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Alps_National Geographic magazine 2/2006 99 images Created 1 Apr 2021

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  • Morning fog rises from craggy mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn. The Alps range formed when two tectonic plates of Africa dn Eurasia slowly collided millions of years ago creating some of highest peaks in Europe.<br />
Rugged Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn in the background.
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  • Synthetic blankets cover a Pitztal Glacial ski slope in an attempt to absorb the sun and reduce snow melt.  Such drastic measures to save the Alps' retreating glaciers may prove futile. If current temperatures trends hold according to climate scientists, half the Alpine ice will be gone by 2050 and two thirds melted by 2100.<br />
Loss of alpine glaciers would alter the region’s ecology–not to mention its economy. Workers are hired to cover the snow pack with a fleece blanket seems equivalent to putting a band-aid on a glacier.
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  • A father and son head to an early morning parade for a Carnival type festival celebrated every five years in spring when light wins over darkness in the mountains. Ancient Pagan traditions and festivals such as Schleicherlaufen  are held in the Tyrol where the Savages wear grotesque masks and costumes of moss, representing winter. Men go into the woods nearby Telfs and collect lichen while wives and mothers sew it onto clothing creating "wild ones" for the festival.
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  • Children wearing sunglasses and designer outfits prepare back stage for a charity fashion show in the exclusive, glamorous resort town of St. Moritz. The ritzy, Alpine resort town is located in the Engadine in Switzerland.
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  • A village farm woman takes a break from raking hay with her nephew on the family farm in the community of ethnic Ladin culture that so isolated, the mountain people speak Italian and German but have retained their own language. Generations remain in LaVal, choosing a simple life for its richness and connection to the land.
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  • Miners traveled underground in Idrija, Slovenia for 500 years to mine mercury.  Now with little need for the metal, the mine closed leaving an environmental nightmare. A small crew works to fill in the tunnels to keep heavy metals run off from polluting groundwater. Men take showers after their shift and hang their clothes on hooks.
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  • Over 700 children carry hundred year old candle-lit lanterns made of canvas as they walk through the streets on Good Friday of Holy Week. The Christian celebration in Mendrisio dates back to the 17th century.
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  • A farmer splits logs for firewood to heat the farm through winter in an Alpine rural village of LaVal in the Dolomite mountains in Italy.
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  • Bachelors in a small rural village of 65 people make a small parade as they continue the region's traditional Carnival celebration. Dressing for a Pagan wedding, unmarried men march ceremoniously from house to house, then families invite them inside for food and spirits as they celebrate the end of winter.
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  • Bachelors in a small mountain village don festive costumes and parade house to house to visit neighbors. They gather around the kitchen table to share food, drink and friends' news during the annual, traditional celebration of Carnival that welcomes spring after a long winter. Traditions are important throughout villages in the Slovian Alps.
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  • Slovenians walk along a snow-covered path to a hilltop church near Ljubljana.
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  • Beloved icons, St. Bernard dogs were once indispensable for their abilities to save people buried by avalanches. Although replaced by modern equipment, traditions die hard and the dogs are maintained as a tourist attraction.  200 years ago St Bernard dogs saved 45 of Napoleon’s soldiers buried in an avalanche—the dog was bayoneted to death when one soldier thought he was being attacked by a bear.  St. Bernards are cared for by a foundation in Martigny, France.
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  • Skiers negotiate rocks on the ski runs at Passo Di Sella in the Dolomites where the snow pack melts and annually declines because of warming temperatures. Climate change is warming mountain regions at the lower elevation.
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  • A Ladin family travels to church in LaVal on a horse-drawn sled. The brothers and sister keep to old traditions that include an ethnic language only spoken in the isolated village in the Dolomites. The Church of Santa Barbara is a 15th century Gothic building.
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  • Morning fog rises over a summit cross on Zinalrothorn and other mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn.
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  • Renown ice climber Marco Prezelj tackles an ice candle in Triglav National Park, Slovenia's only national park in the Alps. Frozen waterfalls are a technical challenge and Prezelj explained he listens to the pitch of sound of ice cracking to plan the safest route.
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  • Hairstylist discuss a young model's hairstyle for a charity event fashion show held at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, a luxurious retreat in St. Moritz. The Swiss hotel, internationally known for its glitz and glamour, opened in 1896 and is still<br />
owned and operated by the same Badrutt family, now in their third generation. Funds were being raised to support a local hospital.
