Читать книгу Canyoning in the Alps. Graded routes in Northern Italy and Ticino, Austria, Slovenia and the Valais Alps онлайн

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Just east of Piz Badile is Piz Bernina, one of the most celebrated mountaineering peaks in the eastern Alps. Its southern slopes are formed of a distinct grouping of rocks that includes basalt, gabbro and serpentinite. These rocky assemblages are common throughout the Alps. Termed ‘ophiolites’ in the early 19th century (a word derived from the Greek for snake-stone), it would be another 100 years before their significance was understood. They are now believed to be fragments of the ancient ocean crust, scraped off as they dipped beneath the advancing Italian plate. Serpentinite, derived from the deepest layer, is the most significant from a canyoner’s perspective. It has a mottled greenish tinge and waxy polished surfaces similar to soapstone (to which it is closely related). Serpentinite canyons are extremely rare. Perhaps the best known is Cormor on the flanks of Piz Bernina, famous for its sculpted cave-like passages, almost totally devoid of light. There is nowhere else in Europe like it.