AVE). In: DAV, OeAV, AVS (ed.): Berg '84. Alpine Club Yearbook, Vol. 108, 1984, pp.215–224,
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.
The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range. The Alps are something of an unusual case in that several significant groups of mountains are separated from the main chain by sizable distances. Among these groups are the Dauphine Alps, the Eastern and Western Graians, the entire Bernese Alps, the Tödi, Albula and Silvretta groups, the Ortler and Adamello ranges, and the Dolomites of South Tyrol, as well as the lower Alps of Vorarlberg, Bavaria, and Salzburg.
The Bavarian Alps is a collective name for several mountain ranges of the Northern Limestone Alps within the German state of Bavaria.
The Southern Limestone Alps, also called the Southern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps south of the Central Eastern Alps mainly located in northern Italy and the adjacent lands of Austria and Slovenia. The distinction from the Central Alps, where the higher peaks are located, is based on differences in geological composition. The Southern Limestone Alps extend from the Sobretta-Gavia range in Lombardy in the west to the Pohorje in Slovenia in the east.
The Central Eastern Alps, also referred to as Austrian Central Alps or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent regions of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and Slovenia. South them is the Southern Limestone Alps.
The Rhaetian Alps are a mountain range of the Eastern Alps. The SOIUSA classification system divides them into the Western and Eastern Rhaetian Alps, while the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps places most of the Rhaetian subranges within the Western Limestone Alps.
The Alps form a large mountain range dominating Central Europe, including parts of Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Germany and Hungary.
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 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 Limestone Alps are sub-mountain range of the Alps in Central Europe.
SOIUSA is a proposal for a new classification system of the Alps from the geographic and toponomastic point of view. It was designed by Sergio Marazzi, Italian researcher and author of the Orographic Atlas of the Alps SOIUSA. His book was presented with the patronage of the Italian Alpine Club on 23 Jan 2006, but has yet to receive any formal acceptance.
The Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps is a common division of the Eastern Alps into 75 mountain ranges, based on the Moriggl Classification (ME) first published in 1924 by the German and Austrian Alpine Club. The present-day division established for the German-speaking world was compiled by the German, Austrian and South Tyrol Alpine Clubs and published in 1984 and is also used for the basic numbering of Alpine Club maps for mountaineering.
The Western Rhaetian Alps are a mountain range in the central part of the Alps.
Three-thousanders are mountains with a height of between 3,000 metres (9,800 ft), but less than 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above sea level. Similar terms are commonly used for mountains of other height brackets e. g. four-thousanders or eight-thousanders. In Britain, the term may refer to mountains above 3,000 feet (910 m).
The Villgraten Mountains or Deferegg Alps, also called the Defreggen Mountains are a subgroup of the Austrian Central Alps within the Eastern Alps of Europe. Together with the Ankogel Group, the Goldberg Group, the Glockner Group, the Schober Group, the Kreuzeck Group, the Granatspitze Group, the Venediger Group and the Rieserferner Group, the Villgraten Mountains are part of the major mountain range, the High Tauern. Their highest summit is the Weiße Spitze with a height of 2,962 m above sea level (AA).
The Partizione delle Alpi is a classification of the mountain ranges of the Alps, that is primarily used in Italian literature, but also in France and Switzerland. It was devised in 1926.
The Gailtal Alps, is a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps in Austria. It rises between the River Drava (Drau) and the Gail valley and through the southern part of East Tyrol. Its western group called "Lienz Dolomites", is sometimes counted as part of this range and sometimes seen as separate.
The Sobretta-Gavia Group is a mountain massif that extends between the upper Veltlin and the upper Valcamonica in the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Brescia.
The Bellunes Alps is the now obsolete name of a mountain range on the southern edge of the Eastern Alps.
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