The pass runs northeast-southwest through the Valais Alps at an elevation of . From the north (Switzerland), the route to the pass follows the Dranse River valley above Martigny, then into the wild and desolate valley of the Dranse d'Entremont. The Great St Bernard Tunnel (and the main road) plunges through the mountains at the level; after the construction of the Simplon Tunnel further east in 1905, railroad traffic partly superseded the St Bernard road. The much smaller historic road winding over the pass itself, which is part of the Swiss border with Italy is only passable June to September. On the south side of the pass, the Great St Bernard Valley is drained by the Artanavaz River, which runs down to Aosta.
Just below the pass is a small lake, and several buildings making up the hospice straddle the pass itself. The old road may still be seen, above the paved road. The minor peaks Mont Mort and Pic de Drona flank the pass. The elevation is such that snow may keep the pass closed until June, and indeed the motivation for the hospice was to aid travellers overcome by the difficulties of the crossing.
Likewise, the dogs from this area, known as St. Bernards, were bred to be large enough to handle deep snow and to scent out lost persons. It is often said that they carried small casks of brandy around their necks (although this is only legend), in the belief that the liquor had medicinal properties (in reality, the effect would have been more psychological than physiological, as alcohol increases the rate of heat loss in people suffering from hypothermia).
External links
- Elevation Profile of Swiss and Italian Side
- Profile of Italy Side on climbbybike.com
- History of Great St Bernard Pass
- Aerial views of the pass
- Adrian Fletcher’s pass photos
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday July 10, 2008 at 10:46:00 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.