Mount Stanley

Mount Stanley ( Stanley Monts in the Congo ) is a mountain massif in the Rwenzori Mountains. With the 5109 m ( 16,763 ft) high Margherita Peak it provides the highest mountain in both the Congo, and Uganda dar. He is after Kilimanjaro ( 5895 m) and Mount Kenya ( 5199 m), the third highest mountain in Africa and the highest, the non- volcanic origin. As one of the few mountains in Africa, he is partially glaciated. Mount Stanley is named after the journalist and explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley and part of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geography

Mount Stanley is located in the wooded and partly glaciated Rwenzori Mountains about 40 km north of the Equator, and is part of the elongated East African grave breach between Lake Albert in the north and in the south Eduardsee.

Landscape

Although the Mount Stanley is tropical - hot regions, it is heavily glaciated from about 4800 m. In addition to these glaciers are there firn and snow fields, from which spring from mountain rivers - among other things is one of the sources of the Nile in the Ruwenzori. On its slopes are major mountain lakes and a most luxuriant vegetation, which merges into primeval rainforest in its deeper regions on the Congolese side, on the Ugandan side is the base of the mountain rich in plant growth high valleys.

Glaciation

The total area of ​​glaciers in the Rwenzori, which accounted for more 6.5 square kilometers in the first exploration hundred years ago, is due to the global warming steadily declining. Today it measures only about half a square kilometer. However, it must be noted that to be found in the literature often differ greatly from each other. The glaciers shrink per year currently due to a continuously increasing temperatures by several tens of meters per year. The equilibrium line was until about 1900 below 4500 m, 1955 approximately at 4600 m and again today at least 100 meters higher. The largest glacier in the mountains is the so-called Stanley Stanley Plateau - a flat, glaciated surface to about 4800 m, almost all protrude from the higher peaks of the mountain range; only Margherita Peak and Albert Peak north of it are separated by a small saddle.

In 1955, in the Rwenzori glaciers still 42 counted in 1988 there were only 30 Today only the Stanley glaciated mountains over a large area, all other massifs have even smaller ice fields on. Mount Gessi and Mount Emin, who were still heavily glaciated at about the beginning of the 20th century, are now already be completely free of ice. Scientists expect that the glaciers have disappeared within twenty years.

Summit

The Stanley Mountains consist of three main peaks and several lower peaks:

First ascent

1889 Stanley passed the western foot of the mountain, the expedition members William Grant Stairs penetrated to an altitude of about 3200 m before. 1891 reached Emin Pasha already a height of almost 4000 m. In the following years, achieved many other researchers, including about Jean Jacques David in 1904 and Rudolf Grauer 1906, still greater heights.

The first ascent of Mount Stanley was made in 1906 by the Earl of Abruzzo Ludwig Amadeus of Savoy, J. Petigax, C. and J. Ollier Brocherel. The Pic Marguerite is named after Queen Margherita of Italy.