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The Alps

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Description:They stretch across the heart of Europe, from Nice to Vienna, covering half a dozen countries with a fantastic chaos of roc and ice, trapping the turbulent waters of a host of rivers to form spectacular lakes. They are the watershed of Western Europe. Moreover they separate two climatic zones - north and south. They could even be said to be the frontier between two worlds, the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin.The remark is also true when we consider Europe in the other direction: in the west of the influence of the Atlantic reaches far inland, while the east has a continental climate, the warm air off the Hungarian plains.The Alps...Voltaire called them "those haughty mountains which weigh down upon hell, and split the heavens". They were long thought of as a frightful place, into which travelers ventured only at their peril, the realm of death and silence. But there is life hidden among the ice and snow. Hardy shoots of vegetation cling to the rocky crags at great altitude; grass waves in the wind at the rim of huge abysses. Then we come down to the enormous pastures, strewn with wild flowers such as gentian, and the great coniferous forests, with their endless interplay of light and shade.The Alps are, with the wealth of their diversity, the quintessential mountain range, forever associated with mountain climbing, to which they have contributed, inter alia, a synonym - alpinism. These awesome mountains are also sublime sources of passions which vary quite as much as the rocky peaks themselves. For the mountain climbers they signify action: the view from the top is worth less than the feeling of accomplishment. Staying there for another hour adds nothing to the experience. High mountains tend to overwhelm thought, leaving in fettered and earthbound.At this frontier between the mineral and living world - one in which the mineral element lives - we see the truth in Rousseau's remark: "High in the mountains, meditation takes on a grandiose and sublime character...a curious tranquil desire wholly lacking in sensuality and pungency". This "tranquil desire" is attuned to the gentle pace of the mountain walker. The kind of thrills which inspire the skier racing down the icy slopes are very different indeed. Whatever the country, the region or the altitude, the Alps offer a greater wealth of delights than one could hope to find in any other mountain range.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Alps. To get started finding The Alps, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: —

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: Minerva

Release: 1983

ISBN: 0517402890

Description: They stretch across the heart of Europe, from Nice to Vienna, covering half a dozen countries with a fantastic chaos of roc and ice, trapping the turbulent waters of a host of rivers to form spectacular lakes. They are the watershed of Western Europe. Moreover they separate two climatic zones - north and south. They could even be said to be the frontier between two worlds, the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin.The remark is also true when we consider Europe in the other direction: in the west of the influence of the Atlantic reaches far inland, while the east has a continental climate, the warm air off the Hungarian plains.The Alps...Voltaire called them "those haughty mountains which weigh down upon hell, and split the heavens". They were long thought of as a frightful place, into which travelers ventured only at their peril, the realm of death and silence. But there is life hidden among the ice and snow. Hardy shoots of vegetation cling to the rocky crags at great altitude; grass waves in the wind at the rim of huge abysses. Then we come down to the enormous pastures, strewn with wild flowers such as gentian, and the great coniferous forests, with their endless interplay of light and shade.The Alps are, with the wealth of their diversity, the quintessential mountain range, forever associated with mountain climbing, to which they have contributed, inter alia, a synonym - alpinism. These awesome mountains are also sublime sources of passions which vary quite as much as the rocky peaks themselves. For the mountain climbers they signify action: the view from the top is worth less than the feeling of accomplishment. Staying there for another hour adds nothing to the experience. High mountains tend to overwhelm thought, leaving in fettered and earthbound.At this frontier between the mineral and living world - one in which the mineral element lives - we see the truth in Rousseau's remark: "High in the mountains, meditation takes on a grandiose and sublime character...a curious tranquil desire wholly lacking in sensuality and pungency". This "tranquil desire" is attuned to the gentle pace of the mountain walker. The kind of thrills which inspire the skier racing down the icy slopes are very different indeed. Whatever the country, the region or the altitude, the Alps offer a greater wealth of delights than one could hope to find in any other mountain range.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Alps. To get started finding The Alps, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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The Alps

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