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  • A couple shares a milk-and-honey bath in a bathroom lit by candles at a luxury spa in the Alps. Tourists are attracted to unique experiences offered at various, unique resorts.
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  • After a candle-lit bath in milk and honey, a couple is served champagne, then they snuggle down in a straw-filled bed. Luxury spas find unique ways to attract tourists.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to prevent snow from melting. It is a method workers use to combat the effects of climate change and global warming.  Integral to the local economy, ski resorts need protection from higher temperatures that melt the ice.
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  • A nun hangs laundry out to dry in the cloistered convent courtyard at Val Mustair, a world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Founded in the 8th century, it has been home to Benedictine nuns since the 12thCentury.
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  • Dimly lit tunnels through the Alps allow traffic to avoid snow-covered passes.
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  • A farm woman takes a break from baking biscuits and taps on a window to get the attention of her nephew. Ladin village of LaVal is small and the people speak their own ethnic language in this isolated region of the Dolomites. They also speak German and Italian.
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  • Early morning rays of sunlight peek over jagged peaks in the Dolomite Mountains, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems.
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  • Skiers dressed in fashionable clothing wait in a lift line in St. Moritz which has been referred to as "Europe's winter playground."
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  • A Ladin farmer drives a horse-drawn sled on steep hills with small patches of melting snow outside the Dolomites. The community of LaVal remains isolated by geography and the people retained their own ethnic language although they also speak German and Italian.
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  • Winter tourists shop in the posh resort town of Saint Moritz known for it's fashionable, stylish clientele and designer fashions. A hotel pioneer first attracted tourists to the high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland in 1864.
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  • Warm, well-dressed dogs and tourist families wait for a race to begin on frozen Lake Saint Moritz. The Engadine valley hosts winter competitions such as skijoring where a skier is pulled by horses or dogs and a cross country or Nordic skiing marathon race.
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  • A farm worker drives his pickup truck into the field to herd cows to the barn for morning milking in the rural, northern Austria's Alpine region.
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  • Thrill seekers wear dry suits to ice dive in St. Moritz Lake in the Swiss Alps. The Alpine resort town draws visitors year around and is known as a ritzy and glamorous playground for European tourists.
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  • A religious Ladin man reads a newspaper while watching a Catholic funeral on television in the kitchen of his farm house in the Dolomites. The community is close-knit and have a language unique to their region in LaVal in the Italian Alps.
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  • Each Wednesday these friends gather for skiing and homemade wine away from the trendy ski resorts in the Swiss Alps.
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  • As twilight falls on a darkened street scene in Mendrisio, candle-lit banners from the 17th and 18th century glow depicting Christ's passion. Villagers rush home to prepare for a somber processional that flows through the streets celebrating Holy Week.
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  • View of the iconic Matterhorn and surrounding mountains in the Alps.  First ascent of the 14,692-foot mountain was in 1865 although four climbers died on the descent. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Lights blur as traffic in the Mont Blanc Tunnel connects France and Italy in the Alps. First opened in 1965, the more than seven mile cut through Mont Blanc mountain links Chamonix with Courmayeur.
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  • A couple relaxes in a milk-and-honey bath at a luxury spa. They follow this by relaxing with champagne in a bed of straw. Small mountain towns in the Alps reach out creating novel attractions for tourists.
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  • A nun carries the beloved cat through the Convent of Saint John in Mustair, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Founded in the 8th century, it has been home to Benedictine nuns in Switzerland since the 12th Century.
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  • A summit cross depicts a Christian crucifix standing high on a peak in the Dolomite Mountains.
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  • Skiers race down the slopes of Sestriere, site of Olympic skiing events near Turin in 2006. Snow flies up as they cut back and forth gliding down the snowy downhill path. The resort was first built in the 1930s by the Agnelli family founders of FIAT, and today is one of the largest ski resorts in Italy.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to keep ice from melting and  protect the ski industry in the Alps.<br />
Glacial melts first recorded at the start of the 19th century—a point that also coincides with the start of the industrial age and burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. Since then the glaciers have lost between 30 to 40% of their area and nearly half their volume.  The coverings remind us of little mountains they are creating out of felt.
