Mount Stanley (Ruwenzori)

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Mount Stanley
Mount Stanley v. l. No. Savoia Peak, Elena Peak, Moebius Peak, Alexandra Peak, Margherita Peak

Mount Stanley
v. l. No. Savoia Peak, Elena Peak, Moebius Peak, Alexandra Peak, Margherita Peak

height 5109  m
location DR Congo and Uganda in East Africa
Mountains Ruwenzori Mountains
Dominance 829.87 km →  Mount Kenya
Coordinates 0 ° 23 '12 "  N , 29 ° 52' 21"  E Coordinates: 0 ° 23 '12 "  N , 29 ° 52' 21"  E
Mount Stanley (Ruwenzori) (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Mount Stanley (Ruwenzori)
First ascent 1906
Ludwig Amadeus of Savoy
particularities third highest mountain in Africa
pd3

The Mount Stanley (Congo Monts Stanley ) is a mountain range in the Rwenzori Mountains . With the 5109  m (16,763 ft) high Margherita Peak , it is the highest mountain in both the Congo and Uganda . After Kilimanjaro ( 5895  m ) and Mount Kenya ( 5199  m ), it is the third highest mountain in Africa and the highest, which is not of volcanic origin. It is one of the few mountains in Africa that is partially glaciated . Mount Stanley is named after the journalist and explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley named and part of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park and UNESCO - World Heritage .

geography

Mount Stanley is located in the wooded and partly glaciated Ruwenzori Mountains about 40 km north of the equator and is part of the elongated East African rift valley between Lake Albert in the north and Lake Eduard in the south.

Landscape image

Although Mount Stanley is located in hot tropical regions, it is heavily glaciated from around 4800  m . In addition to these glaciers, there are firn and snow fields from which mountain rivers arise - u. a. one of the sources of the Nile is in the Ruwenzori. On its slopes are larger mountain lakes and extremely lush vegetation , which in its deeper regions on the Congolese side changes into primary tropical rainforest , on the Ugandan side the base of the mountain is in plant-rich high valleys.

Glaciation

The total area of ​​the glaciers in Ruwenzori, which was 6.5 square kilometers when it was first explored a hundred years ago, is steadily declining due to global warming . Today it measures only around half a square kilometer. It should be noted, however, that the information to be found in the literature often differs greatly from one another. The glaciers are currently shrinking by several dozen meters per year due to continuously rising temperatures. The equilibrium line was below 4500  m until around 1900 , at around 4600  m in 1955 and at least 100 meters higher today. The largest glacier in the Stanley Mountains is the so-called Stanley Plateau - a flat, glaciated area at around 4800  m , from which almost all the higher peaks of the mountain range protrude; only Margherita Peak and Albert Peak are separated by a small saddle to the north.

In 1955 there were still 42 glaciers counted in Ruwenzori, in 1988 there were only 30. Today only the Stanley Mountains are extensively glaciated, all other massifs have smaller ice fields. Mount Gessi and Mount Emin , which were still heavily glaciated around the beginning of the 20th century, are already considered completely ice-free today. Scientists reckon that the glaciers will have completely disappeared within twenty years.

summit

Summit construction of Alexandra and Margherita Peak
Ornithologist James P. Chapin on a Rwenzori expedition, 1925

The Stanley Mountains consist of three main peaks and several lower peaks:

summit height Namesake
Margherita Peak 5109  m Margherita di Savoia , Queen of Italy.
Alexandra lace 5091  m Alexandra of Denmark , wife of the British King Edward VII.
Albert tip 5087  m Albert I , King of Belgium.
Savoia tip 4977  m House of Savoy , Italian royal family.
Elena tip 4968  m Elena of Montenegro , Queen of Italy
Elizabeth 4929  m
Phillip 4920  m
Moebius tip 4916  m August Ferdinand Möbius , German mathematician and astronomer.
Big Tooth (KitaSamba) 4603  m

First ascent

In 1889 Stanley passed the western foot of the mountains, the expedition participant William Grant Stairs penetrated to an altitude of about 3200  m . In 1891 Emin Pascha reached an altitude of almost 4000  m . In the years that followed, numerous other researchers, including Jean Jacques David in 1904 and Rudolf Grauer in 1906, reached ever greater heights.

The first ascent of Mount Stanley took place in 1906 by the Italian explorer Ludwig Amadeus von Savoyen , J. Petigax, C. Ollier and J. Brocherel . The Pic Marguerite is named after Queen Margaret of Italy .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mount Stanley, Congo DRC / Uganda on Peakbagger.com (English)
  2. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center
  3. ↑ Rwenzori Mountains on SummitPost.org
  4. ↑ Bernd Noggler, Modern Glacier Fluctuations on the Ruwenzori - East Africa , p. 55
  5. ↑ Bernd Noggler, Modern Glacier Fluctuations on the Ruwenzori - East Africa , p. 48
  6. ↑ Ludwig Amadeus of Savoy, Duke of Abruzzo: The Ruwenzori. Exploration and first ascent of its highest peaks . Ed .: Dr. F. de Filippi. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1909.
  7. ↑ Peter Bridges: A Prince of Climbers . In: Virginia Quarterly Review . Volume 76, Winter 2000, December 12, 2003, pp. 38–51 ( online [accessed December 3, 2014]).