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Diego Sahagún wrote:Ejnar, there is no need of BTW, we enjoyed our journey to The Alps (France, Italy and Switzerland) without paying any guide. You had said that we should have been at least three roped

Ejnar Fjerdingstad wrote:
Tell that to Bruno Tibet and other AGW'ers!

Diego Sahagún wrote:Aar: eagle
Haar: hair

Christian why do you say that aar means creek

BTW, Arve is the river wich goes through Chamonix-Mont Blanc but we are translating German to English. Aren't we Even we are talking about Bernese Oberland mountains' name as I said in the topic's title

Diego Sahagún wrote:Aar: eagle
Haar: hair

Christian why do you say that aar means creek

BTW, Arve is the river wich goes through Chamonix-Mont Blanc but we are translating German to English. Aren't we Even we are talking about Bernese Oberland mountains' name as I said in the topic's title

Moni wrote:

Diego Sahagún wrote:Aar: eagle
Haar: hair

Christian why do you say that aar means creek

BTW, Arve is the river wich goes through Chamonix-Mont Blanc but we are translating German to English. Aren't we Even we are talking about Bernese Oberland mountains' name as I said in the topic's title

Look here: Aar is an early German word for creek or river.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aar_%28Lahn%29

Moni wrote:

Ejnar Fjerdingstad wrote:
Tell that to Bruno Tibet and other AGW'ers!

What is true for the Alps may not be true elsewhere - there are large regional variations in climate fluctuations, both usual as well as man influenced.

Diego Sahagún wrote:Does Finsteraarhorn mean Dark-haired Peak

Does Lauteraarhorn mean Peak With An Only Hair

Finster: Dark
Haar: Hair
Horn: Peak
Lauter: Only

cb294 wrote:

Diego Sahagún wrote:Does Finsteraarhorn mean Dark-haired Peak

Does Lauteraarhorn mean Peak With An Only Hair

Finster: Dark
Haar: Hair
Horn: Peak
Lauter: Only

Hi Diego,

not really.

"Finster" indeed means "dark", but "Aar" refers to a stream / creek / river, "horn" means horn.

"Finsteraarhorn" therefore would translate as "horn-shaped mountain above the dark river / at the end of the dark river valley".

"Lauter" could mean "louder" (very unlikely) or "lots" (not "only"!) or "pure/clear". Hard to say which of these -if any- applies, but again it most likely refers to the river ("Lauteraare", or something like that). My guess would be "mountain above the clear stream".

Guess it goes to show that the people naming these mountains were most interested in what was at the bottom rather than the top. There are many other examples for this in the Alps. Just of the top of my head, the Grosse Möseler in the Zillertal Alps is named so because of the swampy alpine meadows beneath it. Similarly, Alpspitze is called so because it is above the only alpine meadows ("Alp") suitable for keeping cows on that side of Garmisch.

Cheers,

Christian

Diego Sahagún wrote:

Diego Sahagún wrote:Does Finsteraarhorn mean Dark-haired Peak

Does Lauteraarhorn mean Peak With An Only Hair

Finster: Dark
Haar: Hair
Horn: Peak
Lauter: Only

Finsteraarhorn = Dark Eagle Peak
Lauteraarhorn = The Peak with an Only Eagle

Finster: Dark
Aar: Eagle
Horn: Peak
Lauter: Only

Diego Sahagún wrote:It's curious that no Swiss have said anything here...

Diego Sahagún wrote:It's curious that no Swiss have said anything here...

EricChu wrote:

Diego Sahagún wrote:It's curious that no Swiss have said anything here...

Well, then let me - a swiss myself, despite living in Austria - say something here: The whole massif, with the name "Aarmassiv" is known as the source area of the river Aare, the second longest river in Switzerland, which flows through the cities of Interlaken, Thun, Bern, Biel, Solothurn, Aarau and Brugg before continuing at Koblenz - the Koblenz in Switzerland! - as the Rhine (in reality, it's the Swiss Rhine that joins the Aare, not the other way around!). Thus, the name "Finsteraarhorn" has to be seen in this connection. "Finster" means "dark", referring to the dark color of the rock, and "aar" stands for the river Aare, which comes from the glaciers of this massif. The name "Aare", by the way, is not a reference to the type of eagle named "Aar" in German, but is derived from the latin word for water. "Au", "Aa", "Ache", even "Aachen", these names all have to do with water.