SOIUSA code

Main article: SOIUSA

SOIUSA code is the code used in the International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps (ISMSA or SOIUSA), a proposal by Italian Alpinist, Sergio Marazzi, to re-categorize the mountains and mountain ranges of the Alps. The proposal has been aired since 2005 but has yet to receive official recognition.

SOIUSA groups' hierarchy

SOIUSA pyramid showing its groups' hierarchy.

SOIUSA divides the Alps in two main regions, the Western Alps and Eastern Alps. These two main regions are further divided in:

Using this system, any Alpine mountain can be given a code which shows which region, sector, section, subsection, supergroup, group and subgroup it belongs to.

Encoding

SOIUSA code is built in the following way:

Following these rules and using the punctuation marks (/; -; .; -; . and .) a summit will be encoded in the following way:

roman numeral (I or II) / upper-case letter (A, B or C) - number from 1 to 36 . roman numeral - upper-case letter . number . lower-case letter

In some case the final lower-case letter can be missing because some group is not divided into subgroups.
It can seldom happen (i.e.:Monte Tagliaferro) that a subgroup too is further divided in sectors; in that case the last lower-case letter is followed by a slash (/) and a second lower-case letter.

Encoding example

SOIUSA parameters of
pointe Sommeiller (Fr) /
punta Sommeiller (It)
  • main part = Western Alps
  • major sector = South Western Alps
  • section = Cottian Alps
  • subsection = Northern Cottian Alps
  • supergroup = chaîne Bernaude-Pierre Menue-Ambin (Fr) /
    catena Bernauda-Pierre Menue-Ambin (It)
  • group = groupe d'Ambin (Fr) /
    gruppo d'Ambin (It)
  • subgroup = crête Sommeiller-Vallonetto (Fr) / sottogruppo Sommeiller-Vallonetto (It)
  • code = I/A-4.III-B.6.b

Pointe Sommeiller (Fr) / Punta Sommeiller (It) code is:

I/A-4.III-B.6.b

It can be decoded in the following way:

References

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