Dent Blanche

The Dent Blanche is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, lying in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. With its 4,357 metres -high summit, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps.
The original name was probably Dent d'Hérens, the actual name of the nearby Dent d'Hérens which does not overlook the Val d'Hérens. The nearby north face of the Dent d'Hérens is glaciated while the Dent Blanche holds much less snow, it was even called Dent Noire on the Woerl Atlas of 1842. In fact on older maps, in the area where lie both summits, only the name Weisszahnhorn was indicated, the French name appearing in 1820 only. Because cartographers usually made their observations far away from the mountainous remote areas and also because the Dent d'Hérens is sometime hidden behind the Dent Blanche thus less visible, the latter received the name. The inhabitants of the lower Val d'Hérens called the actual Dent d'Hérens, Dent Blanche, but the ones of the upper Val d'Hérens called the mountain, Dent de Rong or Dent d'Erins, contributing to the general confusion. The actual names are official since the completion of the Dufour map in 1862.

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