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  • Colorful buildings line the banks of the Inn River with its source located in the Engadine region of the Swiss Alps. Flowing through Innsbruck, seen here, it eventually enters the Danube  River.
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  • Men and boys dress in white sheep's fur costumes to celebrate Slovenia's traditional version of Carnival. In Ptuj, the oldest town in the Slovenia, they parade ringing bells to scare off evil spirits and chase away winter believed to bring spring and abundance to the land. Kurent is a mythological god of joy and wine and sometimes a creature with a magical instrument who persuades people to dance.
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  • Spring Carnival paraders in Cerkno dress in costumes to celebrate Laufarija. There are 25 different characters wearing costumes--Pust, Ivy Man, Fleece Man and others who convict Pust in a play charging him for all the bad things that happened the past year. The cultural tradition is slightly varied in numerous communities throughout the Alps.
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  • A Laufarija carnival festival participant, Daisy, holds her mask carved from Linden wood. She is one of 25 characters that symbolize the features and weaknesses of particular groups of people. The cultural tradition is an annual play held in the streets to celebrate the coming of spring to Slovenia.
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  • "Wild men" in suits of tree lichen celebrate Schleicherlaufen. It is a similar cultural tradition to Carnival but it is held once every five years in early spring when light wins over darkness of winter. Men collect moss in the woods for weeks before and women in Telfs sew it onto clothing to make the costumes for the parade.
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  • A man boards an icy lift up to Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak in the Wetterstein Mountains. Three glaciers flank the mountain that is just over 9,700 feet high. The first ascent was in 1820, but today cable cars transport skiers and sightseers to the top for a view that is obstructed on snowy white-out on this day.
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  • Snowy winter view of King Ludwig II's Schloss Neuschwanstein Castle. The 19th century palace is perched on rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau in Bavaria. It was intended as a private residence but the King lived there for only 172 days. It was opened to the public shortly after his death. <br />
It is the dreamy inspiration for Cinderellas's Castle in Sleeping Beauty.
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  • Excitement builds as young children gather backstage getting dressed and coiffed for a charity fashion show supporting a local hospital. Saint Moritz is renown as a glamorous resort town attracting stylish tourists.
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  • An evening view of the snow-covered resort town of Sestriere, Italy. Olympic alpine skiing competition was held on the slopes in the Alps during the 2006 competition and now draws tourists to the quiet mountain region.
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  • Tourists mug for a friend's photograph on the streets of Zermatt.<br />
Zermatt grows from 5 thousand to 20 thousand people from tourism in high season.  There is a tension between welcoming the tourists, which drives the economy, and yet limiting the impact.  Zermatt bans cars from the street—visitors take a train or tax from a nearby town and the streets are filled mostly with foot traffic except a few buses.
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  • Twilight falls on the quiet, Ladin village of LaVal in the Dolomites where the church stands high on the hillside. The picturesque community in the Alps depends on agriculture and crafts.
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  • The Ferme family plays traditional music on their Steirische Harmonikas, commonly known as accordions. The patriarch of the family directs the brothers and sister as they rehearse for a competition. Slovenian culture celebrates folk music as part of the Alpine culture.
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  • A child carries a torch with the flame lighting the way during a Good Friday procession at the beginning of the Christians' Holy Week. Parishioners wear clothing of Jews and Romans as they walk through the darkened streets in a Christian celebration that dates back the 17th century.
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  • A blur envelopes a young parishioner who carries a candle-lit canvas lantern in a processional that celebrates Christians' Holy Week. It is a centuries-old annual Mendrisio tradition.
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  • A nun walks through the garden dusted with snow before the planting season begins at Val Mustair, a world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Swiss Alps.  Founded in the 8th century, it has been home to Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century.
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  • Monday is laundry day at Val Mustair as nuns fold a flowered sheet in the convent courtyard. The world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site is in the Swiss Alps. Founded in the 8th century, the Christian convent is home to Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century. Eleven make their home behind closed walls, living a life of commitment to poverty and celibacy. Each nun has her work and they come together for meals and prayer.
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  • Monday is laundry day at Val Mustair.  Nuns working to hang clothes to dry in the sun are reflected in windows overlooking the Christian convent courtyard. A world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded in the 8th century, the convent is home to Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century. Eleven make their home behind closed walls, living a life of commitment to poverty and celibacy. Each nun has her work but they come together for prayer and meals. Eleven of the nuns who live there speak a variation of the Romanche language.
