Dents du Midi

The Dents du Midi (French: "The Teeth of the South") is a mountain situated in the Chablais Alps, in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is composed of seven distinct summits and reaches a height of 3,257 metres (10,686 feet). Dominating the Val-d'Illiez and the Rhône Valley, to the south it face the Lac de Salanfe, an artificial reservoir. Geologically it makes up a part of the massif Haut-Giffre.

The seven peaks

The "Dents", or "Teeth" are, from east to west:

• La Cime de l'Est (3178 metres, 10,426.51 feet)
• La Forteresse (3164 m, 10,380.58 ft)
• La Cathédrale (3160 m, 10,367.45 ft)
• L'Éperon (3114 m, 10,216.54 ft)
• Dent Jaune (3186 m, 10,452.76 ft)
• Les Doigts (3205 m, 10,515.09 ft and 3210 m, 10,531.50 ft) or Doigts de Salanfe
• La Haute Cime (3257 m, 10,685.70 ft)

Landslide

On the morning of October 30 2006, a mass of 1,000,000 m³ (35,300,000 ft³) of rocks detached themselves from the side of the Haute Cime and fell down the side to an altitude of about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) The event did not pose any danger for the nearby town of Val-d'Illiez but roads and footpaths were closed as a security measure. According to the geologists of the canton, the landslide was caused by thawing, assisted by the hot summers of the preceding years.

Origin of the name

The name "Dents du Midi" is of relatively recent origin. The native inhabitants originally used to call them the "Teeth of Tsallen". It was only towards the end of the 20th century that the current name came into use.

Each peak, or "tooth", has had several names over the centuries:

• La Cime de l'Est (Summit of the East) was called Mont de Novierre before approximately the seventeenth century, then Mont Saint Michel after the landslides of 1635 and 1636, and finally Dent Noire (Black Tooth) till the 19th century.
• Dent Jaune (The Yellow Tooth) was called the Dent Rouge (Red Tooth) until 1879.
• Les Doigts (The Fingers) were called Le Doigt de Champéry (The Finger of Champéry, 1882) then Le Doigt de Salanfe (The Finger of Salanfe, 1886) before finally just Les Doigts.
• La Haute Cime (The High Summit) also had several names: Dent de l’Ouest (Tooth of the West, 1784), Dent du Midi (Tooth of Noon), Dent de Tsallen (Tooth of Tsallen), and Dent de Challent (Tooth of Challent).

L’Éperon

Several ruptures in the massif have changed the form of the peaks so much that the names adapted themselves according to the geological evolution. L’Éperon (The Spur), for example, has no more two summits, since a landslide in the Middle Ages significantly changed this peak.

First ascents

Name of peak	Date of first ascent	Climber(s)
Cime de l'Est	16 August 1842	Nicolaz Delez
Forteresse	7 June 1870	E. Javelle and J. Oberhauser
La Cathédrale	1890	Nicolas Delez
L'Éperon	?	?
La Dent Jaune	24 August 1879	?
Les Doigts	?	?
La Haute Cime	1784	Jean-Maurice Clément

External links

• The Dents du Midi on SummitPost
• Pictures of Dents du Midi (taken from the village of Champery)