, photo= Castor Pollux.jpg , photo_size= 285 , photo_caption= Pollux (right) and Castor (left), from the

Grenzgletscher The Gorner Glacier (german: Gornergletscher) is a valley glacier found on the west side of the Monte Rosa massif close to Zermatt in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is about long (2014) and wide. The entire glacial area of the glacier rela ...

( en, Border Glacier) , elevation_m= 4092 , elevation_ref= , prominence_m= 247 , prominence_ref= , parent_peak=

Dufourspitze , it, Punta Dufour, rm, Piz da Dufour , translation = Peak Dufour, Highest Peak, Large Horn , photo = Monte Rosa summit.jpg , photo_size = , photo_caption = From the peak to the southeast towards Italy, the Dunantspi ...

, map= Alps , map_caption= Location in the Alps , topo_map= Swiss Federal Office of Topography swisstopo , location= On the Italian (

Aosta Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of ...

) – Swiss (

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...

) border , country_type= Countries , country= , parent=

Pennine Alps The Pennine Alps (german: Walliser Alpen, french: Alpes valaisannes, it, Alpi Pennine, la, Alpes Poeninae), also known as the Valais Alps, are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. They are located in Switzerland (Valais) and Italy ...

, coordinates= , range_coordinates= , first_ascent= 1 August 1864 by Jules Jacot with guides Josef-Marie Perren and

Peter Taugwalder Peter Taugwalder (4 April 1820 – 10 July 1888) was a Swiss mountaineer and guide. Along with his son of the same name, Taugwalder was one of seven men that made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in July 1865. He was also one of the three men th ...

(father) , easiest_route= South-east ridge (passages of UIAA I+) Pollux ( it, Polluce) is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

in the

on the border between

, Switzerland and the

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is the lower of a pair of twin peaks (german: Zwillinge), the other being Castor, named after the

Gemini twins Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the North ...

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

. Pollux' peak is at an elevation of . It is separated from Castor by a pass at , named ''Passo di Verra'' in Italian, ''Col de Verra'' in French and ''Zwillingsjoch'' in German. The first ascent was by Jules Jacot from Geneva with guides Josef-Marie Perren and Peter Taugwalder (father) on August 1 (the Swiss national day) 1864. Their route was via the Schwarztor, a pass first crossed by John Ball and Gabriel Zumtaugwald in 1845. The impressive north ridge was first climbed by Captain

John Percy Farrar Captain John Percy Farrar (25 December 1857 – 18 February 1929), also known as Percy Farrar and as J. P. Farrar, was an English soldier and mountaineer. He was President of the Alpine Club from 1917 to 1919 and a member of the Mount Everest C ...

(a future President of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...

) and Wylie Lloyd with guide Josef Pollinger of St. Niklaus in the canton Valais on 18 August 1893. Ascents are usually made from the Refuge Ottorino Mezzalama (3,036 m), the Monte Rosa hut (2,795 m); if traversing the peaks via Pollux's north ridge, PD+, the Refuge Quintino Sella au Félik (3,585 m), and the Rossi-Volante bivouac hut (3,850 m). The first winter and ski ascent of Pollux was by Dr Alfred von Martin and Karl Planck on 7 March 1913.

References

* Collomb, Robin G., (ed.), ''Pennine Alps Central'', London: Alpine Club, 1975 * Dumler, Helmut and Willi P. Burkhardt, ''The High Mountains of the Alps'', London: Diadem, 1994. (Dumler gives Pollux's elevation as 4,091 m.)

External links

Pollux on SummitPost

Photo essay on climbing and skiing Pollux in April 2008
Alpine four-thousanders Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Italy Mountains of Valais Pennine Alps Italy–Switzerland border International mountains of Europe Mountains of Switzerland Four-thousanders of Switzerland {{Aosta-mountain-stub

See also

References

External links