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  • Aerial view of the Dolomites dusted with snow under a setting full moon at sunrise. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks that rise above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems.
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  • Aerial view of morning fog rising from the Dolomites, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbering 18 peaks which rise above 3,000 meters. Jagged ridges  are made of  characteristic rock consisting of fossilized coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.
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  • A worker spreads out cheese cloth while making Alkase cheese in a copper kettle. A signature characteristic of Swiss cheeses is the use of copper. In fact, to be called gruyère, Emmentaler, raclette, or even French Comté, these cheeses must be made using a copper vat because it distributes heat evenly.
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  • Free-roaming goats wander near an alpine restaurant in Austria where tourists hike trails through the Alps green, mountain landscape for a lunch destination.
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  • During Holy Week in Mendrisio, Christians dressed in white robes carry canvas lanterns, some over a hundred years old, The crosses are lit by candles and somberly carried through the streets for a passion play processional.
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  • A veil of vehicle exhaust fogs a valley in Passiria which is an increasing problem in villages between the mountains. The air is trapped under clouds in the Alps producing pollution in this idyllic scene.
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  • Evening bright lights illuminate the town of Martigny, winter home of  St. Bernard dogs of Alps fame. Nestled between the snow-capped mountains in the Alps, it is a junction of roads that join Switzerland with Italy and France.
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  • A Ladin funeral procession seen trough a lace curtained window in a small village of LaVal in the Alps where the people are isolated and speak German and Italian but also Ladin, their own ethnic language.
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  • Wearing a black hat, a sister waits while her brother unhooks a horse from a sled. Some Ladinos choose a simple life in LaVal the Dolomites, a village so isolated that the people there have their own language. In small villages, population continues to drop and older people go unmarried.
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  • A Ladin man collects a pail of water from a cattle trough and traverses carefully across a sheet of ice. Life is hard in rural, isolated villages like LaVal in the Italian Alps.
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  • Schleichers ride in ornately decorated horse-drawn carriages in a parade that is part of a traditional celebration. Schleichers wear masks and elaborate hats that weigh 50 pounds - quite an ordeal to balance.  Hats are passed down generations and stored in museums.
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  • Schleichers don colorful, traditional costumes and masks for the Schleicherlaufen parade held every five years. Schleichers wear masks and elaborate hats that weigh 50 pounds - quite an ordeal to balance.  Hats are passed down generations and stored in museums brought out only for the celebration.
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  • A widow looks forward to the ritual of checking her mailbox daily. Her faithful canine companion Leica waits patiently along the snowy road in the Alps.
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  • A waiter unfolds linen table cloths as he prepares a dining room for the evening in a plush hotel in glitzy, St. Moritz. Badrutt's Palace hotel is an iconic, luxury destination known for amenities and fine service. Huge floral arrangements and framed oil paintings create a formal elegance for tourists.<br />
The ornate Palace hotel opened in 1896 and over the years has welcomed celebrities like Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn and Charlie Chaplin.
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  • A waiter serves tea to guests on a silver tray in the posh Badrutt's Palace Hotel which opened in 1896 and has welcomed celebrities like Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn and Charlie Chaplin. Sant Moritz can be formal and elegant, drawing fashionable tourists.
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  • Red-suited ski instructors gather to play a game of cards before students arrive for morning lessons on the ice.
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  • Japanese tourists view the Matterhorn and pose for photos with the iconic St. Bernard dogs in the Alps. Around two million tourists visit annually to Switzerland's most popular destination nearby Zermatt.
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  • A farmer carries milk cans into the barn twice a day to milk his cows in a Ladin village of LaVal in the Dolomites. Small dairy farms support local economy in mountain regions of northern Italy.
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  • Mother teaches her daughter to cook traditional foods in their family's restaurant in the small Ladin village of LaVal in the Dolomites.
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  • A waiter prepares a dining room by freshening the floral arrangements in a plush hotel in the Swiss Alps. The elegant Badrutt's Palace opened in 1896, and over the years has welcomed tourists and celebrities like Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn and Charlie Chaplin.
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  • Girlfriends cuddle puppies that bring them joy in a family's barn in the Ladin village of LaVal in the Dolomites.
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  • A nun tunes her guitar while her sisters rehearse music in the cloistered Convent St. John in Val Mustair. A UNESCO World Heritage Site founded in the 8th century, it has been home to Christian Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century.
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  • The kitchen counter looks like a still life of oranges, a knife and cutting boards in Convent Saint John in Val Mustair.
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  • A glacier recedes near the Matterhorn leaving ridges and jagged peaks where there was once ice. Much of the iconic mountain was carved away by glacial erosion. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges as drifting morning fog lifts revealing the "White Mountain."  It is the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
It is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786. It is easily accessible because of that, unfortunately claims many climbing deaths annually.
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  • A farm family heads home after working in the fields in LaVal under the vista of the Dolomites.  The mountain cliffs are so steep that no glaciers formed on them. The Alps thrust up when tectonic plates collided between Africa and Eurasia.  The Ladin people living in the mountain region have a close bond with nature and the outdoors.
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  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges. Drifting morning fog lifts revealing the snow-covered White Mountain, the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
The mountain is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786.
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  • Scenic view of the picturesque Ladin village of LaVa in the Italian Dolomite mountains. Perched on the lush green, hillside is 15th century Gothic style Christian Church of Santa Barbara. <br />
The Alps arose as a result of the collision of the African and European tectonic plates, in which the western part of the Tethys Ocean, that was formerly in between the continents, disappeared millions of years ago.
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  • Two nephews watch their uncle milk a cow in the pasture on the farm in a rural area near the Dolomites. The isolated mountain community LaVal has roots in agriculture speak their own ethnic Ladin language.
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  • Two Ladin men share the news over a cup of morning coffee in a restaurant in the village of LaVal in the Dolomites.
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  • Monitoring equipment at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS), an underground nuclear waste disposal research facility.<br />
Located in the Swiss Alps, it was established in 1984 as a centre for underground Research and Development (R&D) supporting a wide range of research projects on the geological disposal of radioactive waste. International partners from Europe, Asia and North America are working together at this unique facility.
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  • Aerial view of some of the 16,000 participants in the Ski Marathon as Nordic skiers trek across frozen upper Engadine valley. The winter event has been hosted since 1969 drawing athletes and tourists to mountain communities around Saint Moritz in the Alps.
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  • Taillights blur as a bus squeezes through building on the narrow streets of the Swiss village of Santa Maria. The charm of the mountain communities draws tourists, but the streets were built long before gas-powered transportation.
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  • Scientists in white lab coats check monitoring equipment at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS), an underground nuclear waste disposal research facility.<br />
Located in the Swiss Alps, it was established in 1984 as a centre for underground Research and Development (R&D) supporting a wide range of research projects on the geological disposal of radioactive waste. International partners from Europe, Asia and North America are working together at this unique facility.
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  • Christians dressed in costume carry crosses through the streets on Holy Week. Night view of a passion play depicting Christ's death.
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  • Children carry canvas lanterns lit by candles in an evening passion play processional. Christian Holy Week is celebrated annual in Mendrisio with this tradition.
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  • Wearing heavy, white fur costumes passed down through generations, carnival revelers stop for a drink in a local establishment. In Ptuj, Slovenia's oldest town, Kurentovanje is a popular festival drawing large crowds who parade in the street ringing large cow bells.
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  • Slovenian townsfolk gather to watch the spring Carnival festival where  revelers are a spectacle wearing white fur suits with large hats as they parade silently except to ring cowbells.
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  • Infrastructure near the Mont Blanc Tunnel connects France and Italy passing 11.6 kilometers under the mountain.<br />
The tunnel connects France and Italy in the Alps and was first opened in 1965. A more than seven mile cut was made through Mont Blanc mountain linking Chamonix with Courmayeur.
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  • Workers ride an elevator up as they come off shift working to seal off a mercury mine. It is a 500 year old problem that has polluted underground water in Idrija and surrounding areas although closed in 1995. It was the second largest in the world. Mercury can be used to extract silver and gold, therefore the silver and gold-rush motivated mercury mining. The mining industry brought science, technological advancements, and industry to this mountainous region but it also created considerable medical problems and health hazard due to its toxicity.
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  • A cross country skier traverses a snowy trail near the train that passes through spectacular Alps scenery negotiating 55 tunnels and 196 bridges.
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  • Street are lit at dusk outside a plush hotel in St. Moritz. Glitzy designer shops attract high-end tourists for a glamorous vacation in the Swiss Alps.
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